Pathways to Generative Journalism
We're here to help build GJ capacity wherever you are and at any scale
THE WAY IT BEGAN for those of us who now call ourselves this Generative Journalism Alliance was with a story, of course. One story led to another. One connection to another. An invitation made, an introduction offered, a workshop attended, a grant received, a collaborative work or two, then another, then a commission.
The core of us, for the moment, includes Jack Becher, Sam Walby, Tchiyiwe Chihana, and Peter Pula.
While we’ve been travelling alongside others for a few years now, we’ve just completed a reasonably significant commission as a smaller group. That year-long project allowed us to cultivate a shared sensibility, deepen our capacity, and hone and even evolve our craft.
Our wish and aim is now to hold space for Generative Journalism to take root in movements, networks, communities, and organizations anywhere in the world where someone is interested.
For us the journey has been organic and life-giving. We intentionally worked with who was in the room, the intentions, materials, and gifts at hand.
As it begins, so it goes.
Whenever we took a next step it seemed to naturally arise. A natural coherence spoke itself to us, grounded in what was immediate, attractive, and possible.
That has become our way.
If you’d like to join with us, our next steps together could unfold something like this:
A Small Group
Change starts with conversation. Whether you’d like to meet with us alone or with a colleague or two, we’re available. Let’s explore possibilities together and see what, if any, next steps suggest themselves.
A Taster
Generative Journalism places a high value on direct experience, the lived experience of those whose stories we aim to honour, and also as a pathway to deeper understanding. Is GJ for you? Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.
We can host a session for a group you invite, giving participants a first-hand taste of the larger patterns of Generative Journalism, how it works and how it feels.
From time to time, we also host our own open-invitation Tasters for anyone curious about GJ.
Workshops
Each of us got to know each other during Generative Journalism workshops A series of three or four workshops does the trick. You’ll leave these workshops with a good, and experiential, understanding of how the practice works as well as everything you need, practice-wise, to begin an initial narrative inquiry in the GJ way.
Community of Practice
There are already a couple Generative Journalism Communities of Practice alive in the world. GJA is one of them. For those who’ve participated in the workshop series, joining one of these is a possibility! Alternatively, we would welcome the opportunity to work with you to establish your own, come alongside you in the early days, and to stay connected as things unfold in the long run.
Co-Production & Capacity Building
We’ve come to grips with the myriad structures and processes that do a nice job of supporting an ongoing and thriving news outlet. Our crew has over 50 years experience in as many organizational, community, network, and movement settings and so have a good handle on useful workflow processes, subtle practice points, and the positive politics of providing air cover for generative and emergent story lines and the movements they represent.
We can come alongside you and your community to fill in those roles for which you are still awaiting the right person from closer to home to walk through your door.
Along the way we can together hold a permeable boundary that invites new people in to play while ensuring a functioning ecology is also well tended. We see structure as living, evolving, process.
When truly open to the gifts in the room, it is remarkable how often some previously unimagined tweak, method, form, or combination of talents will light up the sky and change everything.
True to generative patterns, a newsroom uniquely yours is entirely possible.
Story Alliance
We’ve found our way to a process by which a collection of people, groups, organizations, or networks can collaborate on joint narrative inquiries.
This is a great way to dip a toe in the water without jumping all the way in. You don’t have to take sole responsibility for the undertaking. Instead, you can bring your natural talents, interests, and affinities into relationship with others and see what happens.
We welcome participatory and relational funders to engage with us this way.
If there is no other natural home for the stories such an alliance might commission, we can host them here at GJA.
Commissions
Let’s say you’ve grokked just how brilliantly GJ would do the job you would like done. You’ve got a particular community or enterprise that matters to you and you’d like to bring a regenerative, life-giving process to bear. You want to get started.
If so, we have a near-to turn-key newsroom ready to go to work. We can see to establishing your news outlet, support your story sensing, build the architecture, bring our own crew, and get started.
Our preference, of course, is that once things are up and running that we work alongside you to find and nurture your own crew. In the meantime, there is plenty to do.