City Bureau

City Bureau is a nonprofit civic journalism organization based in Chicago. Its Documenters Program trains and pays community members to attend and report on public meetings, in an effort to support governmental accountability and democratize the practice of journalism. Documenters now operates in seven U.S. cities. This grant supports the Director of Network Services for the Documenters Network to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden for the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in 2023 and attend a convening of On Nigeria and Journalism and Media grantees.

City Bureau is a Chicago-based journalism lab that brings journalists and community members together in collaborative environments to promote responsible media coverage, increase civic engagement, and hold powerful forces to account. The Future of Local News (FLN)—a new project of City Bureau—is a coalition of nonprofit newsrooms advocating for robust news ecosystems to ensure equitable access to local news and information for all people. It serves as a hub for newsrooms at the forefront of civic journalism to engage, strategize, and coordinate collective action. The intended outcome of this project is to create the conditions where the American people, regardless of their socioeconomic status, have information systems that are accessible and responsive to community needs.

City Bureau is a nonprofit journalism lab based in Chicago with a mission to bring journalists and community members together in collaborative environments to promote responsible media coverage, increase civic engagement, and hold powerful forces to account. It aims to demystify the reporting process by enabling ordinary people to participate and, in doing so, better understand and advocate for their information needs. Since its founding in 2015, City Bureau has garnered national attention and funding, and its programs and methods having been replicated in other places. This grant provides general operating support for City Bureau and enables it to continue to deepen its work in Chicago while also providing leadership and guidance in places where its programs are being incubated. The intended outcome of this grant is to encourage the use and practice of journalism, particularly by the most marginalized communities, as a tool for strengthening civic engagement and creating a more inclusive democracy.

Founded in 2015, City Bureau is a nonprofit journalism lab based in Chicago with a mission to bring journalists and community members together in collaborative environments to promote responsible media coverage, increase civic engagement and hold powerful forces to account. In its three years of operation, City Bureau has created a new, community-centered model for accountability journalism in Chicago, specifically focused on the South and West sides. MacArthur funds in the form of general operating support enable City Bureau to continue to operate its core programming, while also growing its capacity to undertake more robust collaborations and work with more Chicagoans. The outcome of this grant is that more thoughtful journalism will be produced about Chicago, the city’s public meetings will be more comprehensively covered, and stronger relationships will be forged between members of the public and journalists.