City Bureau’s Documenters Program
Building a national network for grassroots, participatory media
Public meetings are workshops for democracy, where residents of a community can witness, learn about, and act on the systems that impact their lives. But many local government meetings happen with no oversight or input from the public—a systemic failure of our civic information system, and a critical missed opportunity for genuine democracy.
The Documenters Network has trained more than 3,700 people across nineteen cities to attend and annotate government meetings, harnessing their collective knowledge, relationships, and capacity to create a powerful new information resource. We are thrilled to be supporting organizations in 14 states, 24 counties and counting equipping people to organize for stronger, better informed and more connected cities, towns and communities.
Interested in learning how to build a more participatory, civic media hub in your area?
Civic Media in Action
We know that people want to play a role in the way they are governed,
and those most harmed by the status quo are most invested in solutions.
Civic Reporting
Documenters Network sites train and pay community members to cover local government meetings. This community-powered reporting— written reports, social media, photos, audio and video—is, in many cases, the most complete record of consequential local policy decisions—all of it edited by Documenters Network staff.
free, public Workshops
Network sites bring new skills and opportunities to communities across the U.S. Any engaged resident can:
Attend tried and tested trainings to obtain new skills
Take on paid assignments
Produce service-oriented reporting in collaboration with local journalists
Community resources
Documenters Network sites build asset-based and community-focused civic infrastructure by hosting:
Free workshops and social events
Online community discussion boards
Participatory technology made by and for people like you
Chicago Documenters
Grassroots, Participatory Media by and for Chicagoans
Making Local Government
Accountable & Transparent
Chicago Documenters is our local hub for civic action and public oversight of local government through local media.
We train and pay Chicagoans like you to attend public meetings and publish the results via our free, weekly digest—the Newswire, powered by Chicago Documenters and edited by City Bureau staff—and our custom web app, Documenters.org.
Anyone can become a Documenter by filling out a Documenters application and attending a Documenters orientation.
Become a Chicago Documenter
Chicago Documenters participate in a range of City Bureau projects, including, but not limited to attending and documenting public governance meetings and civic events and engaging in projects designed to increase the role of reporting and storytelling in public discourse. Documenters are paid and their work is used by journalists, organizers, researchers and more.
All Chicago Documenters content is available under Creative Commons, ensuring everyone has access to the information they need.
Our Network
Launched in Chicago in 2018, the network grows with new cities and regions each year. We’re harnessing communal power, together, by inspiring, connecting and supporting civic media producers across the U.S.
By developing process-driven resources, place-based models and participatory media technology—and by supporting others to develop their own—we’re working with community information hubs around the country to build inclusive and equitable civic ecosystems with local communities.
Akron — Signal Akron
Atlanta — Canopy Atlanta
Atlantic and Cape May Counties — Atlantic Cape Community College and New Jersey Civic Information Consortium
Bismarck — Buffalo’s Fire
Centre County — News Lab @ Penn State
Chicago — City Bureau
Cincinatti — Signal Cincinatti
Cleveland — Signal Cleveland
Dallas — Dallas Free Press
Detroit — Outlier Media
Fort Worth — Fort Worth Report
Grand Rapids — Grand Rapids Community Media Center
Indianapolis — Mirror Indy
Los Angeles — Los Angeles Local News Initiative
Minneapolis — Pillsbury United Communities
Newark — New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice
New Brunswick — Co-Lab Arts
Omaha — Nebraska Journalism Trust
Philadelphia — Resolve Philly
San Diego — inewsource
Spokane — Range Media
Wichita — Wichita Journalism Collaborative
Drafting A New Public Record
Our custom web platform, Documenters.org, enables government accountability reporting and research by creating civic engagement opportunities for anyone who is interested in participating. City Bureau maintains this civic infrastructure to advocate for Documenters sites across the U.S.
Products & Projects
Building A New Civic Network Together
After years of operating the first Documenters site in Chicago—followed by new network sites with partner organizations across the country—City Bureau is uniquely positioned to support a civic media movement that combats information inequity across the U.S. The national Documenters Network embodies our values of collaboration, openness, responsiveness and exchange, and reinforces our local work.