The Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project seeks to explore how civic organizations and journalists might work together to reimagine our local information ecosystems and take on the democratic challenges.
Democratic decision-making in the face of wicked problems, hyperpolarization, and the proliferation of conflict entrepreneurs is exceedingly difficult. In this environment, those of us attempting to serve as principled impartial resources for our communities face immense challenges and vocal opposition, often from multiple sides.
Like other “wicked problems,” public engagement can be best understood by identifying the underlying values from multiple perspectives, recognizing the natural tensions between those values, and then focusing on how to best negotiate those tensions through an ongoing collaborative process.
How can we move public engagement beyond the dual limits of angry or apathetic? We need an ideal that brings out the best in human nature and manages or avoids the worst, which would be a significant shift from our current processes that seem to do the opposite. Could we train and engage members of the public to be wise collaborators?
