On Presidents Day, a circle of women and neighbors came together to learn how to build community resilience through citizen journalism. Citizen journalism, as the name suggests, is a movement to empower people to report, responsibly and accurately, on local stories that are overlooked by government and larger media organizations.
Atma Connect’s training focuses on how citizen journalists can use AtmaGo to bring attention to local problems, build social cohesion, and improve disaster resilience. And after the terrible blows that this island has taken, we need that resilience more than ever.
With that as the setting, the workshop, held in Arecibo, met for three hours of instruction and discussion. Attendees learned about best practices in digital reporting, ethics of journalism, and how to amplify their community’s voice with AtmaGo, which was launched just a few months ago in Puerto Rico.
Atma’s Citizen Journalism Workshops always ask attendees to get out and make a post — and our first class in Puerto Rico generated some fascinating stories and posts.
One participant wrote about an illegal dump site located near her home and the frustrations her community has with it — and she also highlighted that residents of her condominium and neighbors are organizing to place a community garden on the illegal dump site. She used AtmaGo to amplify her message that she wants “to transform the space into a place where neighbors can harvest health, hope and peace.”
Another participant featured a recurring environmental awareness event in her community which highlights the diverse ecosystems within the community. The goal of the event is to educate the public and instill responsibility for caring for these spaces. She used AtmaGo to share her message that she wants each resident to feel “a sense of ownership of these ecosystems to ensure their commitment to conserving them.”
We are looking forward to bringing more communities together through these citizen journalism and community resilience workshops to showcase the powerful resilience work happening on the ground. The citizen journalists from this first workshop will create additional events in their community and share their initiatives on AtmaGo — we look forward to seeing their work make an impact.