Welcome to the America Amplified Community Engagement Journalism Playbook

Begin your journey

Authors and Acknowledgements | Download the PDF

This practical, advice-rich playbook is based on the experiences of America Amplified, an initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which works with public media stations across the country on innovative engagement journalism strategies.

The heart of this guide presumes everyone — at every level — can take small or large steps toward better community engagement.

That said, the full impact of a successful community engagement journalism strategy can only be realized when it’s adopted by the entire newsroom ecosystem, from general manager to reporters.

This playbook was written with a public media audience in mind, but it can be used by any organization that wants to “flip the script” — creating content that is fueled by deep knowledge and understanding of people’s needs and aspirations.

After covering the basics below, we’ll dive into ways to infuse community engagement into every role within your organization.

Let’s Get Started

This playbook is built on America Amplified’s definition of community engagement:

Journalists cultivating relationships with communities to discover, understand and elevate community needs, aspirations and stories.

Community engagement journalism is how you can:

Connect with underrepresented communities;
Challenge dominant narratives;
Co-construct stories with partners, either media or community organizations;
Ensure your sources accurately reflect your coverage area;
Reveal new stories;
Identify the best platforms to meet information needs; and
Build trust with the communities you are already covering and aspire to cover.

That’s a lot to promise. But as America Amplified and others have proven, community engagement — particularly when it is embedded in an organization’s overall vision and strategy — can deliver.

For more on what community engagement is and the many different ways it is conceived and practiced, go to our Community Engagement Reading List.

How to use this guide

The playbook is constructed to apply the community engagement mindset to four roles: Station Managers/CEOs; News Managers; Reporters and Producers; Talk Show Teams. However, all these lessons intertwine. News leadership at all levels should know what producers, reporters and talk show teams are doing! Wherever you are in your organization, you will find helpful ideas throughout. Ideally, your entire organization will embrace the roles outlined here and work in sync through the processes. Or, if you are already on this road, you can navigate to the relevant components.

Authors and Acknowledgements

Choose your role