Democracy's Watchdogs

Charter Draft
This is only a working draft and not meant for publication.

The final draft will be approved at the Charter Meeting of this new professional society on January 24-25, 2003 at Kennesaw State University.

Mission: This is an association of journalists and journalism educators interested in exploring and strengthening the relationships among journalists, communities, citizens, public life and democracy.

Our goal is to strengthen the practice and quality of journalism everywhere.

Success will be measured in terms of how well we help journalists and educators grow professionally, improve the craft, foster ground-breaking journalism and --over time-- enhance democracy.

Who: This is a public society which welcomes the scrutiny and the ideas of all. Its membership is open to journalists and journalism and media studies teachers and scholars from around the world. It will work with and learn from all citizens, practitioners and scholars who are concerned with public life.

What: The society will:

• Support conversations and collaborations among journalists, citizens and scholars that can enrich and transform journalistic practice.
  
• Encourage studies of and experiments with journalistic practices (and democratic practices that strengthen journalism).
  
• Articulate a philosophy for public journalism that is theoretically sound, empirically grounded and practically feasible.
  
• Spread promising ideas and practices so others can test or adapt them.
  
• Help journalists reach deeper into the communities they serve and help communities work more closely with the journalists who serve them.
  
• Seek ways to ensure that diverse voices and disenfranchised communities are better represented and understood in news gathering and dissemination.
  
• Support the teaching and study of public journalism in colleges and universities.

When: The society is being organized in 2003 and will hold its first public engagement in the summer in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Year One will be devoted to the pursuit of specific accomplishments:

1. Establishing a top-of-the-line Web site to serve as a forum for creating and spreading insights and knowledge.

2. Holding a national conference that brings journalists, journalism educators and their collaborators together for thinking, reflection, invention and celebration.

3. Creating a data base, annual compendium or other form that will catalog developments in public journalism’s theory and practice.

Where: The society is an international society. It is being organized by journalists and journalism educators from North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. It will strive to hold meetings around the globe and to establish a physical presence – in chapters, research centers or other manifestations – on every continent.

Why: The society is made up of people who love journalism and who believe that journalism can make the world a better place. We believe we can learn and grow as practitioners, educators and scholars – and strengthen practice, education and scholarship – by examining, experimenting with and enhancing the theory and practice of journalism in relation to the theory and practice of democracy.

We believe in the value of studying the dynamics of communities and the complexity of public life. Just as journalists need to adhere to professional discipline and financial discipline to succeed, we believe we must adhere to democratic discipline. The heart of democratic discipline lies in giving citizens the tools to govern themselves.

How: The society will pursue its goals by a host of activities. It will:

• Send society representatives to every major journalism convocation, conference and convention – and several outside of journalism – to foster conversations about journalism's work in democracy and public life.
  
• Hold its own convocations a couple of times a year, so members can think out loud together, think up or review experiments, and celebrate advances and meaningful failures.
  
• Encourage the development of an applied research network and other university-based centers, programs and curricula.
  
• Develop materials to facilitate teaching public journalism.
  
• Run an annual contest to highlight how journalism can excel by building innovative relationships among journalism, communities, citizens, public life and democracy.
• Maintain a top-of-the-line Web site to serve as a forum for creating, discussing and spreading insights and knowledge.
  

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