Community Journalism class: Citizen as journalist
Program Overview
About the Citizen as Journalist Program
PSA’s “Citizen as Journalist” class, launched in 2023 with funding from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, is an introduction to citizen journalism through a liberatory framework. We use journalism tools and mechanisms to support community members in bearing witness to community stories through the prism of those who live at the periphery.
The Citizen as Journalist program incorporates this process to create a unique approach to local news–centering the community voice must challenge the extractive model of journalism and place the shaping of the storytelling in the hands of the community.
Learn more about our classes
How this program furthers our mission
Public Square Amplified (PSA) is a grassroots local nonprofit newsroom headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, founded by a team of Black women, led by Josie Gonsalves, with over 80 years of combined experience in the academic, nonprofit, journalism, and community organizing sectors.
PSA positions journalism to deconstruct our shared racialized space and the power of construct and context in curating and consuming news. Our reporting centers on democracy, social and economic justice, racial equality, and the immigrant experience rooted in community.
The Citizen as Journalist puts these values into action by training community members to tell community stories from a community perspective. With this and in all of our work, we are telling the story of New Jerseyans from the perspective of New Jersey, the nation, and the world.
Overview
PSA's "Citizen as Journalist" Classes takes participants through an experiential learning process to inspire storytelling that centers the voice of activists, students, workers, and immigrants. The modules of learning are developed prior to the start of the new program.
Participants will learn to manipulate journalism tools to explore and document their storytelling and engage in first-person reporting. Participants will be exposed to multimedia production, long-form writing, sourcing, interviewing, photography, and more.
The class opens the storytelling world to community members who are untrained in journalism and news reporting and creates spaces for them to witness events that impact their lives and the transformation of their communities. Those members who are working journalists will be exposed to new ways of centering the peripheral voice and social movements.
Time Commitment
Classes are typically held in the PSA's virtual newsroom and include periods of hands-on, in-the-community news-story gathering. The introductory class and the final wrap-up class and celebration will be held in person near PSA's headquarters in Newark. Class periods usually last for three hours long, and time is assigned for class preparation, including assigned readings, videos, and community meetings to support the ongoing training and assignments.
Compensation
Class participants could qualify for a stipend.
Deliverable
Participants will engage in a collaborative news-gathering process and produce collective content through writing, photography, videography, and audio with rigorous research. By the conclusion of the class schedule, participant will be expected to produce a minimum number of pieces for the newsroom.
2026 Class Information
Class of 2026 information will be announced in the Spring of 2026.