The San Diego Sun has joined a partnership run locally by inewsource called Documenters, which trains and pays community members to attend and take notes during government meetings.
The first Sun story created with the help of a Documenter was published recently and called “Planned Downtown Park Next To Andia Condos: See The Renderings.”
For that story, Documenter Jennifer Hua attended a Downtown Community Planning Council meeting in November. Aided by Hua’s notes, The Sun did its own independent research, wrote and published the story.
The Documenters Network was created in 2018 by Chicago-based City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab.
The program is managed in San Diego by inewsource, a nonprofit newsroom covering the San Diego region.
Inewsource Community News Coordinator Isaac A. Brambila leads Documenters training workshops and acts as liaison between Documenters and media partners.
“Documenters are trained to understand how local government meetings work, how to read meeting agendas and how to take notes that inform their communities,“ Brambila says.
Documenters can be students, parents, retirees — anyone who cares about their community, Brambila says.
He adds that their work often leads to news stories and also helps develop deeper understanding of local governments and community reactions to government decisions…and responses to federal policies.
Documenters is a concept that allows a small newsroom to keep tabs on meetings it wouldn’t necessarily have the staff to cover. Keep an eye out for more Documenter-spurred stories in The Sun. Each story will include a box indicating the program’s participation. SDSun
