Living Democracy Journalism

Authors and activists Frances Moore Lappe and Paul Martin DuBois coined the term "living democracy: journalism" to describe not what citizens have in a democracy but what citizens do: tackle big problems together. They contend there is an "invisible revolution" underway in the country today in the form of citizen activism.15 But these "revolutionary" actions are largely invisible, they say, because they are virtually ignored by the mainstream press.

Lappe and Dubois formed the American News Service (ANS) in 1994 to bring greater media attention to citizen activism. In explaining their rationale for doing so, they cite a New York Times survey conducted on the heels of the civil disturbances in Los Angeles in 1992. The survey found that the majority of Americans agreed that the biggest barrier to our addressing our social problems is that we simply do not know how.16 ANS's purpose is to teach them how, in other words to support citizens in their efforts to build social capital.

The ANS syndicate started by sending eight complimentary feature articles a month to more than 1,000 news organizations around the country. By the end of 1998, ANS had achieved a subscriber base of 85 of the country's top 100 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. ANS boasts of having a reader audience of more than 250 million people. This kind of "living democracy" journalism is a close kin to civic journalism. Both take their cues from citizens' values and deepest concerns. ANS stories are designed to showcase the efforts of ordinary people making their voices heard and shaping the decisions that effect their community's well-being. Many of their stories feature the work of not-for-profit organizations. The movement for a "Sustainable Seattle" and Seattle's neighborhood planning project are just two of the Puget Sound region's citizen-based efforts that have been profiled by ANS.