What makes CivicLex different than a normal news organization?

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Knight Foundation's annual Knight Media Forum and host two breakout sessions about CivicLex. It’s a big deal for anyone to present at a summit like this - one that gathers all of the brightest minds in philanthropy, media, and local news - and it felt especially exciting as a fairly small, unique organization in the middle of Kentucky. We just don't get opportunities like this often.

At the Forum, I got a lot of questions about our work, many of them trying to figure out what exactly we are since we look so different from a traditional news or journalism organization. So, I thought I’d write out a bit about why we are different and why we choose to be that way.

CivicLex is different from a traditional news organization in that we don’t focus solely on reporting the news as it happens. Instead, we take a broader, more long-term view of how we get people more deeply engaged with the decisions that are shaping their community. We want to make Lexington a place where residents can participate fully in its governance.

While traditional news organizations may report on the actions of local governments and elected officials, they may not have the time or space to meet people face-to-face, connect them with local elected officials, explain how local government decisions fit into the larger context of local politics and civic life, or show them how to get engaged in the issues facing our community on a continuing basis.

In practice, this distinction means that instead of providing stories about what has happened in city hall, we help residents know in advance about the decisions government will make, teach them how that issue has changed over time and how effectively engage with that process, and bring the public together with government officials to explore complicated issues in person.

In addition to all of this, we also know that oftentimes, the ways that people engage with any institution can be less than ideal. With local government, this can turn into disempowerment. That’s why we also run civic transformation projects that bring residents and government officials together to imagine new and better ways for the government to engage the public. These projects not only make it easier for the public to engage, but they help build trust and provide opportunities for the public to directly shape the democratic process.

To wrap all this up, I’ll just say that the kind of work we do depends on there being a thriving civic information ecosystem in our community. While we are different, we don’t think that makes us “better” or more essential. Our friends at local news orgs like the Herald-Leader provide critical information and reporting that we can’t. We provide wrap-around civic education and engagement that they can’t. We think that our ecosystem here in Lexington is made stronger because we’re all here, filling our niche, and helping our community make sense of itself.