The Co-Creational News Media project grew out of a broader project focused on democracy in the digital age. This project, Norms for the New Public Sphere, investigated the opportunities and challenges that the social media pose for inclusive and informed political debate, and developed a set of norms to underpin a media policy framework appropriate to the internet age.
The project was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (grant AH/S002952/1) and ran from 2019-22 with researchers Natalie Alana Ashton (Stirling), Rowan Cruft (Stirling), Michele Giavazzi (Warwick), Jonathan Heawood (Public Interest News Foundation & Stirling Senior Research Fellow), Fabienne Peter (Warwick), partnering with the former thinktank, Doteveryone.
Building on this work, Heawood and Peter gained funding from the University of Warwick’s IAA and ESRC Impact Accelerator funds for a pilot project (2022) to investigate how news media institutions with co-creational aspects operate, and how they conceive their co-creational role. You can find more information in Jonathan’s report on this project.
From this pilot, we then gained AHRC Follow-On Funding (grant AH/Z505687/1, 2024-25) for Peter (as Principal Investigator), Cruft and Heawood (as Co-Investigators), and Jay Howard (as Research Assistant) to develop a best practice toolkit for co-creational media.
We thank all funders for their contributions.
Project partners
The co-creational model and the toolkit were themselves co-created with news media pioneers. We have been fortunate to work with project partners Bellingcat, Black Ballad, The Bristol Cable, Bylines Network, gal-dem, The Ferret, Greater Govanhill, Inclusive Journalism Cymru, On Our Radar, and open Democracy, as well as many others!
In the first phase, we collaborated with project partners to gain an understanding of how co-creational news media organisations integrate participation and truth-seeking in their modes of working. In the second phase, we built on this understanding and developed the toolkit. We ran workshops with project partners and guests – one for each module of the toolkit – which aimed to identify best practices and gather advice on possible risks and pitfalls. We then tested the emerging ideas with our advisory group and at a lively symposium with further industry stakeholders.
Our role in this process was primarily that of a facilitator. We are extremely grateful to everyone involved, but especially to our partners. Developing the toolkit would not have been possible without their expertise, insight, and rich practical experience. Needless to say, we take full responsibility for the toolkit itself.
