The Guardian US last week announced the launch of Building power, a reporting and data journalism project examining how communities across the country are organizing to protect democracy, civil rights and public health in the face of growing political and social challenges.
At a time when much of the national conversation remains fixed on Washington, the Guardian says its new initiative will shift focus to the people and places driving civic renewal from the ground up. The series will help readers both in the US and globally understand how pro-democracy movements and grassroots organizing efforts are shaping both policy and the national conversation.
According to the publisher, Building power will feature original reporting, investigations and profiles. A companion data project will track and visualize the deletion or alteration of public information – from environmental and health data to records of law enforcement misconduct – and investigate how the loss of government information threatens civil rights and community health.
Building power is made possible in part by philanthropic support from theguardian.org – an independent 501(c)3 dedicated to supporting independent journalism – and its partners including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation and others, the publisher continued. All reporting published by the Guardian remains editorially independent.
Jessica Machado, editor of Building power, said: “There’s a profound hunger among our global audience for stories that cut through cynicism and show that collective action still matters. Building power aims to surface stories of resilience and reinvention – not to romanticize them but to understand the real dynamics of power at play. We’ll investigate how communities are finding new ways to protect one another, hold institutions accountable and keep democratic values alive amid enormous pressure. Our goal is to ultimately inform, connect and inspire readers who believe that change is still possible.”
Betsy Reed, US editor of the Guardian, said: “At a time when rights and freedoms once taken for granted are being rolled back, we think it’s vital to document how people are responding – not just in protest, but through organizing, coalition-building and in acts of solidarity. Building power is about capturing the new civic energy we’re seeing across the country – the creativity, persistence and hope – going beyond what’s broken to also illuminate how ordinary people are working to repair our democracy.”
Nicole Kotzen, senior vice-president for development at the Guardian and executive director of theguardian.org, said: “Much of the national conversation about democracy is still framed around politicians and institutions in Washington. But power doesn’t only reside there. It’s built every day in school board meetings, union halls and community centers across the country. We’re proud to support the Guardian’s new Building power series highlighting those local and often overlooked efforts – the places where people are experimenting with new forms of leadership and collective action and, in doing so, redefining what democracy means in practice.”
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