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Join Us

The Public Journalism Network is a global professional association of journalists and educators interested in exploring and strengthening the relationship between journalism and democracy.

We are a new and emerging organization started because we believed that public or civic journalism needs a navigation tool to take it into the 21st Century.

To find out more about what we believe in see our Charter Declaration that was written January 25, 2003.

To apply for membership, fill out and mail the PDF membership form or submit your information online.

More Membership Information

What will my dues support?

Your dues will support:

  • This website, PJNet.org, including its continuing update on matters important to the study and practice of public journalism.
  • The Public Journalism Global Forum, which allows journalists, educators, public intellectuals and active citizens worldwide to discuss the relationship of democracy and a free press.
  • A place to advance the best public journalism thinking and practice from election coverage to more fully understanding communities.
  • Educational outreach to professionals, academics and students who want to learn more about public journalism.
  • Development of the Public Journalism Academy, which eventually will produce workshops, manuals and hands-on experiments at select regional centers and news organizations.
  • An annual conference on the study and practice of public journalism. The first is slated for the Atlanta metropolitan area in the spring of 2004.
  • A place to network online and in person for journalists and educators concerned about the worldwide state of the press and democracy. Dues paying members will get a network listing at this Web site.

Who Should Join?

If you are a journalist or an educator and are concerned about the current state of the free press and democracies, then you should consider joining.

What are some major areas of concern for public journalists and educators?

Here are some public journalism tenets. Journalists working in a democracy should:

  • Listen to the people — rather than solely depend on experts and government officials.
  • Seek truths coming from the middle as well as from the extremes.
  • Find effective devices to get the people’s voices amplified in print, broadcast and the internet.
  • Reach deeper into and understand more fully the complexities of all the communities they serve in order to truly reflect their separate and collective realities.
  • Help the people better understand what real journalists do.
  • Open channels for communities to interact with journalists.
  • Help audiences think through the important issues of our time and have local, regional, national and international deliberation on those issues that most impact their lives.
  • Constantly ask the question what is the function of a journalist in a democratic society and what must the role of journalists be collectively and individually in that society.
  • Help audiences reach sound judgments about their personal lives and their common well-being.
  • Present information in a way that people see the world as a whole and help them take responsibility for what they see.
  • Become more involved in global discussions surrounding journalism and democracy.

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