Minnesota Women’s Press has been publishing the first-person narratives of powerful everyday people since 1985. We believe it should not only be the editor’s and reporter’s job to interpret and judge what is important, to settle on a silver bullet answer, or offer a ‘he says’ ‘she says’ form of journalism. In 2022, we launched Changemakers Alliance. The goal is to center stakeholders engaged in solving issues — healing trauma, restorative justice, regenerative ecosystems, transforming justice — alongside Minnesotans who care about these issues, in virtual conversations.
Our next step, after we generate the underwriting and funders to enhance our team, will be to create a series of action steps that people statewide do together. We want to look at the work involved in getting gun legislation passed … defusing toxic masculinity … funding restorative justice practices on the front end of conflict, to reduce and deflect and prevent violence.
We believe media does not need to be a passive product that is consumed. What if we sustain the funding, the relevance, and the importance of journalism by creating a different relationship between readers and media? What if we build a model that has the capacity to engender trust in journalism again? What if we focus on solutions journalism, designed to reduce the weariness of being overwhelmed with problems and connecting people as they make stories happen?
The media business we love has tended to be reactive, writing for a passive audience. But our most engaged readers are NOT passive, and want to get in front of the stories, to change outcomes. We brought many of them together in one room at our “Celebrating Minnesota’s Badass Women” event in April.