www.rabble.ca - Canada’s leading independent site for news and views.

rabble local will:

• Further democratize media access and activity in Canada (and beyond)
• Build the capacity of local communities to share information and their perspectives on issues within and affecting their communities
• Strengthen the connection between providing information and catalyzing positive social change.

Through partnerships with non-profits and community media outlets as well as our own networks of readers and listeners rabble local  will develop and support a “peoples’ news bureau” of local, regional and even national news and views on our successful website. Following a set of criteria groups in local communities can apply for a rabble space and be provided with training and a platform that permits them to have podcasts, blogs, articles and other services on our successful news site. 

While some participants may be journalists (or aspiring journalists) this project will also actively seek out community members and institutions that have deep connections and active participation in local community development to share the stories they see that need to be told to a wider audience. No national news site to our knowledge has asked community members to cover their local issues themselves and provided the training and platform to do it. Furthermore, few, if any media, go beyond the facilitation of reporting news and views to connecting the communities affected by the news.

All rabble local participants will be connected not just through the media they share on rabble.ca but through listservs and a project wiki.  The intent is to foster sharing that goes beyond public media presentations and connects members to each other to whose communities may share similar challenges and opportunities- such as with housing or poverty.

WHAT WE NEED:

rabble local requires news software but rabble is currently making the shift to Drupal and undergoing a redesign.  We have budgeted for this and are raising money as we make the switch.  The primary resource we need is simply funding.  We have the staff and consultants to do the project as well as diverse contacts across Canada to develop rabble local.  Due to funding the project will likely need to be done in stages.

Location