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Jenny Fischer defines "deliberative journalism" as stories that foster conversation about shared issues in the community. The instructor at Colorado State University said that’s always been the goal of her course, JTC420, also known as the deliberative journalism class.

“Students in the class are taught specifically about deliberative practice, how to ask those better questions and are charged with finding ways to spark conversation through the stories that they tell,” she said.

The project got its start in 2022, when Martín Carcasson, a professor and director of the at Colorado State University, gathered a cadre of professors, journalists and communications professionals to make a plan to improve local media in Fort Collins, Colorado. There they devised the , and outlined a class to get student journalists involved.

Students in the class develop journalism projects throughout the course of a semester on a variety of topics using all sorts of mediums, Fischer said. Her only requirement is that they focus on issues that affect the Fort Collins and Colorado State University communities.

“We’re allowed to just chase a project,” said Jenn Dawson, who took the course last fall and served as Fischer’s teaching assistant through the spring. “Sometimes it’s a weekly blog post, a social media campaign or a full website.” Other times there are written stories, video series and podcasts, too, she said.

“They cover everything from local and state issues to school topics like mental health and sports and housing,” Dawson said, of the students in the course. Dawson, herself, covered controversial ballot measures in a local election for her project last fall.

Over the semester, students learn what deliberative journalism is and receive feedback from not just Fischer, but professional community reporters and media producers, too, Dawson said.

All student stories are published at the end of the semester on the website, which is supported by the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project. Some stories also get picked up by one of the program’s many local partners, and they are taking steps to increase partnerships to publish more student work, Fischer said.

“There are more robust plans in the works to work more closely with them next semester as we start working on the Voter Voices project,” Fischer said.

The Voter Voices project involves more than 60 newsrooms across Colorado, including the students in Fischer’s class. This summer, they are conducting a survey of voters in the state to weigh in on what they need to see out of the upcoming election coverage.

“The goal is to analyze the results and then to report out on issues that concern voters in the state of Colorado and how those issues impact our various communities,” Fischer said.

The survey is simple. It takes less than five minutes, she said. The first question is open ended: What do community members want to hear candidates talk about? The second asks respondents to rank the top three issues that concern them in the next election cycle, and they’re given a space to elaborate on their picks afterward. Lastly, they’re asked about their confidence in the electoral process. Do they trust the fairness of their local community elections? Do they trust the fairness of the country’s election?

Fischer said they set a tentative goal of 5,000 responses by the end of June. So far, they’ve already hit 5,500.

At the survey’s end, like their counterparts in professional newsrooms across the state, student journalists in the program will analyze the results and develop a series of stories about what they find through the fall. Fischer hopes those stories will lead to more local pickups and new partnerships with community outlets and others across the state.

Dawson will work with students through the summer on the project, and she’s excited to make sure residents can read and view the coverage that they want.

As a journalism and psychology major, Dawson will graduate next December. She wants to be a science journalist, but her involvement with Fischer’s project won’t end after she crosses the stage.

“I want to stick with the deliberative journalism project even after I graduate,” she said. “I mean, just as a citizen, I want to be part of it.”