Newsrooms as information gathering grounds
Journalism’s current best solution to these systemic challenges has been… more content. Take the example of the sustained belief that disinformation will be solved with more information. This does nothing to address the powerful emotional elements at play in the disinformation space.
“One of the most important things about fake news is that it allows people to participate in democracy, in public conversations, in politics,” Natalia Viana, founder and director of Brazil’s Agencia Pública, told me in a 2022 interview.³⁷ But while networks of disinformation are participatory in nature, journalistic debunking still works in unilateral ways.
Professor Jeff Jarvis, author of The Gutenberg Parenthesis and long-time observer of how news outlets deal with technological disruption, suggests that when people stick to disinformation, even after being confronted with the facts, they are not showing a lack of understanding; they are displaying loyalty to the networks of belonging that Viana hints at.³⁸
The response, then, must be journalism that nurtures belonging, and not just truth. Instead of adding to the fragmentation of public discourse, news outlets have a chance to sustain critical conversations by cultivating connections in and beyond digital spaces.
The theory of information grounds is useful to understand the crucial importance and the benefits that face-to-face interactions with audiences can offer journalism. In a study about conflict-resolution in Indonesia among Christians and Muslims, researchers Rohman and Pang found that coffee shops served as information grounds, “arenas where people, place, and information complement each other and construct the meaning of information”³⁹
The authors draw on Robert Putnam’s influential work on the importance of social capital to argue that information grounds are valuable neutral points, an escape from tensions, helping to create networks conducive to trust – often with people from the opposing group.
“Although coffee could be made at home, a coffee place offered more than just caffeine. It was a daily habit. Ordering a coffee, having a cigar, talking with the workers, the owner, or other visitors was part of their everyday ritual. A sense of loss was experienced when this ritual was not
Coffee shops were once part of British journalism rituals. According to Jarvis: “There, in the 17th and 18th centuries [...] varied constituencies and classes gathered to drink the exciting, imported brew as they discussed what they read in newspapers, newsletters, and books”⁴⁰
Can news outlets recapture habits that give people a chance to make sense of the world with others, network and find respite and joy in community building? Newsrooms are already experimenting with storytelling events, listening clubs, and series of concerts.⁴¹ In Texas, the weekly newspaper Big Bend Sentinel has a coffee shop and a bar. And, at the International Journalism Festival, a panel discussed a new wave of houses of journalism that borrow from the experience of cultural spaces and which a “are planting a flag in city centres”⁴² The cases of Centro Gabo in Cartagena and Casa Pública in Rio de Janeiro were among the highlights.
El Surti’s newsroom is housed in La Mediateca, a refurbished building in downtown Asuncion, Paraguay’s capital. We have opened our space countless times to meet our audiences in person for research collaboration, training programmes and presentations. Our readers have also found playful entertainment in this place.
As societies experience the loss of civic spaces – a phenomenon Jennifer Brandel captures in a powerful essay about the U.S. that reflects a global trend – journalism can step in. This is an opportunity to help regenerate the fabric that ties people together and sustains democracies.⁴³
With Change-Centric Journalism, newsrooms can become physical destinations that restore the relevance and trust we lost while chasing algorithms we don’t control. There are mental, social, cultural, and even financial benefits for all to be reaped.
³⁷ Latinográficas. (2022). Natalia Viana: periodismo contra el populismo digital. Retrieved from https://latinograficas.com/blog/2022/12/29/natalia-viana-periodismo-contra-el-populismo-digital/
³⁸ RISJ seminar interview
³⁹ Rohman, A. & Pang, N. (2015). Seeking common ground: Coffee shops as information grounds in the context of conflict. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 52(1), 1–10.
⁴⁰ Jarvis, J. (2023). The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet. Bloomsbury.
⁴¹ American Press Institute. (2024). Journalism has many roles. It’s time to embrace the role of convener. Retrieved from https://americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-has-many-roles-its-time-to-embrace-the-role-of-convener
⁴² International Journalism Festival. (2025). Bricks and mortar: The new wave of houses of journalism. Retrieved from https://www.journalismfestival.com/programme/2025/bricks-and-mortar-the-new-wave-of-houses-of-journalism
⁴³ Brandel, J. (2025). Civic space is closing: How local journalism can open it up. Retrieved from https://medium.com/we-are-hearken/civic-space-is-closing-how-local-journalism-can-open-it-up-e7ad032affb9