S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. Today we're talking about Public Matters , a new KPBS initiative to help you better understand how policies are made in your community and why , plus much more. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Research shows that Americans trust in government and each other is on the decline. We're also seeing civil discourse unravel across the country , including right here in San Diego County. The November 2024 presidential election will likely be one of the most consequential in the history of the United States. That's why KPBS , a news source and voice of San Diego , are launching a new initiative to expand the culture of civic engagement in our region. It's called Public Matters. Our nonprofit newsrooms will bring you content , conversations , and events driven by intentional and community oriented stories. Public matters is generously funded by Erin and Joan Jacobs. Joining me now to discuss the initiative is Amita Sharma , investigative reporter for KPBS. Amita , welcome.
S2: It's good to be with you , Jade.
S1: So glad to have you here. Also , Scott Lewis , editor in chief for Voice of San Diego. Scott , welcome.
S3: Thank you for having me.
S1: Great to have you here. Also , Jamie Self , she's managing editor for eNews source. Hi , Jamie. Hello.
S4: Thanks for having me.
S1:
S3: The public affairs system is so complex. Everything that goes into all the decisions we make and that can breed a lot of suspicion. It can breed a lot of distrust. And so in my opinion , it's about creating a more of a profound bridge between those folks and , and the people making these decisions to to help everybody understand and be a part of those discussions. You know , complexity is a is itself a form of elitism. And , you know , I've made it my mission , and I'm excited to work with new partners to to deconstruct complexity and make sure people can understand the world and why it is the way it is and and how they might be able to be a part of it , because that's the essence of democracy.
S1: All right. Well , Jamie , I want to talk about some of the content we can expect from the initiative. Let's start with you on that one. Of course. What can we expect from AI news source specifically ? Sure.
S4: Uh , so we are in the early months of launching a program called the documentaries. Actually , it's been about a year now that we've had them. And essentially what this is , is a program where we train and pay community members to attend public meetings and to speak to what Scott is saying about the complexity being an issue. It's a form of elitism. I agree 100% , and what you see in public meetings is complexity. Complexity. But what you also see in public meetings is no one there to watch what's happening. We've seen the shrinking of newsrooms. This is has been an ongoing concern for years and years , certainly for the entire time that I've been in journalism. And there has to be some kind of remedy. And I think that's the big question that every news outlet is asking. What can we do to reverse this trend , to re-engage the public , to get people interested in what's going on in their communities. And the documentary is an exceptional program. I think that has great potential to do that. And so we train community members on how to look at agendas , how to track votes , what to look for in public meetings , which , you know , if you've ever covered a public meeting , you know how intimidating that can be , at least at first , right ? And we teach them really some basic journalism skills. They produce notes. The notes need to be accurate. They're there to observe and gather the facts , and then they produce notes and we edit them. We fact check them and then we publish them online. They are available for public view and also , more importantly , for journalists to look at , to find out what's happening in these meetings across the county. And just to put it into a little bit of perspective , there are hundreds of public bodies that meet multiple times a year to make decisions on how to spend taxpayer money and influence what happens in communities. And by and large , there are no journalists or anyone watch dogging them. So we're trying to meet the moment and use this program as an opportunity to change that.
S1: Yeah , I feel like this is something we should be doing year round for years to come.
S3: So we do two major things investigative reporting , find out things that people don't want to say and then make sense of the things they do. And that makes that that's that's an explainer role. Explanatory journalism. Again , we believe there's a tremendous amount of aspects of local life that are defined by just extremely complex public affairs systems and policies , land use , what can be built where. It's a huge part of our daily discussion. And and yet people have a lot of suspicion and confusion about why certain things are happening in their neighborhood. Uh , public financing , uh , taxes , um , you know , borrowing money , how ? Where we get our water , all those things. So we're going to ramp up a program we've really worked hard on over the years called San Diego 101 just to help people. What's the difference between the county and the city of San Diego ? What's the Port of San Diego ? All of those things matter. And yet the the amount of people who know about them , who know what the San Diego Association of Governments is , is really distressingly low. And yet the San Diego Association government is putting a sales tax on the ballot in a couple of months , and it's going to have a lot of impact or won't. And , you know , you need to be able to make that decision. And so we believe there's a lot of work to be done in that space. And there's nothing that people love more than learning something after they read or watch a video. And that's going to be our goal. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: Um , this is a blueprint put together by the conservative think tank , the Heritage Foundation. Um , for the next conservative president , former President Trump has disavowed the plan. Um , he says he's got his own plan. Project 47. There's some overlap there. And and I should say that , you know , when Trump distances himself from project 2025 , there are 140 people who used to work in his administration who helped devise project 2025. So again , we want to look at the local impact of that. Um , another story that we're exploring is there's been so much conversation around how social media algorithms are fanning polarization. We want to look at how easy or difficult it is to change those algorithms. Um , a third story has to do with surveillance and political participation. I want to examine how much of people's attendance at protests , rallies , social media posts are being tracked and where are they going ? Hmm.
S1: Oh , that is so fascinating. Um , we've seen a big loss in funding for our local news landscape here in San Diego in recent years.
S3: I think people want and need in this , in this community , every major neighborhood in San Diego , every city council , every school district , every water district , like Jamie said , deserves to have an investigative reporter. They're watching and making sense of what what is happening and talking to people about it. And listening to what they hope might happen or what they need in their communities. And we have even in this community with a lot of new news sources and different organizations that have worked to to recover some of what we believe that the region needs. And as far as journalism goes , there are vast deserts of news deserts , as you might say out there , people who have gone so long without an investigative reporter showing up at their at their agency that they think of it as like a hostile act immediately. And we , we believe that there's a this is a solvable problem that the community can pay directly for journalism and make it work throughout the community. We we got journalism as this sort of accident of a business model for advertising for so long now , we can't rely on that because Facebook and Google , they do advertising better than than the newspapers did. And so we need to pay for it directly. And there are a lot of people , including listeners of this station and many others who who are willing to do that. We just need to build that future now. And that's this is a big step in a long , long staircase that we need to take to to get to that point. And we're committed to to pursuing that and to building a future that San Diegans can be proud of because they all want to wake up every day , read about their community , understand their community more , pitch their own ideas , and see those followed through. And and that really is the heart of what we're trying to do.
S1: Well , what makes public matters different from other coverage related to civic issues ? Jamie ? Sure.
S4: I think this is what's exciting about this partnership. You know , I think most people go about their day and don't realize , uh , you know , how isolated news stations and news organizations can be. Uh , and certainly , uh , public matters is bringing these three news organizations together for the first time , collaborating , I believe , all three of us. And so I think that collaboration is really important because it's a it multiplies the the force that we have and our ability to reach more audiences. One interesting thing that's happening is that we're sharing content. KPBS listeners have long heard I. Newsource stories on the air and on Evening Edition , and have read our stories on your website. Now we're going to see more shared content across all of our platforms , which I think is really exciting. And it's also complementary content. You know , the work that Scott and his team are doing is not the same work that we are doing. Uh , you know , they're going to provide some educational videos and other coverage. Uh , we are going to do some hyperlocal reporting. Uh , KPBS will do their reporting. It's exciting that we will have an opportunity to meet regularly , which wasn't happening before , and talk about the big stories of the day and how we might collaborate on coming up with some interesting ways to cover those stories and meet people where they are. So I think that's the big thing that our audiences should look out for. What is this collaboration yield down the road ? But also , I think our audiences will just have so much more access to more news because of it.
S1: Coming up , more on the launch of public matters and how you can be involved in the project.
S2: KPBS sees this project as providing a platform for people in the community with differing perspectives to come here and have a dialogue.
S1: Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. On today's show , we're discussing the launch of Public Matters. It's a collaborative reporting initiative from KPBS , AI News Source and Voice of San Diego. The goal is to expand the culture of civic engagement in our region. Joining me now is Scott Lewis , editor in chief for Voice of San Diego , Jaime Self , managing editor for I News Source , and Amita Sharma , investigative reporter for KPBS.
S2: There is an effort to weaken American democracy. That includes spreading the big lie that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. There are county officials in swing states right now who since 2020 have refused to certify election results. Divisions are being fanned on social media just across the country and from outside forces , from foreign sources. People's faith in institutions and democracy itself has been eroded. It is our job to give the public as much information as we can to help them make informed decisions , informed choices. And I see the Public Matters project as a huge boost to that effort.
S1: So much of it is about educating the public too. As Scott you mentioned , and Jamie , you are what you all are trying to do because a lot of people don't know who to point the finger to. When things don't happen in their communities , they don't know why things aren't working. So that's hugely important. I'm so excited about this project.
S3: Democracy is a whole agreement that we're going to all share power and without resorting to violence. And and that's a really precarious thing , right. And in order to have a trust that we can participate in democracy , we can lose and still continue to believe in the system. We have to understand how it works and then to understand how it works. We need sources out there , independent from government , independent from , uh , overwhelming special interest to talk about those stories. And in order to generate that that trust , we need to be straightforward with people. We need to admit when we get things wrong , we need to tell them who we get our money from and how it all works. We need to be upfront with how we come about our values , what our values are , what our biases are , and be real and be real with them so that when they have a real big question , or when you present to them something shocking , they know who you are and they're willing to trust you and and believe what you've what you've found out so that they can now put pressure on their government to make a difference. And if they see that system work , they can believe in it. And if they don't see that work , you're going to see more and more polarization and then more and more willingness to challenge that very ideal. And , and that's that's scary. And that's something we're trying to avoid. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1: Well , Jamie , how much work goes into investigating and reporting these stories accurately and fairly and responsibly. What's your approach ? Sure.
S4: And you know , you you bring up trust. And certainly we are working hard behind the scenes to earn the trust of our audiences. And I don't know that most people understand how much work goes into reporting a story. And re checking in with sources and making sure that you understand a 150 page government document that you are interpreting and making sure that you go to the appropriate expert sources Is to help you understand what you're reading. And then after a reporter goes through and puts together a story , it's important that we know it is as bulletproof as it possibly can be. And that usually involves rigorous editing at Inews source. It involves fact checking every single detail in every single story. Uh , reporters go through and they flag every single fact , and they provide primary source material , whether that's a recording of an audio transcript or whether it's a video of a public meeting , whether it's the document itself. And then reporters and editors go through the story and they check every single detail together. And it makes us feel a lot better when we put a story to bed , because we know we've done everything in our power to , to to make it accurate. Uh , if it's a situation where it's a high stakes investigation we also sit down with an attorney and have an attorney go through everything. And so , you know , accuracy is something that that gets lost when you prioritize page views and when you prioritize the quantity of content. And certainly many news organizations across the country have done that. However , I think that , you know , journalism is about accuracy. It's about getting it right. And we do everything we can to make sure that the stories that we're putting out are fact based , are nonpartisan , are as neutral and as fair as possible. Yeah.
S5: Yeah.
S1:
S2: Take issues that are bubbling up elsewhere in the country that support democracy , or undercut it , and see if that's happening here in San Diego County. We've already done some of this. We've covered censorship attempts to restrict what kids are being taught in school , attempts to restrict what people are checking out in libraries , threats of political violence against elected officials , and the coarsening of public dialogue at local government meetings. I think the Public Matters project gives us a title and a deeper focus.
S1: Public matters will lead up to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th , 2026.
S3: Now we talk about how polarized this country is. We've we've had moments of extreme polarization and violence. Um , you know , whether it was the Civil War or the anarchists and the union busting of the early part of the 20th century , and now this sort of differing realities that we live in. But this country has gotten through all of those moments because we've been able to go back to the same story about what we're trying to do here and why we need to eventually all work together. And I think that we can get through this moment just like we've gotten through in the past. If we are able to share some crucial stories that people just can't deny , if there's a different reality out there , that's fine. But sometimes things pierce through that. And our goal , I think , is to find stories of such compelling nature and done so well that people can't deny them and need to grapple with the reality that they create after that. And I think that's the only hope we started with as a country. And that's the one that's going to going to keep us going.
S1: Yeah , well , there are so many ways to get involved in this initiative. Jamie. Earlier you mentioned the documentary program. Tell me more about that. Sure.
S4: So , uh , the documentaries , uh , which is a program that we started at eNews source , uh , we train and pay community members to attend public meetings and create a public record. And we are training college students across San Diego County. We are partnering with libraries , and we're also partnering with community organizations. And so if you are interested in becoming a Documenter , you can go to our website , I news source org and look for the documentaries. And it will tell you everything you need to know about how to attend a training session and become a documenter. Hmm.
S5: Hmm.
S1: Well , Amita , you know , before I let you all go , I want to talk about this moment with civil discourse at an all time low. I know you just worked on a series all about this. What about this moment really makes public matters a worthy endeavor.
S2: Well , I see my job. Part of my job , at least , is understanding fully what divides us. What are the differences at this moment ? What are the commonalities ? Where is there overlap ? Where there are differences ? Are those differences reconcilable ? And I think from a larger perspective , KPBS sees this project as providing a platform for people in the community with differing perspectives to come here and have a dialogue. Excellent.
S5: Excellent.
S1: Excellent work , you all , and I can't wait to see how this project unfolds. I've been speaking with Amita Sharma , investigative reporter for KPBS. Amita , thank you for joining us.
S2: Thank you for having me.
S1: Also , Scott Lewis , editor in chief for Voice of San Diego. Scott , thank you , thank you. Anytime.
S3: Anytime.
S1: And Jamie Self , she's managing editor for eNews source. Thanks for being here , Jamie.
S4: Thank you.
S1: Public matters launches across platforms starting today. You can expect new stories each week to see these stories , events and more. Go to KPBS. Morgan. Public matters. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
