Mdp

What is the Midwest Democracy Project?

The Midwest Democracy Project (MDP) is a proposed eight-month effort to engage citizens of Missouri and Kansas in political speech and issues dialog. MDP will invent, test and measure the results of new methods and platforms for citizen/journalist engagement in trustworthy environments.

MDP is proposed as a joint initiative of the University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, the University of Kansas, the Kettering Foundation, and involves a collaboration with key media organizations in both states, starting with The Kansas City Star.

Initiatives

The MDP seeks to:

• Develop and experiment with new, web-based tools for assembling non-partisan, fact-based issues research and narratives -- shared in multimedia formats – about specific races, issues and civic challenges confronting Missouri and Kansas citizens.

• Focus on finding ways to systematically share the insights of knowledgeable, engaged citizens and the tasks of monitoring and watching government and campaigns.

• Convene and collaborate on public forums and issue coverage, and work to identify and circulate the issues that matter to the states' futures, working at times from schools, libraries, coffee shops and newsrooms statewide.

• “Open source" their work to participating legacy and new-media outlets on a non-exclusive basis forming the basis for a permanent contextual archive of journalism that matters to Missouri and Kansas.

• Participate in a one-day, post-election symposium to share document the results and learning.