This piece is part of our Documenters Showcase—a content series spotlighting the stories, impact, and growing network of people and organizations around the U.S. shaping participatory media and turning civic information into community power as part of City Bureau’s Documenters Network. Check out our most recent Showcase story, “Bridging the Civic Information Gap: How We Record Public Meetings Matters.”
We’re exploring how AI might empower, not replace, trained and paid community members who are building civic power by documenting local government meetings.
By Eve Lacivita, Director of Product
A Documenter takes notes at a public meeting. (Photo: City Bureau)
We’ve been reflecting on the recent Nieman Lab article, “Local newsrooms are using AI to listen in on public meetings,” which discusses how AI transcription tools are helping journalists surface leads from public meetings they can't attend in real time. These tools are being used to flag potential stories, find sources, and expand the scope of their coverage. Yet, the growing reliance on automation also raises critical questions about trust, accuracy, and the implications for community engagement.
We want to take the opportunity to share our perspective. In a challenging business environment where newsrooms are fighting to survive, it’s understandable why AI tools that promise to make reporters’ jobs easier by expanding coverage are gaining momentum.
At City Bureau, we believe democracy isn't just about information; it's about participation. We are committed to keeping people present in the spaces where decisions affecting their lives and communities are made. That’s why our Documenters program exists. We equip community members for civic involvement by engaging them directly in local meeting coverage, training and paying residents to attend and document public meetings. We do this because:
For people who want to understand and get involved in decisions being made for their communities, Documenters is a powerful path to become informed, engaged, and skilled in civic engagement.
As residents of the community, Documenters are uniquely positioned to capture the full nuance of a meeting, integrating their lived experience, empathy, local community context, and critical judgment in ways that AI cannot replicate. We recently reviewed a study of Grand Rapids Documenters, which also found that Documenters’ notes scored better for accessibility, readability, and inclusivity of public voice than official government records, demonstrating the value of community-produced documentation in civic life.
When people are in the room where decisions are made, community gets stronger. Documenters connect with each other, build trust, and expand their networks to strengthen civic power and equip their communities for action.
Witnessing and documenting meetings expands the civic and leadership skills of individual Documenters – we’re proud that many have gone on to run for local office, launch their own news initiatives, and lead other civic projects that matter to their communities.
While community engagement in civic meetings will always take first priority, we're also well aware of the strong potential for AI to reduce manual workloads and augment insights into large amounts of data. Our approach will always prioritize community members and their contributions in two ways: documenting events for the public record, and connecting their actions to a broader sphere of networked people and information.
We see the potential for AI to free up Documenters to do what they do best, for instance, by lightening their editing load, creating initial language translations to increase community access, or identifying national policy trends from thousands of Documenters notes. For a national network like ours, where thousands of residents are documenting just as many meetings across multiple cities, AI could help us open new pathways for community members to engage with local government.
AI tools offer both exciting opportunities and challenges to insight, innovation, and community engagement. That's why we approach this space by putting the people doing the work first. Ultimately, trust is more important to us than the volume or speed of content, and a healthy civic environment needs both credible information and meaningful participation. That’s the balance we’re trying to strike, and we’re committed to keeping our Documenters at the center every step of the way.
How do you think about the balance between using AI and keeping people centered in journalism?
To learn more about City Bureau’s growing Documenters Network and how to get involved, check out Documenters.org.
