Every town needs its stories told. Its school can tell them.
Local news is disappearing, and students need real work that matters. When a school teaches students to record and publish their community’s stories, both needs are met. Students build agency, media literacy and storytelling skill. The town gets a storyteller that stays.
Many voices make one picture. Each tile is a community project; select one to see it.
Why now
The need my students met in the 1990s is larger today, and the institutions that met it are shrinking.
U.S. counties have no local news source at all. Some 50 million Americans have limited or no access to local news.
Medill, State of Local News 2025states have media literacy laws or policy guidance on record. Michigan is not yet one of them.
Media Literacy Now, January 2026community still has a school: students, teachers, equipment, and a public mission. It is the one local institution built to last.
The case this site makesWhat students build
“I believe this media literacy can be best done by doing.” Students learn by producing stories for a real audience, their own neighbors.
Agency
Students choose subjects, book interviews and meet deadlines that matter to someone outside school.
Media literacy
Making a story shows how stories are made: what is chosen, what is cut, whose voice is heard.
Storytelling
Research, interviewing, editing and presenting. Skills that carry into any career.
Community identity
Residents see their town told in their own voices, and come to value the school that told it.
The work
Each project has its own name, domain and social pages. They all lead here, as evidence for one idea.
Mount Clemens
Fifteen years of school-based community television, and the model for everything since.
Flint · 1979–1992Flint Stories
Public art, documentaries and Hometown Magazine. Where residents first told the story.
flintstories.orgFlint · 1983–1992Buckham Alley Theatre
A downtown stage for Michigan poets, jazz legends and performers.
buckhamalleytheatre.orgAnn Arbor · 2016–2017Inside Ann Arbor
High school students tell Ann Arbor's history in sound, video and a museum exhibit.
insideannarbor.orgAnn Arbor · ongoingAnn Arbor History
Stories of the city's past, including Dr. Chase's Recipes.
a2history.comAnn Arbor · 2012–presentPublic Art and Spaces
Public art and public spaces as places a community tells its story.
a2publicart.orgAnn ArborCreative Caucus
Ann Arbor's creative community in conversation.
a2creativecaucus.orgPrograms for schoolsFor Schools
Seminars, courses and partnerships for schools that want to start.
instituteforcivicmedia.orgThesis, articles, talksWriting
The 2008 thesis, articles and conference talks.
Forty years, one idea
Communities tell their own stories best. The question has always been who will keep doing it.
- 1979–86
Public art events in downtown Flint invite residents to build and unbuild the city together. More
- 1983–92
Buckham Fine Arts Project and Buckham Alley Theater: poets, jazz players and performers on a downtown stage. More
- 1991
Genesee Spotlights: thirteen documentaries on Flint institutions, told in residents' own words. The method begins here. More
- 1992–2006
Mount Clemens: a high school runs its city's community television station for fifteen years. More
- 2007–08
“Community Voices” series in School Video News; thesis, School-Based Community Television. More
- 2009–12
Civic storytelling seminar in Petoskey; Food Stories video seminar on food security. More
- 2016–17
Community High, Ann Arbor: students produce local history tours, videos and a museum exhibit. More
- Now
Civic storytelling in schools, to fill the gap left by shrinking local news. More
Start a civic storytelling program
A two-day seminar, a semester course, or a long-term partnership with your city. Each format has been taught before, and each one publishes real stories for real neighbors.