Between the lines: What Demos’ paper on democracy tells us about journalism.
The team at Demos recently published a paper on how to upgrade democracy in the UK. It only mentions journalism once.
Yet, for me, the six areas flagged for democratic renewal read less like a policy wishlist and more like a challenge to journalism (or a blueprint for its evolution, depending on where you stand).
And I think - whether you are working on journalism, democracy, government, social change, or in the arts - this is really important.
Because if we seek to rebuild democracy as a relationship with foundations of trust, listening, and responsiveness, then a useful future form of journalism cannot sit outside of those projects. It needs to be part of the infrastructure that holds the whole thing together.
In that sense, the absence of journalism in the report is not an oversight (nor am I criticising the report for this).
No, it reflects something deeper: that in 2025 journalism is adjacent to democracy, rather than essential to it.
Now, I've been working on this problem for almost 15 years now. and, I'll admit: my energy for the challenge fades now and again.
But this article reminded me that all is not lost.
Because if you read closely, each of the six frontlines Demos contains a surprise signpost that points directly to the kind of journalism we might all benefit from and collaborate with.
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1. Everyday democracy
Demos makes the case for deliberation (though citizens’ assemblies, participatory policymaking, and strategic engagement on intractable questions). But these processes only work if people know they’re happening and understand why they matter.
Journalism can play a crucial role here better than it does by explaining trade-offs, following the arc of participation, and showing what it means for real people to sit with complexity. Not just covering outcomes, but documenting the process of collective judgement itself.
2. Public services for people
Much of the frustration people feel with the state (this not limited to the UK, of course) is down to poor communication, not just poor delivery. Journalists are already surfacing this: the hidden admin burdens, the absurd rules, the gaps between official policy and lived experience.
But we know there’s way more to do here. Journalism can better trace where friction becomes failure, and where local service redesign is quietly working. It can create visible feedback loops between public servants and the people they serve.
3. Empowered communities
Demos argues for the state to support but not control community-led initiatives. And, for my money, community power means narrative power. We know at this point that local journalism, at its best, doesn’t just report on communities. It helps them tell their own story. It makes invisible networks visible. It’s often the only thing holding together a shared sense of place and possibility.
So it follows that, if we want more self-governing communities, we still need to strengthen the media that stitches them together.
4. Information for democracy
This is where journalism is usually name-checked: in the context of disinformation and trust. But the deeper opportunity isn’t defensive. Journalism can shape the information environment not just by fact-checking, but by designing for a kind of epistemic trust, by offering clarity without flattening nuance.
That means rethinking not just content creation, but aggregation, curation, distribution, and the conditions under which public knowledge is made.
5. Optimising to depolarise
Demos talks about the “MIMBY majority” - people who ask hard questions, who want to weigh trade-offs and listen before judging. I like these people.
Journalism should make their voices louder by spotlighting consensus, not just conflict. It can normalise uncertainty. It can build formats that aren’t designed for outrage, but for encounter.
(Before you come at me in the comments: that’s not about false balance. It’s about plurality, and the design of spaces where disagreement doesn’t have to become division).
6. Our role as citizens
Finally, Demos ends with a call to citizenship, not as a legal status, but as a practice. Journalism can support that practice by showing what civic agency looks like, not in the abstract, but IRL.
It must make participation feel ordinary, model curiosity, and encourage responsibility. It's a lot to ask, but it seems like there's a gap in the market...
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In the end, journalism is barely mentioned in the Demos paper, but it’s everywhere between the lines.
That’s the invitation here, and the challenge.
And of course, plenty of people are already responding to it. Across local media, civic tech, participatory platforms, slow newsrooms and radical co-ownership models, new forms of journalism are emerging - ones that act less like content machines and more like democratic infrastructure.
In the past year I've been lucky enough to work with Report for the World, The Gecko Project, Seek Initiative, V-Ventures, Reporters Shield, futur eins, Solutions Journalism Network and a bunch of other supremely talented individuals and initiatives.
What this paper offers to them (and us) is permission to continue that work, to build on it and extend it. To take the negative space of journalism's absence from the Demos report, and create something positive.
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Thanks for being here. I've a couple of special editions lined up for while I'm away on summer holiday. I hope you enjoy them!
Adam
p.s. If you follow a link to my site and it ain't working, that's because my service provider is doing some scheduled maintenance. Which they always seem to plan for a Thursday when my email goes out. Sorry about that.