Local community journalism can also be this: bringing people, ideas together and getting them talking to those who run it.
More than 25 members of the Lisbon Community for People participated in a informal meeting and unique meeting with Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML), where they could present their ideas and vent their frustrations about Carris Metropolitana. The invitation was made directly to the Community by TML and mirrors well what local community journalism can be: it can bring people, ideas together and get them talking to those who run it.
The meeting took place at TML's headquarters in Santa Apolónia. Rui Lopo, the company's administrator, conducted the proceedings; heard complaints and grievances from two dozen people who use the service of Carris Metropolitana, but also suggestions and constructive notes. The session, which lasted about three hours, functioned as a moment of consultation, but also served to TML to expose some of the backstage and the challenges of managing a complex operation such as Carris Metropolitana.
A Lisbon Community for People meets more than 640 people in Discord, where it takes place one of the most active forums in the city and metropolitan area of Lisbon. On this server, about 50 thousand messages and more than one thousand minutes of audio have already been shared. Lisboa Para Pessoas' Discord is organized by thematic channels, from Mobility à Housing, from Citizenship à Sustainability - These are also the subjects that Lisboa Para Pessoas deals with in its daily journalistic work. And if there is a topic that has generated more discussions in this community it is the Carris Metropolitana.
The meeting with TML came about in an agile way, and that's also how people got together and participated, without much bureaucracy or preparation. People of different ages and from different parts of the metropolitan area, who share an enthusiasm for the transport area and who met each other on the Lisbon for People Discord, participated. The realization of this meeting is a valorization of the work developed by Lisboa Para Pessoas that in two years, besides becoming the most read local newspaper in the city and metropolitan area of Lisbonalso gathered around it an autonomous and dynamic Community, in a spirit of true community journalism.
You can join the Lisboa Para Pessoas Community here.
