Community Conversations

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New Jerseyans share their stories and ideas about our democracy.

New Jersey's Democracy Conversation

In spring 2022, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities collected hundreds of responses from individuals throughout the state as part of our Democracy Conversation Project. Via both an online form and "ballot boxes" located at partner sites throughout the state, New Jerseyans provided their thoughts in response to four questions about our democracy:

What are the main challenges facing democracy today?
What do you remember about the first time you voted?
What does it mean to be a good citizen?
Why is voting important to you?

Responses were accepted in written, audio, video, and visual formats. They were compiled and displayed in interactive format on this page, below. Responses can be filtered by age of the respondent (when provided), as well as keyword tag, question prompt, and response type.

Visualizing Democracy Commissions

In summer 2023, NJCH announced the commissions of two projects aiming to explore, analyze, and visualize the responses in new and interactive ways. Commissions were awarded in response to a call for proposals.

What does it mean to be a good citizen?

The first project, above, is a brief animated video exploring the themes found in responses to the question "What does it mean to be a good citizen?" The video was created by filmmaker April Merl of South Orange.

Click here to read a Q&A with April

What inspired you to take on this project?

I was inspired by the answers that I saw from the question “What does it mean to be a good citizen?” – from young to old, I saw a lot of answers that pointed to caring for each other and for the space we share together and wondered what I’d find by digging further into the answers. I also was surprised that the 3 audio answers that were submitted across all the responses were for this question alone.

Why did you think your selected medium lent itself to this project?

With so many answers and so many ways the answers were submitted – handwritten, audio, and online – I immediately thought that video would be a great way to corral everything together and help share as many of the responses as possible. I really enjoy finding connections in material like this and going through data, so the whole process really appealed to me overall, from research through writing through making the video.

What surprised you as you were working on it?

I learned so much about New Jersey! For instance, I had originally wanted to look at responses in urban vs rural areas and learned that New Jersey is considered by some definitions to be almost entirely urban, even as the Garden State. Also, I had no idea we have that many diners.

What do you hope others take away from your project?

I hope people get excited about their own ideas of good citizenship and put those ideas into action – as many of the responses remind us, even small things can have big impacts.

The Misinformation Newspaper

The second project, above, is a digital newspaper expounding on DCP responses related to misinformation as a challenge to democracy. It was created by artist and educator Melody Marshall of Woodbury.

Click here to read a Q&A with Melody

What inspired you to take on this project?

I found out about this project because I was looking into the Democracy Conversation Project which I thought was really interesting. When I read about Visualizing Democracy I knew I wanted to apply to the project because I was already seeing a lot of patterns in the answers and there was a lot I knew I could do with what the DCP had already. The hardest part of applying was deciding which of my ideas would work the best!

Why did you think your selected medium lent itself to this project?

When I realized how many of these responses had to do with misinformation or news or distrust in the media, I figured that making some kind of news media would lend itself well to that theme. When I think of “The News” the first thing that comes to mind is a newspaper with big headlines and photos and long articles in small fonts. I figured, if I’m going to explore the news then I might as well make a newspaper of my own.

What surprised you as you were working on it?

I was surprised at how passionate people are about this topic. In speaking to the artists and the folks I interviewed, I learned that many of them have already explored this idea in their art and have thought about their opinions on this in great length. When I was talking to friends and family about the project I got a similar response about how important this subject is and how much people talk about it. I’m glad it is, though, because it is important and I hope that this project can shed some light on that for some people.

What do you hope others take away from your project?

There are a lot of lessons to take away from this project but I think the one that will be the most impactful for people is to find politically neutral news outlets. Fact checking is time consuming and can be difficult, choosing one side only is dangerous, and ignoring the news altogether is even worse. If everyone who reads this only takes away one thing, I would hope it’s that lesson. However, there’s a lot to learn so I’m sure they’ll all find more than that!

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“Help register new voters”

New Jersey's Democracy Conversation

Visualizing Democracy Commissions

What does it mean to be a good citizen?

The Misinformation Newspaper

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