"Doing what you can where you are": How The Community Newsroom is rebuilding trust in Govanhill

Greater Govanhill and The Ferret are working together to bolster local news, combat polarisation and enact positive change in a Glasgow community.

Pictured outside the Community Newsroom in Govanhill are from left- Ali Brian, Karin Goodwin, Mikael Phillips, Devon McCole, Paul Dobson and Rhiannon Davies. 📷 Colin Mearns

“Everybody has a story…What’s yours?” The blue hand-painted slogan above the entrance to The Community Newsroom is an invitation. Inside the bright yellow shopfront on Bowman Street, the threads of a dozen or so conversations are beginning to peter out as the morning’s structured discussion on polarisation comes to its natural close, about half an hour after it was scheduled to end. Karin Goodwin and Rhiannon Davies wave goodbye as the participants filter out one by one. Another successful open newsroom has created much food for thought. And if there’s one thing nearly everyone seemed to agree on, it was the symbiotic relationship between growing political division and a loss of trust in the press.