The Kettering Foundation’s Dayton Democracy Fellowship is a one-year program that supports innovative leaders, changemakers, and dreamers who are building movements for inclusive democracy in their communities and in our wider world. This series of articles about the Dayton Democracy Fellows highlights their robust work and the powerful narratives that drive the advancement and defense of democracy. 

Dayton Democracy Fellow Nick Hrkman’s occupation is intertwined with the rights and privileges of democracy. He is the community impact editor for the Dayton Daily News and cofounder of The Journalism Lab, a nonprofit organization that trains citizen journalists. 

Hrkman grew up in Dayton. After high school graduation he interned for four summers with the Dayton Daily News. “I knew that this was what I wanted to do,” he said. But the 2009 recession made journalism jobs hard to come by and he went into marketing after college. He left marketing in 2020 and that year cofounded The Journalism Lab with Irish journalist Stephen Starr, radio journalist Mary Evans, and photojournalist Steve Bennish. “It was a passion project for all of us,” said Hrkman. 

They gave free 90-minute journalism workshops online, which drew people from the community and as far away as the United Arab Emirates. When the COVID-19 pandemic ended, workshops were also conducted in person. Hrkman hopes The Journalism Lab contributes toward shoring up the future of journalism; even as sources of information have multiplied and legacy media companies have become less financially robust, the need for factual reporting has grown in importance. 

“Our local news organizations are struggling. [The Journalism Lab] is meant to augment and connect the [journalism] ecosystem, hopefully developing the future generation of journalists or activating citizen journalists,” Hrkman said. 

In his job for the Dayton Daily News, which he has held since 2021, Hrkman writes the editorials for the newspaper and solicits local community opinion pieces for the Ideas and Voices section. A key part of the job is to reach marginalized and at-risk communities. Often, many don’t subscribe to the newspaper, but that doesn’t matter, Hrkman said. He keeps careful track of age, race, and topics written by community members for the opinion pages to ensure the paper is representative of Dayton and Montgomery County. 

Because the rise of the internet has made publishing easier than ever, it has also led to uncertainty and even suspicion. People aren’t sure what is factual and what is not. 

That’s where the newspaper comes in, said Hrkman. “Local journalism and editorial pages in particular can offer a way out of that. They have the Dayton Daily News, which, for more than 125 years, has been part of their community . . . It comes back full circle to the value of an editorial page, a curated, edited page where you have folks who work with community members to help develop and publish timely and reliable information about the world around them.” 

Hrkman said the reward of his job is reporting on and helping members of the public comment on issues that leads to influence, legislation, and sometimes, real change. 

“It’s hard not to see journalism as being so core and foundational to every democratic process we have. An informed public is required. Nothing works without the citizenry knowing what is going on and having a sense of the world around them in order to make informed decisions about it.” 

It also strengthens the newspaper’s watchdog role. “With the erosion of local journalism and [rise of] news deserts, you’re seeing local elected officials that don’t have the level of scrutiny to keep them on the straight and narrow. The public is aware of that.” 

Aided by Hrkman’s passion for public comment and developing citizen journalism, the more eyes on government officials helps everyone. It can be time-consuming, he said, but it’s worth it. “That’s the work,” he said. “Soliciting contributed content from community—that’s a democratic process to influence the world around them and form consensus for action.” 

Maura Casey is a former editorial writer for the New York Times and has worked with the Kettering Foundation since 2010.

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation Dayton Democracy Fellowship is a one-year program designed to support innovative leaders, changemakers, and dreamers who are building movements for inclusive democracy in their communities and in our wider world.