Community-centered journalism amplifying overlooked voices to strengthen civic understanding and democratic participation.
In today’s media environment, authentic stories are often buried beneath political messaging, sensational headlines, and the noise of social media. The result is deepening polarization, growing distrust in institutions, and fewer opportunities for meaningful public conversation. The Front Porch Movement was created to bring those conversations back by amplifying the voices of everyday people and communities whose experiences rarely shape national narratives. Through community-centered journalism and storytelling, we create space for honest dialogue about the issues affecting our lives and the possibilities for finding common ground.
Special Series
About This Series
The crisis facing Minnesota is like nothing we’ve seen before in our lifetime. A state under siege. Ordinary people shot dead in plain daylight by the government. A community in hiding. We see the cellphone videos, we hear the elected officials, we challenge the government account of activities. But what is going on behind the headlines? What is happening outside of what you’re seeing on television and hearing on radio?
Free from pressure-packed deadlines and the constant cadence of feeding social media, the Front Porch Movement’s Ted Canova, an Edward R. Murrow and Emmy Award winning journalist, returned to the state he called home for 17 years in search of untold stories. Not to duplicate what mainstream news and citizen journalists were reporting. Instead, Ted used his experience, embedded himself in the community he knows, and met face-to-face with community activists, frightened immigrants hiding behind curtains, isolated children not attending school, and residents for whose opinions are never asked. What Ted found were stories of anger and fear, resistance and resilience, perseverance and ingenuity, moral tension and faith, and a deeper examination of indifference in a time of crisis.
We invite you to join his journey by reading Returning to Minnesota: A Journalist’s Journey Into a State in Crisis and by listening to podcasts of our series, “Six Days Inside Minnesota.”
Watch the trailer to our special series “Six Days Inside Minnesota.”
The People and Places in this Series
More from the Front Porch Movement
PODCASTS
We find ordinary people doing ordinary things who have stories to share that are anything but ordinary.
VIDEOS
They don’t seek attention and don’t try to convince you their opinion is right but when they speak, there’s something that makes us stop in our tracks and listen.
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
Ted Canova started the Front Porch Movement to counter America’s growing polarization by giving ordinary people an unfiltered platform to start real conversations.