As the United States faces the real threat of democratic backsliding, it is clear that the current commercial news media simply lacks the power and capacity to facilitate the development of the “informed citizen” who is foundational to liberal democratic ideals. This piece argues for the need to reconceptualize citizenship in an era when professional journalism plays a significantly diminished role in directly shaping our news and information environment, especially at the local level. I make the case that we must consider what it means to live in a post-newspaper democracy. In a time of market failure for local news, both journalists and the public need to identify which functions are unique to professional journalism as a civic institution. I join others who have argued that we need to move away from the concept of the “good citizen” as only a consumer of information/voter as their form of civic participation. I call for reimagining citizenship with communication at its center. Within this theory of “communicative citizenship,” a good citizen plays the civic role of communicator, not as a replacement for journalists, but instead as a facilitator of the flow of reliable civic information from institutions to their fellow community members.

Chapter 6 looks at how sectoral networks propelled the Anti-Extradition Movement. By focusing on religious groups, legal professionals, and medical practitioners, we demonstrate how social identities informed protesters what roles to take up during a spontaneous movement, and how these sectoral networks provided expertise and resources to facilitate the movement’s organizing efforts.