(Originally published at Gather)

I hadn’t really thought much about a New Year’s resolution until I worked on some of my thoughts for the Journalism That Matters conference in Memphis while flipping the channels to see different stations coverage of the New Year’s celebrations last night. The PBS broadcast was sponsored in part by resolutions.gather.com.

These days, New Year’s Resolutions can seem a bit daunting. Instead, I tend to think of simply making it through the next day and trying to find a way of making my interests financially sustainable.

Yet at the same time, I’m doing all kinds of things that make for good resolutions, especially around politics and media. I wondered if there was some unifying string theory of what I what to do.

It seems like the resolution that ties it all together is “to help people find their voice”. That is what my discussions with Gina about her class were all about. She was doing marvelous working helping her students find their voices. That is how I think Opportunity Rocks and citizen journalism around the Edwards campaign will be most effective, by helping people find their voice to talk about what is wrong in our country, and finding ways to fix it.

It is my hope that getting people involved in local politics will help them find their political voices and be heard by their local leaders. It is my hope that NewsTrust, as well as emerging regional news councils and hyperlocal journalism efforts will provide a platform for people to find their voices in a way to constructively analyze the media they encounter. It is my hope that the Journalism that Matters conference will help others find ways to enable people to find their voices.

I suspect that many of the people reading this have already found their voices online and hopefully in local and national politics as well. Hopefully you will take on some of this resolution for your own.