Mission and Core Values
Mission
SageCitizen empowers citizens and strengthens American democracy by cultivating the skills and standards needed for informed, reasoned participation.
Premise
Every adult in our country participates in its democracy – by voting, through grass-roots efforts and even simply through discourse. Civic participation is the foundation of democratic self-governance. And the quality of that participation determines the caliber of our democracy.
Democratic participation requires adequate knowledge and certain skills. Citizens should have:
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access to reliable, truthful and appropriate information;
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the critical thinking skills needed to acquire, assess and act appropriately on that information; and
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to the extent possible, empirical consensus on reality – e.g., scientific consensus, fact-checked reporting and evidence-based policy analysis.
Core Values
In all of its work, SageCitizen’s guiding light is an unshakable commitment to procedural fairness. The following guidelines will be applied to all work produced by SageCitizen. Outside critiques of the work on the basis of these guidelines will be welcome.
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truthfulness, thoroughness and clarity;
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evidence-based, objective reasoning and argument, with respectful citation of sources;
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clear, objective standards for evaluating the validity of information and the competence of governance;
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impartiality and vigilance against bias;
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no endorsement of any candidate or political party and no prediction of election outcome;
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equal application of standards and reasoning;
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promotion of learning and knowledge, not outrage or division
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civility and consideration for others;
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cross-ideological sharing;
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openness to public critique of SageCitizen’s standards and work;
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prominent publication of corrections when warranted.
Need
Americans widely recognize the importance of making reasoned judgments based on reliable information. There’s an enormous amount of information available to Americans today, but its reliability is very uneven. The public has low trust in what they hear and read, and there’s widespread concern about the consequences to the nation’s wellbeing.
Compounding this, research has shown substantial gaps in people’s skills for evaluating information. There is room for improvement in critical reading and analytical reasoning skills among adults, particularly with regard to digital information.
SageCitizen’s purpose is to strengthen the public’s underlying evaluative competencies and shared norms for evidence-based reasoning.