Step #4: Tapping Catalysts

TAPPING CATALYSTS 

This is a key step. Catalysts will guide journalists to civic spaces and conversations and sometimes even serve as a host to access them. Names of catalysts will come from many sources, including the newsroom conversations, official and civic leader interviews and suggestions from other catalysts.

Examples of catalysts from Riverside were “Squeek,” who runs Squeek’s Donuts, a local lawyer, someone who once ran the Wichita Festival, and a school teacher. In Northeast, The Harwood Group found church leaders, a barber and beautician, someone at the local recreation center and another at the Community Development Corporation. Each of these catalysts suggested others to call to learn more about the area.

The complete list of catalysts took time to develop. Each interview with civic leaders, newsroom staff, and others generated a few leads. Still, no one person came close to providing the list generated by the end of the interviews. That is why a series of interviews is needed.

Ministers, rabbis, and lay leaders of religious groups.

Barbers and beauticians.

A shopkeeper or coffee shop person.

Someone from a local recreation center.

A school teacher.

A local lawyer or doctor.

A neighbor or someone considered to be a local wise person. 

These are the kinds of catalysts often found in neighborhoods. Depending upon the targeted area, the catalysts may vary. Recall that “connectors” and “catalysts” are combined into a single category. 

The different places where people tend to talk together in the neighborhood. (A good way to start this conversation is to ask, When was the last time you had a conversation about what concerns you in this neighborhood? Where was that?) 

Who participates in the conversations. (Are there regulars?) What do people talk about, what do people tend to learn from each other. (Throughout this conversation, engage the catalyst to keep thinking about different civic spaces in the neighborhood.)

How the catalyst sees the civic spaces named in other community interviews. Talk about their similarities and differences, especially compared to those the catalyst initially mentioned. 

How the catalyst distinguishes between conversations that occur in different civic layers. What does the catalyst think about their similarities and differences in terms of purpose, tone, feel, participants, outcomes.

Based on all the civic spaces discussed, which spaces does the catalyst believe are most important to the neighborhood and to a journalist who wants to understand the neighborhood?

How does the newspaper tend to cover the neighborhood?

What could a journalist learn from the key civic spaces identified?

Under what conditions would it be OK for a journalist to talk with people in these key civic spaces? 

What other ways might a journalist understand better peoples concerns in this neighborhood?