Step #5: Conversations with “Citizens”

CONVERSATIONS WITH “CITIZENS” 

The final step in the community interviewing process is to gather groups of people from the target area to test with them what the newsroom has learned and to gain additional insights. It is important to engage people who are not, at any level, part of the target areas leadership. For instance, look for residents of a neighborhood or rank-and-file members of a group.

 The Wichita Experience

It seems obvious in retrospect, but one of the lessons of the civic conversation project was that people believe things that ring true.

I overheard a conversation among a group of people who were talking about a wire story in a newspaper about global warming. The story stated that the Earths average temperature had increased by some fraction of a degree.

It didn’t ring true.

The writer hadn’t given or the newspaper had cut out a simple explanation of how the measurements were taken, which would have made the threat more feasible. Readers dismissed the story as unlikely.

By asking researchers, ordinary people and extremists alike, How do you know that? What makes you say that? reporters can provide an extra layer of information that will help readers decide for themselves if the story has a ring of truth.

-JEAN HAYS
EAGLE REPORTER

There are different ways to talk with catalysts. Here are a few approaches The Harwood Group uses.

TELEPHONE. This approach is especially useful when trying to sort through lots of catalyst names in the early stages of looking for civic conversations and spaces.

FACE-TO-FACE. As journalists know, talking with someone in person often produces far richer insights than over the telephone. It is possible to see, for instance, a person’s body language and facial expressions, which can prompt more probing follow-up questions.

SMALL GROUPS. The Harwood Group has brought together three or four catalysts in places where they usually talk, such as someone’s living room or a church basement. In this setting catalysts can “bounce off” one another, recall things that they or others might have forgotten and work together to help a journalist understand the community. This approach is especially useful once journalists have identified the core catalysts to be interviewed.