| What Are the Key Insights?
Here are some questions to sort out the insights from the newsroom conversations and community interviews. Be sure to go through all the questions and add others that come up. To make the conversation manageable, the questions are divided into four areas.
Use the Frameworks section for this work.
| A. |
CIVIC LAYERS |
| 1. |
What civic conversations and spaces were found? |
| 2. |
Where do each of the civic conversations and spaces fit? |
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Check to make sure that civic spaces are in the right layers. Are they? (This is a step journalists often skip, but it is an important one.)
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| B. |
NATURE OF CIVIC LAYERS |
| 1. |
How do the conversations in each civic layer tend to work? |
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What do people tend to talk about? |
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What do the conversations sound like (e.g., open, acrimonious, policy oriented, gossip?) What kinds of people are usually in these spaces? How do the different groups interviewed officials, civic leaders, catalysts and citizens talk about these spaces? |
| 2. |
What are the unspoken rules that shape these civic spaces? |
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| C. |
HEALTH OF CIVIC LAYERS |
| 1. |
Which civic layers are strong and which ones are relatively weak? Why might that be the case? |
| 2. |
Concerning the weaker layers, how might they be filled out? Is it possible to dig deeper into the community to find additional catalysts who can point to more civic spaces? |
| 3. |
What gaps exist between the civic layers? Why might that be the case?
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| D. |
MAKING SENSE OF THE AREA |
| 1. |
How does this area really work? |
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After talking in-depth about this area, how could it be described to someone who has not been there? |
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How do civic conversations and spaces seem to work and relate to one another? For instance, does the area seem driven by informal conversations and networks; does it have a more formal and professional feel; or do the civic conversations seem to take place largely in hidden, private places, such as peoples homes or backyards? |
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Compare this area to others? What do those comparisons suggest about how to think about the target area? |
| 2. |
What word or phrase best captures how this area works? |
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Try out different words or phrases. Which one best captures the essence of this area. |
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Test the word or phrase against what might be said about another area. Does it ring true? |
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READ THE NEXT SECTION — WHAT ARE THE KEY INSIGHTS? (PART 2)
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