Much knowledge about the community already exists within the news organization and it is important to take advantage of that resource.
Pull together newsroom conversation(s) and ask people to think about the questions below.
Who to Include
- Reporters, editors, researchers, photojournalists and librarians and any others who can help out.
- Some newsrooms may want to include people from advertising and other departments.
- Not all of these people need to be included throughout your entire mapping work.
You Need to Find Out
1. What do we know about this area/topic?
2. Where do civic spaces and conversations exist?
3. Who is in them? What do people talk about in these civic spaces (such as issues or concerns)? What do the conversations sound like?
4. What sources do we know in this area/topic? What kinds of things can we usually learn from these sources?
5. Who else should be contacted to find out more about civic spaces and conversations in this area/topic? Who might be the best civic leaders and catalysts to tap? See Civic Frameworks: Framework 1 for more on this.
6. How would we describe the dimensions, characteristics and boundaries of the area/topic we are planning to map?
>> Our Changing Definition of “Community” <<
As America changes, so too does the definition of community. No longer do geographic lines alone drive the definition.
Beyond exploring a particular geographic neighborhood, you may want to look into “communities of interest,” such as people concerned about a particular issue, those engaged with an avocation, users of the Internet. Or you may want to explore a particular segment of the community, such as the business or evangelical communities, African-Americans or white supremacists.
Also, some civic conversations once thought to be tied to a specific area or associated with particular groups may no longer be. For instance, an inner-city church that once drew its congregants from its immediate area now may draw many from suburban areas where members have moved over the years. In these situations be careful not to assume that the congregants of a church can talk as residents of a neighborhood.
One last point: The newsroom definition of an area may be quite different from how people themselves think and talk about their community. Make sure to listen carefully to how people define their community.
Engaging People to Find Civic Spaces
These tips apply to all conversations you will have to find sources, issues and civic places.
Remember the goal.
You will uncover enormously rich information when doing community interviews. Keep track of the information but do not lose sight of the underlying goal: To figure out where civic spaces, conversations and sources exist for use in your daily journalism.
Listen for insights.
You should try to hear how people in the different layers of civic life view and understand the community; what they tend to know and what they don’t know, what they believe their neighbors or colleagues are concerned about and why, what language they use, how they describe the importance of different civic conversations and spaces. Listening in this way can help you figure out the insights that different layers of civic life offer.
Engage people.
These interviews should be a conversation, not quick hits to find a quote or a piece of information for a story. Many people will not have on the tip of their tongue the kinds of civic spaces, names of people and insights that journalists want. The Harwood Institute’s experience is that people need time to tell stories, make connections and remember things. How you approach these conversations is critical.
Keep it off the record.
The Harwood Institute recommends that these community interviews (at least initially) be off the record. People are seeking a different kind of relationship with journalists, which will need to be established over time and which will show people that you are committed to learning about them and their communities.
National City, one of the poorest cities in San Diego County, doesn’t have a big industrial or retail base. It’s located in such a way that commuters cut through its streets to get to other freeways. The city persuaded a regional transportation board to give National City money to help deal with the traffic issue.
A reporter was doing a story on the expansion of Plaza Boulevard. It might have been a ho-hum piece, but the editor urged the reporter to travel the boulevard, find some merchants and talk about the traffic. The reporter found a merchant who was in a shopping mall that literally overlooked the interstate and did an interesting piece.
But that’s not the end of the story. Behind this shop, the reporter discovered a whole strip mall full of Filipino markets, restaurants and bakeries. The reporter went back out and did a wonderful story about this community, which has become a county-wide resource.