Civic leaders are the easiest group in the community to begin interviewing and, depending upon the area/topic you are mapping, the newsroom may already know some of them.
Once you start interviewing civic leaders, as in all your work, they will identify other people for you to contact – in this case, other civic leaders and catalysts.
These conversations will help you develop a fuller picture of the area/topic, one that will only become richer as the interviewing continues.
Who to Interview
- The mayor and other elected officials, such as city council members, state house representatives and school board members.
- Heads of major civic organizations, such as the chamber of commerce, NAACP, civic groups, housing organizations, local health clinics.
- Leaders of community institutions, such as the local hospital, banks, businesses.
- Religious leaders.
These are the kinds of civic leaders The Harwood Institute taps when trying to learn about community areas/topics. Depending upon the area/topic you choose to map, civic leaders may vary. Recall, that for the purpose of this work, “officials” and “civic leaders” are combined into a single category (See Civic Frameworks: Framework 1).
You Need to Find Out
Here are sample questions to use with civic leaders. Think of these as a gateway for engaging people.
1. When you think of this area/topic, how would you describe it?
- How has it changed over the years?
- How is it similar to other area/topics? Different?
- How do you feel about these changes, similarities, differences?
2. Who do you turn to when you want to learn about how people think and feel about this area/topic?
- Official/leadership sources? Regular folks?
- What do you usually want to know when you turn to these people?
- Where do you go to talk with these folks about this area/topic?
3. What do you hear people talking about when it comes to the area/topic?
- What do they seem to hold most valuable – what is most important to them in their connection to the area/topic?
- What seem to be their main concerns, challenges and issues?
- How do people talk about these?
- What do you think is going on with these concerns, challenges and issues?
4. What can journalists learn from the people and places you’ve mentioned?
- What do you think about how the news organization covers this area/topic?
- How could we improve coverage?