This is a key step. Catalysts will guide you to sources, conversations and civic places and sometimes even serve as a “host” to gain access to them. Names of catalysts will come from many sources, including newsroom conversations, civic leader interviews, citizen conversations and other catalysts.
Who to Interview
- Ministers, rabbis and lay religious leaders.
- Barbers and beauticians.
- A shopkeeper or coffee shop person.
- Someone from a local recreation center.
- A school teacher.
- A local lawyer or doctor.
- A resident or a local wise person.
These are the kinds of catalysts often found in neighborhoods. Depending upon the area/topic you map, the catalysts may vary.
You Need to Find Out
Here are sample questions to use with catalysts. 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?
3. Where do you go to talk with these folks?
- What are specific places?
- What are they like – how would you describe these places? How do the conversations sound? How do people inter-act with each other?
4. 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 about people’s aspirations for the area/topic?
- How do people talk about (all) these?
- What do you think is going on with these concerns, challenges and issues, aspirations?
5. What can journalists learn from the people and places you’ve mentioned?
- How do you think people would react if a journalist came into these different places?
- Under what conditions would it be okay for a journalist to talk with people and enter these places?
- How else might a journalist understand people in this area/topic?
- What do you think about how we cover this area/topic?
- How do you think we could improve coverage?
“In the Tampa Heights project, we went in thinking the neighborhood had set boundaries and issues. We were wrong. The more time we spent out there, the more we learned. As we talked to people, held conversations, we gained a much more refined view of that neighborhood. As a result, we met so many people, it wasn’t even us going out to look for stories, people were calling us. We had become very well identified as being interested just by the number of people we met. Stories just started falling into our lap.
“It was a very rewarding effort. The reporter found once he had done that initial legwork and continued refining and enlarging his source base, the stories were just there.
“I’ve got some pretty cynical reporters but, as a result of the stories we got and the concepts that we learned, people don’t question what we’re doing.”
– Steve Kaylor
Public Life Team Leader, Tampa Tribune
How to Engage Catalysts
There are different ways to talk with catalysts. Here are a few approaches The Harwood Institute uses and when each approach can help you the most.
Telephone.
This approach is especially useful when trying to sort through lots of catalysts’ names in the early stages of looking for civic conversations and spaces.
Face to Face.
As you 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 Institute often brings 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 you have identified the key catalysts you want to interview. This also works well after you have interviewed them individually.
>> “Don’t Get Caught” <<
When trying to move beyond the “usual sources,” you can sometimes reach out to more people, yet the same kinds of people. To tap more deeply into civic life, you will need to move beyond the usual officials, civic leaders and other sources that you often tap.
