Engagement reporting: the antidote to media skepticism?

By: Marissa Nelson

Newsrooms build relationships (and trust) in communities through events, social media and special projects

In the era of “fake news” and heightened distrust of anonymous sources, the public is skeptical of the media.

This year a Knight Foundation and Gallup study found that nearly 70 percent of U.S. adultssaid their trust in the news media has decreased over the past decade. However, 69 percent of respondents felt their trust could be restored.

The question, then, is how?

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethicsaddresses many of the concerns Americans have including inaccuracy, bias and accountability of the media. And most news organizations concerned about maintaining the public’s trust adhere to industry standards. So it seems that there isn’t a break down in media ethics, but little understanding of the reporting process.

Enter engagement journalism.

Engagement — formerly thought to be about website clicks, retweets and Facebook likes — has transformed into an idea better explained by its goal rather than its process.

Community engagementputs readers’, viewers’ and citizens’ interests at the center of the work a news organizations does. This means finding ways to report on topics most important to readers, involving viewers in the reporting process and finding ways to get stories in to the hands of citizens most affected by the news.

Engagement looks different for every newsroom because it revolves around the needs of individual communities. Nonetheless, each project seeks to collaborate and build relationships with readers. Turning away from a one-way communication model, engagement reporting invites citizens to participate in journalism.

For instance, in 2012 Jennifer Brandel started Curious Cityat WBEZ. The project invites listeners to submit questions about the city, and reporters find the answers. Instead of assuming what the public is interested in WBEZ asks listeners directly.

This model proved to be effective in not only building relationships but also expanding WBEZ’s reach. The project brought in over 10,000 more listener email addressesand led to some of WBEZ’s most popular stories. Three years after starting the project, Brandel co-founded Hearkento bring the model to other newsrooms.

Social media can also be used to foster engagement. In 2016 Vox created a Facebook Groupfor people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act, fostering a space for journalists and readers to exchange information. The group now has over 6,000 members and continues to be a space readers look to for information and conversation.

Some news organizations are even turning to events to engage their communities.

This year ProPublica Illinois began working with Free Street Theatre to hold workshops across the state. The workshop uses theatre exercises to talk about issues like the economy, media representation and changing demographics at a local level.

As an Illinois news outlet based in Chicago, the workshops allow ProPublica Illinois to learn about the communities — outside of Chicago — it will be reporting on. It is a space for reporters to listen to the community and learn what matters most to them. For example, in Toulon, a city with a declining population, workshop leaders Logan Jaffe and Coya Paz learned that some residents fear it won’t exist in 20 years.

The workshop also serves as an opportunity for the publication to introduce itself to Illinoisans and begin building relationships with them.

Similarly, City Bureau, a journalism lab on Chicago’s South Side, began holding weeklyPublic Newsroomsin a coffee shop next to its newsroom in 2017. The purpose of the Public Newsroomis to create a space for ideas to be exchanged. Here, reporters and community members learn from one another, talking about issues like crime reporting, gun trafficking and the stigma surrounding mental health.

Through each workshop, City Bureau connects with new community members — over 1,200 since its inception — and provides an opportunity to discuss reporting practices, processes and ethics. The event doesn’t shy away from criticizing its own industry and imagining how it can be improved.

How does the media portray the South Side? Is it fair? Why was a source used? How did the reporter access the documents they referenced?

These are all fair and welcomed topics of conversation at the Public Newsroom.

Other news organizations, like Mississippi Today, have begun collaborating with City Bureau, bringing Public Newsrooms to their communities. At 14 East, DePaul University’s online magazine, we have begun holding monthly Public Newsrooms, too.

Engagement reporting, though, doesn’t have to be an event series or groundbreaking project. Or at least it doesn’t start that way. It begins by using the resources available (something as simple as Twitter) to ask citizens two questions: What matters to them and what do they need to know?

From there, it’s up to reporters to do what they can to answer those questions.

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