3 experiments to improve engagement with news avoiders

News avoidance is a complex, growing issue — and one with important implications for the sustainability of local news.

Recent research from the Media Insight Project sheds light on the behavior of news avoiders. While 28% of the survey’s respondents feel they can navigate news — both in finding relevant content and in determining trustworthiness — many express serious concerns about news’ emotional impact. About a third say news makes them feel overwhelmed or they find it too stressful, and only 1 in 10 say news gives them a hopeful view of the world. In response, 29% are trying to create boundaries around their phone and online time, suggesting widespread efforts to manage news-related stress.

The loneliness epidemic is a compounding factor in news avoidance. A sense of disconnect — not just individually but as a society — contributes to feeling that the community issues local news covers are insurmountable. When there’s no hope of solving a problem, people tend to look away.

One way to navigate this dynamic is to show people they are not alone and that they can come together with fact-based information to solve problems.

There are three tactical ways local newsrooms can be the conveners for their communities: designing for human connection, designing for everyday usefulness and designing for joy, curiosity and surprise.

The steps below walk you through exercises that will help you begin to experiment in each of these three areas. Choose one design approach to start.

Start here: Set the foundation

For any of these design experiments, the following conditions should be in place and agreed upon by all stakeholders — a reporter (who is closest to the work), their editor (who has to manage time and expectations) and a senior editor (who has the power to approve projects).

• Community and staff buy-in built on transparency and stated goals
• Deep listening throughout the process
• Shared responsibility for the working relationship between staff and community members
• Who is responsible for all tasks and who will be the decision-maker
• Flexibility and patience, knowing that you’re still in discovery and can’t anticipate everything
• Permission to stop if it’s not working and a shared understanding that stopping is not a failure; it just may not be the right time or the right audience

Design for human connection

Newsroom leaders need to determine capacity, scope and the health of their relationship with the communities they want to reach.

Capacity and scope

The question: How do you create a moment with your community that matches the size of your capacity?

The exercise: Invite your newsroom to a brainstorming event (in person or virtually).

1. Plot out the communities you want to get to know better, then choose one.
   💭 Considerations: Think about barriers to team participation, like geography or language. Build in support when necessary.
2. Identify how you want to engage.
   💭 Considerations: Determine the form that engagement should (event, zine, etc.), important topics to discuss, issues community members are dealing with and what makes this community unique.
3. Assign a team to run a pilot.
   💭 Considerations: Having a deadline for launch and for feedback can give the project the structure it needs. Deciding how to measure its impact, who is responsible for all tasks and who will be the decision-maker (RACI can be helpful with this) ahead of time will help. The news has a strong gravitational pull — what guardrails are you putting in place to give this pilot a chance?

Community trust

The question: How do you gauge the level of trust you have with a community?

The exercise: Create space for a listening moment with known sources from that community (in person, virtually or through surveys).

1. Ask your colleagues for trusted sources in that community.
   💭 Considerations: Think about casting a wide net for those sources, asking not just reporters and others in the newsroom but also colleagues in other parts of your organization who have ties to that community. Think about the number of people you want as a part of that conversation. Keep in mind there is diversity within each community, so look at representation.
2. Gather those sources for an honest conversation.
   💭 Considerations: You can ask questions around what their community means to them, what people get wrong about who they are and how stories move through their community. Think about what you want participants to learn and what they get for participating.
3. Bring those sources along with you.
   💭 Considerations: Find ways to keep participants engaged with your journey.  How do you keep them engaged with your journey? Think about what the feedback loop looks like, depending on whether participants are active or passive.

Design for usefulness

Think of beat coverage as hyperlocal communities. Who in your newsroom touches those places or groups of people? During this exploration, limit your reliance on experts and find everyday people.

Know your audience

The question: Who are they and what is important to their daily lives?

The exercise: Gather quantitative and qualitative data for an informed conversation with newsroom stakeholders.

1. Expand your data sources.
   💭 Considerations: There are datasets being collected around your community. Don’t limit yourself to the newsroom — look for data in other places, too. Partner with libraries and community organizations to survey or hold listening sessions to get the pulse of a place. Don’t forget to tap into digital spaces.
2. Understand which information feels like care for this community.
   💭 Considerations: Don’t disqualify the qualitative data, just know its limits. If the community’s desires don’t match their news consumption habits, see if they can tell you why. Talk through the trends you are seeing and don’t let this be the only time you discuss this. Make it a habit.

Build the right fit

The question: How do you deliver a story in the medium your audience wants, with a delivery system they want to use?

The exercise: Pilot a series of stories to experiment with different delivery systems.

1. Make sure it’s an apples-to-apples comparison.
   💭 Considerations: Profiles are good for this, or recurring pieces like High School Athlete of the Week or restaurant picks.
2. Try different mediums (text, audio, video) and vehicles (social, zine, texting).
   💭 Considerations: This is your opportunity to experiment. Measure reach and notice what types worked, or didn’t, and why.
3. Don’t break the bank or anyone’s back.
   💭 Considerations: Make sure the process is a reasonable lift. Find partners to help and collaborate inside and outside the news organization.

Design for joy

Think of complex goodness. As a news organization, you want to create an authentic feeling of pride from belonging to a community. What makes people love the place they live?

Build structures/processes that promote wonder

The question: Are there places in your newsroom process to inject questions around surprise and wonder?

The exercise: In a meeting, ask what has been surprising and what people are curious about when it comes to that community.

1. Make room in the conversation for those who have experiences outside of work in those communities.
   💭  Considerations: Having multiple lenses weigh in creates the potential for expanded thought and surprise.
2. Consider asking sources similar questions (or conduct a survey) and bring what you learned back to the group.
   💭  Considerations: This could be the last question reporters ask during an interview as a part of building their own story list. This is good for the group as well as the individual contributor.

Build a fresh perspective into your system

The question: How do you get fresh takes on beats and break through territorialism in the newsroom?

The exercise: Experiment with beat swaps, mentorships and partnerships

1. Partner on stories across departments.
   💭 Considerations: Sometimes stories fall between departments. This is a great time to have two reporters experience their beats through another reporter’s eyes.
2. Mentor to bridge generational gaps.
   💭 Considerations: Mentorship can come from anywhere in the organization. Both parties learn something; either historical context or different ways of seeing the same thing.
3. Build opportunities to combat burnout.
   💭 Considerations: Some beats have high turnover rates due to their intensity. Building in breaks with clear handoffs could bring new perspectives to the beat but also give much-needed rest. There has to be trust with all involved for this to work well.

If you want to dig deeper, here are some more resources and examples of newsrooms doing this work:

• Experiments don’t always go according to plan. Here’s how to keep projects on track.
• Local newsrooms should have more fun. Your readers and your staff will thank you.
• 8 tips for hosting a successful, inclusive listening session
• 5 tips for starting a mentorship program, from The Seattle Times

Kyndell Harkness is an award-winning newsroom executive and culture strategist with over two decades of experience driving institutional change. Most of her career was spent at the Minnesota Star Tribune before starting her own consulting business, Infinite Voices. Harkness still calls Minneapolis home with her wife and teenage son.