This week’s action: Identify an expert to help you address a challenge your newsroom frequently encounters.
Addressing systemic local news issues, such as building trust or overcoming polarization, can be more effective and sustainable when part of your approach includes learning from outside experts, who can help surface new methodologies or approaches.
Integrating support from non-news experts into your experiments or problem-solving can be done in practical ways. The Local Media Association’s Covering Climate Collaborative paired participants with scientists to help communicate the science of climate change more clearly. Solutions Journalism Network’s Complicating the Narratives frameworks teach journalists how to use conflict mediation techniques to surface deeper truths about the communities they cover. And jesikah maria ross’ Care Collaboratory work shares insights from facilitators and scholars on convening with care.
Longer-term research collaborations can inform your work as well. The Oklahoma Media Center worked with local academics to study media trust in the state, resulting in grant and training programs to address the findings. Researchers did similar work in Charlotte, N.C., to map the local news ecosystem. Trusting News regularly points to research for the individual recommendations it makes and has built resources based on collaborations with researchers.
Try it out
Start here: Pick a consistent communication challenge or trust gap your newsroom regularly encounters. Identify three types of experts, frameworks or perspectives from outside of journalism that might help you understand the underlying issues and how to navigate the challenge.
Take action: Find an expert or organization to engage with. Consider those involved in the research you identified last week, someone at a local university or even a past source. If you’re stuck, check out the Local Media Association or Solutions Journalism Network collaborations mentioned above.
Reflect: What might it look like to engage this expert effectively and sustainably — would you bring them in for a one-time training or assessment or have them on-call once you’ve established a relationship? How might that relationship evolve?
