April 2017 Nonprofit Journalism Engagement Case Studies Compiled by INN and Dot Connector Studio with support from the Democracy Fund 714 W. Olympic Blvd. #931, Los Angeles, CA 90015 (818) 582-3560 www.inn.org [email protected] @INN Introduction Community and public engagement projects are central to the public service journalism provided by many of INN’s 120+ member newsrooms. For nonprofit newsrooms, convening and engaging people around issues that shape public and civic life are increasingly critical parts of journalism as practiced today. They happen alongside journalists’ work to report and distribute information. These examples were collected to show the range of public engagement with news, to give nonprofit newsrooms a place to learn what others are doing and borrow ideas that may be adaptable to their own communities. INN would like to thank Jessica Clark and Katie Donnelly of Dot Connector Studio for compiling and summarizing these projects and the Democracy Fund for its support. Some of these projects were supported by INNovation Fund grants from INN and financed by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Democracy Fund. Sue Cross CEO and Executive Director 1 Case Study Summaries Arizona Center for Investigative Bitch Media: New Membership Reporting Engagement Via Hearken The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting Bitch Media set out to uncover whether audience created the AZ Dark Money Twitter bot, which engagement platform Hearken improved automatically retrieved campaign finance filings engagement and/or increased membership for “dark money” sources filed with the Arizona among users. Over the course of the experiment, Secretary of State’s Office, extracted relevant Bitch Media published 20 pieces of content that information, and then tweeted the information were prompted by a Hearken question and found to Arizona citizens interested in anonymous that Hearken-prompted content was 125 percent campaign spending. More than 400 people more engaging than non-Hearken prompted followed @AZDarkMoneyBot, and the tweets content. Other results revealed that Hearken generated more than 10,000 impressions, along users were 531 percent more likely to become with numerous news stories. members than non-Hearken users, and that users who signed up for the Bitch Media email list Arizona State University’s Walter while reading a Hearken-prompted story were 149 percent more likely to become members Cronkite School of Journalism than users who signed up through a non-Hearken and Mass Communication path. The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University used the Beacon CALMatters crowdfunding platform to raise more than $50,000 CALmatters is using “Open Reporting” to to support student journalists traveling to the demystify the reporting process for readers by border to interview U.S. and Mexican residents. sharing behind-the-scenes information, such as The school also conducted the first poll of border first-person accounts of reporter experiences. residents in 15 years, revealing the opinions of Readers are invited to engage in the process by nearly 1,500 residents in 14 U.S. and Mexico sharing their own ideas, experiences, data and cities on critical border and immigration issues. information sources. CALMatters recently saw The border poll received widespread attention strong reader response to Open Reporting when from national news outlets including Arizona’s an education reporter wrote about her upcoming PBS newscast, which reaches more than one piece on the need for greater fiscal transparency million viewers each week, as well as extensive in how school districts use local school funding, coverage on Univision, which reaches 94.1 million highlighting the challenges she had in tracking households across the country. The school down the money. Within a day, her post sparked experimented with social media advertising to engagement on social media and she received share the lessons learned from the project. several offers from readers to help her follow the money and sort through information. 2 Capital of Texas Media Chalkbeat Foundation/Austin Monitor: Chalkbeat partnered with a reputable storytelling Story Map organization to recruit five storytellers to share their experiences with schools in Detroit in an Story Map is a mapping tool that uses in-story event for 300 Detroit education stakeholders. The geocode integration to highlight the direct event also included a booth to film additional geographic relevance of news coverage. The stories on the spot. The storytellers were mostly Austin Monitor aimed to use the tool to increase people in the community whose voices are site traffic and turn readers into subscribing often not heard in the public conversation on customers. Although they were unable to Detroit’s schools. This launch event proved to generate an increase in subscribers, they did be an effective way to introduce the community see a significant increase in time spent on the to Chalkbeat and to start building trust and site, indicating that the tool remains a way to relationships that will eventually lead to sources keep people reading—and reading material they and readership. otherwise might not discover. The Austin Monitor will continue to geotag relevant stories, and Story Map will continue to have a prominent place on City Limits/Arts at the Limits its website. City Limits created the Arts at the Limits series, which actively engaged readers by encouraging Center for Michigan/Bridge them to submit their own stories and artwork highlighting their city experiences. In addition to Magazine collecting readers’ art and stories and featuring Throughout 2016, the Center for Michigan’s them on social media, City Limits also created engagement team led in-person discussions a map of outer borough art galleries where and phone polls about public trust in state readers could submit their favorite hidden gems. government services to inform their latest City Limits connected with diverse partners on citizens’ agenda, Fractured Trust: Lost Faith in this initiative such as CUNY’s Graduate School State Government, and How to Restore It. More for Journalism, New York City Artists, NYC Art than 5,000 Michigan residents participated, and Collective, Impact Hub NYC, and many more. the report was distributed to every state legislator Facebook posts on the series reach an average of and member of the governor’s team. Over the 550 people. past five years, stories and ideas through these public engagement campaigns have resulted in countless stories in Bridge, as they allow Bridge reporters to hear directly from hundreds of communities across the state. The Center’s public engagement activities have reached more than 40,000 people to date, and have provided public momentum for policy change aligned with citizen views. 3 City Limits/ZoneIn Current ZoneIn is a City Limits initiative designed to Current has initiated several community cover the de Blasio administration’s proposed engagement projects, including The Pub, a re-zoning plan and actively engage with podcast featuring provocative commentary affected community members. The website and conversation about public media mission, includes multiple ways for readers to easily ethics, people, strategy, and future. Current submit questions, comments, ideas, story tips, has held live broadcasts of the podcast, which and op-eds, including a phone hotline. City attract 30-70 people per event and have helped Limits produces targeted print newsletters for grow the listenership to over 10,000 listens per neighborhoods lacking easy internet access. month, while giving Current a chance to interact So far, they have also produced 15 podcasts with readers in a deeper way. The podcast has about housing issues and 14 videos dealing with shifted Current’s role in the public media space housing as well as Spanish translations of key by attracting a loyal following of millennials articles. Distribution for the latest print newsletter and public media mavericks. Current’s latest in Downtown Far Rockaway exceeded 1,700 community engagement project is called “I am copies, 650 of which were entirely in Spanish. Public Media” (#iampublicmedia) and involves Other content has reached tens of thousands and sharing the stories of people who work in public City Limits reports large narrative shifts following media each week, shining a light on the faces of coverage of critical issues. public media at a time when funding is at risk. CivicStory Georgia Public Broadcasting/ CivicStory.org partnered with Summit Greenfaith Listening Post Macon Circle, an organization that includes six local Listening Post Macon used text messaging houses of worship, to convene Summit’s and community outreach tactics to inform Sustainable Future, a public event featuring a and engage community members in a weekly diverse group of eight speakers, ranging from conversation about emerging stories and issues. local leaders to high school students, who The project reached 1600 engaged citizens who discussed ways to live sustainably 10 years from signed up to receive weekly text messages with now. The event, which included a Q & A and a mix of news and questions designed to draw lively informal post-event discussions, attracted them out on various (often difficult) subjects. 60 people and helped launch the “public The Listening Post feed was also embedded input” phase of the city’s 10-year Master Plan on a website for the greater public. The project re-examination. A 30-minute video of the event resulted in successful