Methodology: Public Layers and Five Steps
An important related question to ask about the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is what sources are typically used to determine what stories it publishes. For better or worse, journalists depend on finding people with the best perspective on the issues on which they wish or are assigned to report. Gillis and Moore (2003) are helpful in describing which sources journalists most often use to identify stories and report on them. The scholars suggest that journalists may best serve the public by identifying the issues important to its agenda (pp. 5, 11).
For example, journalists typically make choices about the sources they choose to interview or draw story ideas from. Gillis and Moore agree with the Pew Foundation that there are five basic types of sources (p. 12):
The problem is, the critics say, that most often journalists venture to the first and last groups to get their story. Gillis and Moore suggest a five-step process that beginning journalists can use to identify what is important to a community: 1) specify a particular community, 2) hold newsroom conversations about contacts in the community, 3) determine what is that needs to be investigated for the story, 4) talk to everyday leaders in the community, and 5) “interview people, not just in those public places, but make this a public process for encountering and talking with the citizenry” (p. 13).
As a faculty member of the Diederich College of Communication, I often observe weekly NNS staff meetings in its newsroom, and otherwise interact with its editor-in-chief and staff enough to know it aims to talk with people who are not necessarily official. But from which of the five groups does NNS most draw its reporting?
For example, journalists typically make choices about the sources they choose to interview or draw story ideas from. Gillis and Moore agree with the Pew Foundation that there are five basic types of sources (p. 12):
- Official – those people who are part of the political system or recognized leaders of institutions in society.
- Quasi-Official – organizations or people involved in the community, but not necessarily representatives of either national or local government. These people tend to be considered “leaders” by the community but not by the office held.
- Third Places – or people who congregate in those places where people gather informally, like churches, community events, schools, etc.
- Incidental Places – where people talk informally with one another, such as on the sidewalk, at the market, or at a coffee shop.
- Private Places – in the privacy of one’s home; in people’s own private lives.
The problem is, the critics say, that most often journalists venture to the first and last groups to get their story. Gillis and Moore suggest a five-step process that beginning journalists can use to identify what is important to a community: 1) specify a particular community, 2) hold newsroom conversations about contacts in the community, 3) determine what is that needs to be investigated for the story, 4) talk to everyday leaders in the community, and 5) “interview people, not just in those public places, but make this a public process for encountering and talking with the citizenry” (p. 13).
As a faculty member of the Diederich College of Communication, I often observe weekly NNS staff meetings in its newsroom, and otherwise interact with its editor-in-chief and staff enough to know it aims to talk with people who are not necessarily official. But from which of the five groups does NNS most draw its reporting?