BREAKOUT REPORT

Session two: March 2, 2010

• Facilitator: Esther Thorson, Missouri School of Journalism
• Scribe: Megan Brownell, Arizona Foundation

The Indexing Community Information Needs checklist (“communityinformationneedschecklistfeb10.doc”) is the taxonomy of communications and services in local communities. This tool can help you understand and realize the areas of your community in which communication is the key.

One of the things you want to map is who else is in the space – who else is trying to do things in your community and what are your communication channels with them? Synergy is key.

Esther Thorson emphasizes the importance of partnerships – with universities and colleges (particularly young students), who can help with data collection and guidance in digital communication. Communication, business and journalism departments are great resources. It is important to explain the community foundation business model so that the relationship does not become centered on the foundation funding university initiatives but rather on students assisting with research. Internship directors are a good resource.

Thorson also stresses the usefulness of consultants. Jan Schaeffer runs J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism. Her Web site contains great information on communication mapping and start-up ideas. Knight Foundation can connect with other consultants, and Knight circuit riders are very helpful.

The first section of the checklist looks at Legacy News Channels, also called mainstream media. Thorson suggests Placeblogger.com to find out by geographic region all of the start-up media entities and sites that exist. She also suggests talking to your major newspaper’s editorial board to determine if your organization’s interests and specialties are of interest to the newspaper. Most newspapers want to expand their reach, run special series, etc., so they may have an interest in the community foundation’s priority areas. One participant suggests taking the time to write up the things you want to submit to increase the chances of the piece running. One participant noted a sense of apathy on the part of legacy news channels in stories about community building because they may lack a tangible news hook.

Thorson recommends conducting an informal content audit, looking beyond what media is present and examining what is being talked about, the quality of coverage, topics being covered, how well the media is serving as a watchdog on topics such as politics, crime, development, business, government, etc.

It is critical to know the portion of your population with broadband access. Your local university may be able to help, the FCC has some broadband access maps, broadband providers’ Web sites allow for zip code searching and some county governments have GIS mapping and may be able to provide this information.

The next section of the checklist looks at Non-News Information, including public libraries, municipal government Web sites, chamber of commerce communication tools and other network communication tools. Look at how lively the discussion is about your area’s issues, and whether local TV stations give ordinary people a voice and a chance to contribute to the shared dialogue, etc.

Looking at local quality-of-life services (public programs, transportation, healthcare, legal and business services, entertainment, grocery/restaurant, religious services, etc.) and assessing how well these services are provided, how well their availability is communicated to the public, and how well these services are helping people cope with daily life are all integral to assessing the overall information flow within a community.

The next area of the checklist looks at Social Capital – a concept created by a sociologist named Coleman in the 1980s and popularized in America in the book, Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. He argued that just as there is financial capital, there is social capital – relationships of trust, nurturance and communication among people. He found that the richer those networks, the more successfully a community will function. He argued that social networks are coming apart and losing participants, but it turns out to be only partially true. He blamed TV for people’s self-isolation and subsequent breakdown of interpersonal relationships, but he turned out to be wrong. Research shows that the real culprit is entertainment (gaming, TV programming, non-news activities, etc.).

It’s important to measure social capital to get a more sophisticated view of how rich the trust is in a community, what the connections are and where the challenges lie in terms of community building. One participant notes that there is value in long-term online social relationships (Facebook, gaming, etc.) equal to real-world relationships, and research supports this.

Thorson recommends doing an informal mapping of communication opportunities and challenges in your local area, seeking help from natural partners to help you understand the potential of your information activities. Be strategic when choosing your communication projects; look at what’s already available, what’s missing and what you can best do to participate in the information ecology.

One participant asked: What is an aggregator? They are essentially people who “steal” content and put it on their site with proper attribution. Good aggregators help build audience for the content they aggregate (ex: Placeblogger.com) while some steal and display it as their own. The difference comes in why you bring it together and whether you’re generating income and following fair use standards.

Several resources were suggested by Thorson and participants, including:

In addition, the 2010 Census is expected to ask about Internet access, but we’re not sure if they’re asking about high-speed or broadband access, and how that is being defined (e.g., not all high-speed connections allow for access to high-end content).

One participant asks if it is the role of a community foundation to produce community news, or can we be more effective as a supporter of existing entities? Community foundation ties in the community don’t necessarily mean we have special ways of solving community information needs. Community foundations are being tasked with solving a wide range of social problems (education, environment, etc.), so how to know which to be? Thorson suggests there is great potential for synergy. Newspapers may not have time or resources to cover these critical topics, but community foundations can bring the combined knowledge of everyone participating in that field and aggregate that and then work with the local media to ensure the information gets out to the people. The key is to move information freely and not hoard.

Civic engagement and information are going to be key elements of any successful community foundation initiative. So rather that becoming a producer of news, it’s critical to know the information landscape and supplement it as needed to ensure the information facets of your initiatives are addressed.

One participant recommends looking at the Akron Community Foundation model: they are funding four people inside the newspaper to relate to those in the blogosphere to help them produce quality content. (Check with them for details.)

One participant notes that community foundations tend to be insular and have a reputation for being a clique. It wouldn’t hurt to get out stronger in the community, participate, build ties, etc.