This document discusses community engagement strategies for news organizations. It defines community engagement as making listening, joining, leading, and enabling conversation a top priority to elevate journalism. It identifies three types of engagement: outreach, conversation, and collaboration. The document provides examples of avenues for engagement like social media, content submissions, interactive content, and in-person events. It advocates using a blog network and crowdsourcing to bring more voices into news reports and engage the community. Tips are provided on setting expectations and guidelines for crowdsourcing.

1. Why We Engage
Steve Buttry
University of Texas-Arlington Shorthorn
August 14, 2012
#utashorthorn

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com
• zombiejournalism.com

3. What engagement is
Community engagement = News orgs make
top priority to listen, to join, lead & enable
conversation to elevate journalism.

4. What engagement isn’t
• Promotion (though it has promotional
value)
• Distribution of content (though you
should)
• Purely a digital pursuit (it uses digital
tools along w/ traditional ones)

5. What engagement is
Community engagement = News orgs
make top priority to listen, to join,
lead & enable conversation to elevate
journalism.

6. 3 types of engagement *
• Outreach
• Conversation
• Collaboration
* Joy Mayer, Reynolds Journalism Fellow,
University of Missouri

7. Avenues of Engagement
• Social media • Content submissions
• Blogs • Interactive content
• Crowdsourcing • Voting, contests
• Breaking news • Comments
• Stories • Schools, groups
• Events • Feedback
• Curation • Print
• Aggregation • Face to face

8. Blog network
• Covers areas newspapers don’t cover
• Varied voices
• Recruit blogs overlapping your beats
• Offer clubs liveblogging opportunities
• Organizational newsletters

9. Don’t forget IRL
Engage community in person:
• Events
• Tweetups
• Community group meetings
• In work, life routines

11. Why crowdsource?
• It saves time
• Connecting with sources has always been
one of a journalist’s most important jobs
• You bring more voices to your news
reports
• The crowd knows more than we do
• You engage the community

12. Set the stage
• Build engaged community (follow
people, converse with them)
• Use multiple platforms (Twitter,
Facebook, website, blog, newspaper, IRL)
• Do the groundwork (don’t expect the
public to do your job; invite them to tell
their stories)

13. Crowdsourcing tips
• Say what you know
• Say what you want to know
• Say what you don’t know
• Don’t spread rumors; seek confirmation,
information
• Vet sources & information

14. Throughout the process
• Seek story ideas & tips
• Ask questions as you gather info
• Share data with community
• Ask public to continue the conversation

15. Varying situations
• Investigations
• Breaking news

16. @statesman case study

17. Crowdsource

18. Crowdsource

19. Say what you don’t know

20. Varying situations
• Investigations
• Breaking news
• Annual, seasonal stories
• Community info
• Crowdmaps
• Supplement staff work
• Seek photos

21. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com
• zombiejournalism.com