Gretchen A. Peck | For Editors and Publishers
Good things come from great partnerships. That was the case with a student at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he is a faculty advisor and project manager at Wick Communications, a community news media publisher headquartered in Arizona. — gathered for a meaningful look at local Arizona news.
The year-long Voices Listening Project (VLP) focused on small communities with a population and circulation of less than 50,000. This project was funded by the Google New Initiative’s 2021 North American Innovation Challenge program.
The VLP sought to answer three questions:
- How do people interact with information?
- How can local journalism combat misinformation within the community?
- How can journalism engage audiences and build credibility?
Researchers received 1,638 responses to the online survey and conducted over 218 face-to-face interviews and 52 via videoconference in English and Spanish. And they made over a dozen outreach trips to his three communities, specifically Tucson, Safford, and Maryvale. The VLP research concluded in December 2022 and culminated in a white paper available at voiceslisteningproject.org.
At the Graham County Fair on October 7, 2022 in Safford, Arizona, Abhijith Ajith (middle), a graduate student and user experience researcher at Arizona State University, spoke with members of the community. Residents’ social media usage and online news consumption habits. (Photo credit: Riley Niedler/Voices Listening Project)
“Misinformation and prejudice — terms that respondents often use interchangeably — are persistent concerns, with ‘a lot of misinformation’ in all forms of media, including television, radio, news websites and social media. It is consistent with the widespread perception that,” the group explained. in the executive summary.
Community members shared the lack of good sources of local news. Spanish-speaking participants reported language barriers to accessing local news.
They found that technical barriers were less of a concern.
“More than 85% of respondents said that using technology came naturally or very naturally. Social media was the most common way people interacted with others within their communities (71.6 %).The majority of respondents use mobile apps, radio or podcasts, websites, video/TV, and email to access local news,” reports the VLP.
Student researchers, including Daniel Ogas (center left) and Mingson Lau (center right), attend the final of the Voices Listening Project at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in Phoenix on Friday, December 2, 2022. I have arrived at the meeting. This year-long project of his focuses on researching news consumption and misinformation in Arizona. (Photo credit: Riley Niedler/Voices Listening Project)
“Relevance, representativeness and diversity of perspectives were most valued by respondents by respondents when it comes to what maintains or increases their trust in local news,” the group found. “Efforts to increase transparency and engagement were less common, such as providing more ways to provide feedback and knowing which reporters were covering the community. Notably, 35% of respondents said that not having to pay for news helps them maintain or improve trust, compared to only 8.2% who said paying for news helps It is an opinion that highlights the challenges of sustainable business models.”
VLP was not just academic. Wick Communications has already put some insights into action. They are developing the next-generation NABUR (Neighborhood Alliance for Understanding and Respect) platform that incorporates NewsGuard, an independent journalist-run rating system that determines the truthfulness and credibility of informational websites. increase.
“We are also working with content management system provider BLOX Digital to build some of the article-level functionality that came out of this project,” reports the Wick Communications team. “First on the list is the ‘Reporting Process’ text block, which gives the reader an overview of the steps the author took to obtain the article.”
The project also proved practical for ASU student-researchers with “the ultimate experiential learning experience,” the group concluded. The white paper’s authors say, “The strength of this project stems from the student’s fresh perspective, commitment to respecting the communities involved, and dedication to tackling the challenges facing her local news environment.” I was there,” he said.
Gretchen A. Peck is a Contributing Editor at Editor & Publisher. She has been reporting to her E&P since her 2010 and welcomes her comments. gretchenapeck@gmail.com.
