Building a Sustainable Listening Practice

Participants:

Sadie Scott – Listening Post Collective/The Frontline Observer, sadieevescott@gmail.com
Jacqué Palmer – Houston Landing, msjacquepalmer@gmail.com
Sydney Blakeney – Internews, sblakeney@internews.org

Holistic listening practice

Needs assessment for Houstonians
What does your life look like day to day as a Houstonian?
Newsroom hotline is just for members
Different levels of listening opportunities based on where you are in the funnel
Trying to ensure everyone who comes to the meeting feels heard
In-person monthly office hours with pre- and post-surveys—measuring for trust and transparency
Keeping the office hours small—max 25 people so people feel heard and seen
Different groups of folks every time
Groups outside of the metropolitan area can’t necessarily access it
Bridge Michigan is doing smth similar
Resistance comes from legacy thought patterns and decision making frameworks
25% membership, 25% foundations, 25% grants, 25% corporate funding
Sitting people down who have been through the process to check in about what they need
Consistent opportunities for connection
FilmAid network: https://www.filmaid.org/filmaid-network-fan
Building an online community
Engaging youth and their media is part of building a sustainable listening practice
Long-term investments are necessary
Educational Youtube videos
Google Doc — put in the sheet what you need answers to
Make surveys as short and sweet as possible (reduce friction)
1-1 Zoom chats about local news needs

Market research
Community-centric fundraising uses very different language
How do we incentivize funding for listening?
Information ecosystems — large needs assessments
Individuals are funded to do months of research so they can present the data to donors
Givewell
Matchmaking for donors and journalists
Sharktank but equitable and for individuals?
Digitalwomenleaders.com free mentoring for/from women in digital media

Journalists would be incentivized to listen face-to-face if there’s an opportunity
Listening improves the quality of our news and the environment it exists in
Creating an ethic of care
Helping journalists be of service
Where is the “Hippocratic oath” for journalists?
Turn us towards care and community
We need a new system of ethics in journalism that is relevant today