{"id":25,"date":"2015-10-03T17:19:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T17:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/how-do-we-truly-listen-to-communities\/"},"modified":"2015-10-03T17:19:46","modified_gmt":"2015-10-03T17:19:46","slug":"how-do-we-truly-listen-to-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/2015\/10\/03\/how-do-we-truly-listen-to-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do We Truly Listen To Communities?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Session Hosts: Andrew Haeg and Linda Miller<br \/>\nReporter: Burgess Brown<br \/>\nParticipants: (apologies for misspellings)<br \/>\nMarissa Gass<br \/>\nNathan Stevens<br \/>\nJoy Mayer<br \/>\nRachel LaChappelle<br \/>\nSean O\u2019Connor<br \/>\nSami Edge<br \/>\nTom Glasyer<br \/>\nJim Cyngler<br \/>\nLaura Loforti<br \/>\nStephen Silha<br \/>\nJacki Hai<br \/>\nSydette Harry<br \/>\nMichelle Ferrier<br \/>\nAmalia Alarcon Morris<br \/>\nBill Bazenberg<br \/>\nAndrew Devigal<br \/>\nJo Ellen Green Kaiser<br \/>\nSamantha Shotzbarger<br \/>\nJerry Millhon<br \/>\nTom Stites<br \/>\nLinda Miller<br \/>\nMitch Fantin<br \/>\nSarah Loose<br \/>\nBurgess Brown<br \/>\nEmmalee McDonald<\/p>\n<p>Our session began with posing questions as we attempted to define what \u2018listening\u2019 looks like for journalists. Here are some that were asked throughout the session: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are questions that you can ask that people who often aren\u2019t heard WANT to answer vs. the question you         want to ask?<\/li>\n<li>How do you prepare to listen to a community that you don\u2019t share a life experience with?<\/li>\n<li>How are we listening in a way that allows us to interpret the structures around us in our community?<\/li>\n<li>How do we repair the relationship that has been caused by journalism in marginalized communities?<\/li>\n<li>Can journalists help community members listen to one another?<\/li>\n<li>What if journalism is not the product- the product is conversation and journalism chronicles it?<\/li>\n<li>What is the artifact we want to coalesce around in the future if we want engagement to be the product?<\/li>\n<li>We have a lens that we listen through and can\u2019t help but interpret and filter what we hear through our own    experience. How do we know we got it right? How do we know we are interpreting correctly and accurately?<\/li>\n<li>Within a community there are layers and layers of lived experience. How do we accurately represent the layers  of  a community and not as a monolith?<\/li>\n<li>How do we turn journalism around and allow people to tell their own story and have that carry the same weight?<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s the responsibility to understand your own privilege? You can\u2019t understand the truth if you can\u2019t  understand your privilege.<\/li>\n<li>The article is a structure created for expediency- what are the other structures we can create to better represent  all voices? Lets look at structures that remove us as gatekeepers and filters.<\/li>\n<li>What is news and who gets to decide what that is?<\/li>\n<li>When and where do I enter? Journalism often shows up on the worst day people\u2019s lives. How does that affect  how we relate to people?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We certainly didn\u2019t come up with answers to all these questions but some great thoughts\/advice\/practices  developed: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Social media is performance but we want to listen authentically to personal stories that often aren\u2019t shared on  instagram.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t think as a journalist about extracting stories from people- but meeting them where they are and letting them dictate their own story.<\/li>\n<li>Just because you throw open the door and say \u201cwe\u2019re ready to listen\u201d doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve built trust or are truly  engaging.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t \u201cotherize\u201d community members: make them a part of the team.<\/li>\n<li>Focus on the differences between \u2018interviewing\u2019 someone and \u2018listening\u2019 to them.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe, as journalists, often think we know what a community wants and neglect to just let them tell us want the  want\u201d<\/li>\n<li>There can\u2019t be authentic listening if there isn\u2019t authentic speaking on the part of the community because of a lack of trust.<\/li>\n<li>Give the power we have back to the community and allow them to tell their own story.<\/li>\n<li>Improve journalism by inviting communities to be part and parcel of journalism.<\/li>\n<li>Be aware of your lenses so that you can help others to do the same and navigate their conflict.<\/li>\n<li>You don\u2019t have to package what you hear. Your best successes can come from presenting the raw of what you hear.<\/li>\n<li>As we move through exciting new tech portals we must keep in mind that there are, and will always be, people without access to that tech so we must ensure those voices are still heard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As we wrapped up we circled around the idea that listening and engagement should not be a concept that serves the story, but that stories should be in service to what has been heard. We must also constantly check our motives for engagement, its impact in a community, and what we are giving in return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Session Hosts: Andrew Haeg and Linda Miller Reporter: Burgess Brown Participants: (apologies for misspellings) Marissa Gass Nathan Stevens Joy Mayer Rachel LaChappelle Sean O\u2019Connor Sami Edge Tom Glasyer Jim Cyngler Laura Loforti Stephen Silha Jacki Hai Sydette Harry Michelle Ferrier &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/2015\/10\/03\/how-do-we-truly-listen-to-communities\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post","tag-listening"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalismthatmatters.org\/experienceengagementsessionnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}