Key Findings
Curious City found, as expected, that expanding the base of residents from which it sourced increased the variety of ideas and questions generated. While outreach to residents who were not familiar with WBEZ required a greater investment of time, the ideas these efforts yielded deviated from typical or expected ones and produced more novel questions. In addition, questions from previously underrepresented communities generated accountability stories (e.g., focusing on inequitable distribution of resources, local governance, etc.) grounded in local experiences.
Engagement efforts were most effective when online technologies were combined with face-to-face outreach. These were most efficient when Curious City partnered with local institutions with aligned missions.
The Curious City model and outreach efforts challenged standard journalistic practices around story selection by broadening the pool of possible story ideas. The resulting stories would have had difficulty making it through the normal editorial process (due to, for example, a lack of a time-sensitive news peg) had they not been nominated by a listener.
The Hearken platform is designed to strengthen links between media and the public. But in the case of Curious City, the platform was mostly used to engage the public in story selection and production—and less so for distribution and feedback due to a lack of in-community marketing.
Curious City’s outreach initiative also offered the possibility of strengthening storytelling network ties between regional media, hyper-local and ethnic media, and community organizations. Some connections were made that offer potential for future development. However, due to mission and resource priorities, these links were not prioritized as a goal in themselves.