Microphones Off, Listening Ears On
“Listening Ears” are what elementary school teachers call regular ears when prepping students to listen carefully to instructions.

After participating in lengthy class discussions about every possible theory on engagement journalism, where does a new journalist begin to practice what she has learned? Given that I will be working in the large community of public education, I am eager to start listening to the residents (teachers, students, and parents) of my neighborhood in Bushwick to get a better idea of what my narrowed community will look like, and what specific issues I will address.
Though there are many models to follow within the format of design thinking (the Seattle Times’ Education Lab comes to mind), I want to practice what feels most authentic to my community. However, this does not mean I will go into battle without a plan of attack. This series of steps, modeled after The Listening Post Collective, is how I will structure the beginning of my community engagement work:
- Research and Listen
(Or “Information Ecosystem Assessment” as Jesse Hardman once called it) This phase of informal listening and spending time in my community is vital to understanding the concerns of the people who are going to be affected by my journalism. This stage is how I make sure that my future work is going to matter to my audience. Since the goal here is to learn through observation (sin notebook and recording equipment) I want to go to the places where the residents in my neighborhood naturally congregate without being too invasive:
- Irving Square Park: This public park down the street from my apartment, sits at the center of many residential streets and is often occupied by an array of groups including families, teenagers, and elderly people. It is also right in front of the Bushwick Ascend Charter school, which I am interested in learning more about. This park on any given Saturday is bustling with birthday parties, barbecues, and good conversation. I think this would be a great place to set up a listening post or survey station.
- Brooklyn Public Library (Dekalb Branch): This public library is one I’ve been to a handful of times, and will hopefully be a great resource to find out about community education events. Perhaps I can even find actual students who give me some insight about their school experience.
- Wyckoff Heights Medical Center: On the cusp of Ridgewood and Bushwick, this medical center will hopefully be a place where I can find real families in the community. Though this is not the most social setting, I want to find out a little more about health care in my community in addition to education.
- Lavandaria Express: My local laundromat is often filled with people in the neighborhood who have nothing to do except talk and wait for their clothes to dry. When I first moved to Bushwick, I had a conversation with a local about a school that was abusing the funding they received for students with disabilities. According to her, this was a common issue in some of the public schools. I want to gain more insight like this to help clarify the issues plaguing this neighborhood.
- Bed-Stuy Fish Fry: Okay, this location is a bit self-serving. I’ve always wanted to go here because it is known as the best fish fry in Bed-Stuy (definitely the best name). But, I also want to extend my listening to other close-by neighborhoods, and not restrict myself to what is immediately available in Bushwick.
- Stuyvesant Heights Montessori: I don’t know if I will be able to visit schools directly, but I am curious about which families are choosing to send their children to alternative schools such as this one and why.
- Christ Tabernacle Bushwick: There are A LOT of churches in the Bushwick and Bed-Stuy neighborhoods, I want to make it a point to visit at least one.
- Local Bars and Pubs: I want to note one thing I’ve noticed about my neighborhood — all of the bars are frequented by people my age, which is fine, but I know for a fact that older people drink alcohol too. I don’t know if there is a local bar for residents, or if visiting bars is just not something many locals are doing due to their financial situation. I am not assuming this, but I’ve noticed that many residents choose to hang out and socialize in front of their homes instead of at the bars.
2. Survey and Collect Data
After doing the informal research, I will need to gain a deeper understanding of how my community collects and shares information. With this step I want to learn where people get their news, what sources they trust, and if there is a need for a new information sharing system. I will most likely adapt my survey off of this one made by the Listening Post Collective. From doing a small amount of research, I know that there is at least one news publication dedicated to all things Bushwick, along with a handful of Bushwick sections in other daily news publications. There’s also an Instagram page dedicated to capturing the beauty in the neighborhood, as well as a Twitter page, that claims to report “the freshest independent news” from Bushwick. However, I want to know if these publications — that frankly feel quite millennial-esque — are reaching the majority of the working class people who live in Bushwick.
3. Craft Meaningful Questions
In this step, I want to give people a chance to share their own experiences. I do not want to start a debate between people in the community by asking them their opinions on issues. Instead, I want to ask people to share personal responses to questions highlighting issues they may have encountered. I want people to feel that they are experts on issues such as education — simply because they have valuable insight on their own experiences. Here are some examples of questions I may ask my community:
- What kinds of schools are in your district?
- What is your experience like with public education in Bushwick?
- Which schools are deemed “good schools” in your district?
- What kinds of extracurricular programs are offered at your (or your child’s) school?
- What concerns you about your (or your child’s) school?
- How safe are the schools in your district?
- What do you think is being done to make public schools better in your district?

This is really as far ahead as I can plan in my design thinking process. I feel that my community will narrow and change after Step 1, and that hopefully by the time I am crafting questions, I will have a much better understanding of my community needs. I do, however, have some concerns going into this endeavor which of course means, another list!
- I am concerned that my community will be almost too “tight-knit” to dig deeper into. Meaning that as an interloper, I will not be able to access the true information that is being spread in say, a person’s private backyard. I really want to spend enough time informally collecting information to help combat this issue. I feel most people will only have genuine conversations with genuine people without an ulterior motive.
- Perhaps the daily news publications that exist within the community are doing enough work for the community, pushing my work to the sidelines. Maybe, there isn’t a need for an engagement journalist in my chosen community.
- My community changes unexpectedly. Maybe the information I collect leads me to another, more prevalent issue in the community that is not related to education. How will I handle that? Will I push forward with issues related to education because that is the field I comfortable working in?
- Listening ears get turned off, and problem-solving hat gets prematurely put on. I hope my desire to help solve issues doesn’t deter me from really listening to my community. I hope I don’t stop listening after the first problem presents itself.
- The issues are unsolvable because they are too rooted in policy. Will I be able to access an issue that I can get my hands around? Will all issues just be too large to try and tackle without the help of fundraising and more hands on deck? Will I be able to find an issue worth exploring as a journalist and not a social worker?
I have to say, writing out these concerns in a “listicle” is already helpful because, I can view them as individual challenges just waiting to checked off and conquered. I have to remember what drives me to want to help people in my chosen community, and that letting people share their experiences is more important that any solution I can think of on my own. Although I am mostly a pack of nerves at this point, a considerable part of me is excited to get out of my comfort zone and listen.
