Reporting for the People: Hearken and Journalism as a Service
Brilliant idea: Ask people what they want to know
Social journalism is all about involving communities in the reporting process, before anything actually gets reported. So, it makes sense that a digital tool like Hearken — which empowers regular folks to decide the news that matters to them — would work so perfectly in today’s newsrooms. Hearken makes it equally easier and harder to be a good journalist. Sure, you’ll have to ignore your ego and all those frivolous things you’d love to report on, but Hearken allows you to sit back, relax and watch as a wave of potential stories roll in.
Sadly, it’s not that simple.
The one thing I didn’t expect when I let my Hearken Curiosity Module (below) free to the world, was how complicated it seemed to be to pretty much everyone. I thought my prompt was simple enough — “What questions do you have about ethical and sustainable fashion?” — yet, everyone seemed totally stumped. “What do you mean ethical fashion?” “What do you want me to do again?” “What is this for?” “Hmmm, I don’t know. I don’t think I have the time.”
Who doesn’t have time to ask a question? After I explained Hearken to my contacts, my Tumblr followers, and anyone left in my email address book, I started to see questions rolling in. I received five questions in total, mostly from people I knew personally:
- Do you believe fashion is a representation of an individual or simply a trend that continuously repeats itself? — Arielle
- How much time does one have to put into one’s work, in order to achieve successful and sustainable fashion produce? — Schedar
- Who governs fashion? Who decides what’s the new trend? — Dorothy
- Why isn’t there a more vigorous used clothing market in the United States? — Bob
- How do you know if a brand is ethical just by walking in? Is there anyway to push for more companies to be use more ethical measures? — Ciera
Ultimately, I chose to answer Ciera’s question, because I felt it encompassed equally what the people want to know (Bob and Schedar’s question both related to sustainability in some way) and what I wanted to report on. Initially, I was hesitant to use Hearken, because I was worried that random sort of ‘common people’ questions, would drive me away from the prospective scope of my story. Instead, I found myself reporting solutions, rather than simply summarizing ethical fashion and sustainability — which is what I originally was intending to writing about. I thought, they’re going to ask me what ethical fashion is, and I’m going to serve them a history of this topic, something that I myself am new to.
Ciera’s question forced me to research ethical fashion in a way I wasn’t quite prepared to at the time; thinking about it beyond ethics and history, to a more current, ‘who’s doing something about it’ narrative. There was a lot of catching up to do (made more difficult by all the other newsworthy topics I’ve been covering this semester), but when I became informed, so did Ciera, and our mutual education did not go unnoticed (left).
By allowing communities to drive the conversation, Hearken incentivizes journalists to be a little less lazy with their reporting. When you’re not just following leads, and have someone tangible beyond your intuition to answer to, there’s an energizing sense of urgency in your reporting. For me, this meant informing Ciera, and other Hearken contributors, about my progress and the answers I came across. This not only strengthens your commitment to a story, it also strengthens the bond between you and your community — a community that now sees you as a resource and a collaborator, not just another arbiter of the news.
In our texts, Ciera messaged me about watching the documentary, The True Cost, and her new resolve to shop ethically. This is the best response a journalist can hope for. And, I’m sure it’s not the response I would’ve have gotten if I’d done things the old fashioned way.
