Engaging the people of Philadelphia through newsrooms

Of course, crowdsourcing stood out to me among the list of ways the newsroom can engage with its readers and with the community to involve them in the decision making process. I think the most relevant example for what we are doing is something like the Curious City example. Engaging the public in questions and polls and getting their feedback is vital to make sure this is a community solution and not just something created by a group of journalism students in the classroom without any sort of connection to the public. When it impacts the public, the public needs to be looped in so that the solutions journalism is as comprehensive as possible, not perfect, bur comprehensive.

Co-production was another method that stood out to me because I don’t think you can really get to the heart of the problem with addiction unless you’re listening to people’s stories. If we listen to people’s stories who have been through it, and a large portion of them say, “oh, I’ve tried fill in the blank here, and it didn’t work.” that’s solid information for our stories and project that maybe a solution isn’t working. Then, you could see what that solution looks like in other areas, how it’s different and succeeding or not succeeding to see how Philadelphia could modify it.

Inclusion is also very important because sometimes people who have an addiction are thought of as lesser, but there is no solutions project without talking to those going through it and to those who have gone through it.

Brianna Cicero

Brianna is a senior journalism major at Temple University with a concentration on Editorial Management. She is currently a Content Strategist Intern and Editor-in-Chief for Odyssey, the Editorial Director of Temple's chapter of Spoon University and the Deputy Director of Parliament Communications for Temple Student Government. This past summer, Brianna worked for her local, hometown paper, LNP and LancasterOnline, covering events and issues important to the people of Lancaster County. She is also a 2016 alumna of The Fund For American Studies' Institute on Political Journalism where she covered the 2016 election in Washington D.C for a political startup, The Stream, as well as attended briefings at publications like The Washington Post. In addition, she has previously served as a contributor for BuzzFeed, was a staff reporter for Eastern University's newspaper, The Waltonian, and was the EditorinChief of Eastern's literary magazine, Inklings. Contact Brianna at [email protected] .