Photo project (inspired by Stand’s Photo Walk on the Gather database): Invite participants to document their experiences with guns, schools, and guns in schools through photography. For instance, encourage students to take photos documenting times that they feel particularly safe or unsafe in their schools. Ask for notes on the images and how the pictures relate to subjects’ lived experiences with guns in schools. This project could also involve teachers or school safety officers as well as people who use guns in their daily lives. These images would be collected into a digital art/photo gallery. (Also, shout-out to Grace and her thesis for some inspiration here as well.)
Oral history (inspired by article about Gather): This idea is similar to the photo project, but this time the work is more about people speaking on their experiences with guns in schools. In an era of wide-spread access to technology, people can easily record themselves speaking on a subject. In lieu of formal interviews, people are tasked with telling their stories for as long and in as much detail as they feel is necessary. This takes cues from the Story Corp project and may even take the form of pieces like from the Moth podcast in which real people tell their own stories. Again, with permission of subjects, we would aim to publish the stories so that they can be shared with wider audiences.
A day in the life (inspired by SOJC engagement tips): Spend a day following various subjects around while they live their lives, with emphasis on the role that the issue of guns in schools may play in their decisions and actions. This would likely focus on specific stakeholders such as students, teachers, or campus safety officers for which this is topic is intimately relevant. In the cited article, this documentation was done by filmmakers, which may mean more hands-on work by us as reporters, although we could also consider arming subjects to document their own lives. Unlike the above two projects which focus on specific moments in time (and the oral history which tends to be more retrospective), this work focuses on capturing everything, including minutiae, and trying to get a more comprehensive view on the lives of subjects.
Engage subjects through puzzles/games (inspired by Austin Monitor’s Game Night on Gather database): In the cited article, subjects were tasked with trying to solve public issues through game-like simulations. In our case, this may involve asking participants to weight various factors such as security presence vs autonomy or asking participants to model their ideas for safer schools through proposing their own architectural designs for a hypothetical school. These games/puzzles may allow participants to take a step back from the more technical problem solving to take solution finding into their own hands. In this way, we involve constituents to come to their own conclusions on priorities.
“Ask a…” (inspired by ONA slide deck): Hold our own AMA-style event where people are allowed to ask questions of someone who works on the issue of guns in schools. This might include asking a student about what concerns they have for their safety so that those can be better addressed or asking school board members what issues they have to consider in their proposed solutions to hard questions. In doing this project, it would be important to make sure the person being asked questions is willing to be candid in talking to people who may have different backgrounds or understandings than they do. We also would need to vet questions before allowing them to be posed to subjects.
Besides the above, here are some other thoughts that I haven’t expanded on but want to make sure get documented -- A list of activity ideas: Conversation among people with different political views, collecting opinions through an online form/emailing us, encouraging sources to connect us to other people who they think may be stakeholders (engage the already existing network of contacts), collecting some form of geographic data, starting a hashtag. Miscellaneous best practices: Make sure to maintain some sort of advisory network of experts who can check our work, ensure that tests/trial runs take place before widespread dispersal, reward participants for their help, make sure to vary options for communication so that people who may not feel comfortable with one form of submission can still feel heard.
5-7 Ideas on how to approach guns in schools – practical strategies and crowdsourcing
1. Facebook (inspired by Mayer) Use Facebook to find different groups that may have opinions about guns in schools (lobbying groups, anti-gun violence groups, organizers/participators in March for Our Lives, Parents groups, etc). Reach out to these Facebook groups and try to get interviews/videos about their experiences and opinions about guns in schools. Use these stories to guide a documentary-like publication.
2. Video blog (Idea from Aitamurto article) Establish a blog website where people can share videos of their stories/opinions about guns in schools. We would then watch the videos and begin to come up with a story using what the public feels.
3. Talk to local stakeholders Go to Colorado Springs Public Schools and talk to administration, students and parents about this issue. Learn from them what their thoughts and experiences are with this. Talk to them about how their opinions have changed over time. See if they have ideas on preventative measures for guns in schools. Use their stories to guide our journalism.
4. Call to Action (inspired by class today) Research community organizations, lobbyists, PACS, etc. who are outspoken against guns in schools and speak to their leaders or members involved in the organizations. Use these interviews to educate viewers on what they can do to help prevent guns in schools. This idea is sparked from the fact that much of the information about guns in schools is sensational and not empowering. This would help give the public steps to do to start preventing more mass shootings.
5. Humans of New York Style FB posts (Garter by Kosa inspiration) Share stories/opinions of people with a Humans of NY style format. The goal of this would be to get a variety of stakeholders and share their perspectives in this format. This platform could allow us to get a variety of perspectives shared and a variety of people involved.
In considering the question “who might we engage and why?,” my mind immediately went to ‘young people’: current students in middle and high school, other fellow college students, and folks who just recently graduated college and/or left the school setting. I am particularly interested in this demographic for several reasons. One, I think traditional journalism often neglects those who are not in positions of power, and young people are a member of this category. Therefore, in the spirit of engaged journalism, I think it’s critically important we collaborate with those who have historically been rendered voiceless. Second, past and present students are some of the citizens most directly impacted by guns in schools and thus deserve a central role in our project in my opinion. And finally, I am quite interested in whether current middle and high school students versus older millennials have different connections with and perspectives on guns in school given the contexts we talked about today that characterized their ‘formative’ years (e.g., Columbine versus Parkland). While I do have this specific interest in mind going into this project, I do not believe it stands in contrast with the spirit of engaged journalism and collaboration. My solutions proposed below ultimately encourage our participants to lead the direction of conversation wherever they choose, and if our ‘findings’ so to speak help address my initial inquiry—great—but that is not the primary objective.
1. Snapchat: given 78% of U.S. Snapchat users are between 18-24 (https://www.omnicoreagency.com/snapchat-statistics/), I believe Snapchat is a crucial platform to use to engage young folks. Therefore, I propose we post a story to the ‘Discover’ section on Snapchat encouraging users to send us (the class Snapchat account) brief videos of them verbally exploring their connection with guns in school.
2. Facebook: (directly inspired by Vox’s Obamacare page from Gather) We could make a Facebook page specifically dedicated to current students who are directly (and presently) impacted by the debate surrounding guns in school where users can post, exchange information, engage in dialogue and build community with one another in an intentional space. We could invite our peers and encourage them to invite their peers and conceivably—hopefully—create a space with students from across the country.
3. Twitter: We could create a Twitter account where we pose a single broad question—“what is your connection with guns in schools?”—and have users send either short, written responses via tweets or video responses. In order to better target young folks, we could include them in our initial call (i.e., “current students and those who recently left school, what is your…?”). Per our conversations in class, the initial question needs to be broad enough so users and participants can direct the conversation whichever direction they so choose and so all potential contributors feel welcome and included.
4. Story Corps: (directly inspired by NPR’s Story Corps) I find NPR’s Story Corps program so incredibly powerful because it encourages conversation among people, which (based on my understanding) is one goal of the PBS project. Therefore, we could start a social media campaign on any of the aforementioned platforms and encourage young folks to talk with someone else—ideally another peer—about guns in schools and send us the audio recording.
5. Video/photo diaries: In addition to sending us videos of themselves exploring their connection verbally, participants could also send us photos and/or videos of their own schools and what that space shows about guns in schools. For example, students could send a picture going through a metal detector in the morning or a video of them during a lock down drill. While not directly addressing their perspectives, I believe these videos could illuminate their daily, lived experiences surrounding guns in schools in a deeply moving and revealing way.
1. Survey. I think it would be interesting to implement some sort of survey (via social media platforms?) getting some real data from people about their relations, experiences, stances, impacts, positionality, etc.
2. Art, creative submissions, writing, etc. Creating some sort of open forum/submission/space for those willing to participate. Maybe we could have an open theme/concept asking participants to create something, anything, that captures guns in schools. I think it would be interesting to see how people choose to tackle guns in schools through art (maybe a painting, a video, spoken word, mixed media, etc.). I believe that including b-rolls of the submissions with audio might contribute nicely to the RMPBS publication as well as encourage the public to use not just speak about, but express their take on guns in schools. This engages thought and creativity through not just words via interviews.
3. Today in class we talked about what "ideal" reporting of school shootings would look like. How soon does the story get released? Is mediatizing the shooting and the shooter directly after the shooting helpful? What might trauma-informed reporting look like? Who gets to the lip-service to speak on the matter students? parents? victims? youth? law enforcement? journalists?...We could first investigate and/or ask on social media what the general public thinks is most important and pertinent to coverage about guns in schools. After getting a better understanding of what people think is important to show/report we could use it to our benefit when reporting on guns in schools.
4. Snapchat- filters, geotags, etc. this would be an easy way to get an influx of participants from all over with a variety of connections to guns in schools. We might need to check the legality of using snapchats that have used the filter or tag in our project but it would allow a lot of voices (especially young voices)..and I feel like people are always swiping on their snapchat to see what geotags, filters, stickers, etc. are available!
5. Regarding Tanja Aitamurto's article on crowdsourcing and co-creation, I believe we should use horizontal transparency (public submissions) for open forums, social media campaigns, etc. because it is more conducive to getting further expertise, relevant information, and sparking conversations. I believe that we should use vertical transparency (private submissions) when it comes to surveys because I think more people would participate in a simple private survey with their results not being shared to every participant but being used to get broad statistics on the matter.
Anonymous Google survey: After obtaining a census of Colorado Springs citizens/Colorado College students and faculty, randomly select a sample of at least five hundred and create a simple survey about guns in schools, covering occupation, relation to guns in schools, if they know people who were personally involved in any school shootings including themselves, and other questions regarding policy about guns in schools, ideas about what to do to raise local awareness, etc. This data can be collected to show how local citizens feel, especially since this is about the anniversary of Columbine, and these citizens are closer.
Behind the scenes: With permission, interview police officers or campus safety officers about procedures in case/call of a school shooter. Also, interview experienced journalists about how they want/feel they should cover gun violence. Combined with these interviews, interview students/citizens about what they think that officers/reporters should do, opinions about their job. Organize a public forum on a local scale at least to address misconceptions and new ideas.
Gun trivia: Test the public knowledge in a game or survey regarding guns in schools, including questions about how many shootings have happened in the past ten years, school policies regarding guns in schools, laws about guns in schools, politicians’ standings, etc. After results are founded, have a small prize for the person who gets the most correct. Host a debriefing after the games where citizens can raise questions, bounce ideas, and learn more about guns in schools. Casual interviews at the event can be recorded.
Community letter: Put up a large poster, create an online forum for the college/town, and/or place boxes around town for citizens to place anonymous letters in. These letters can be to anyone, about anything related to gun violence in schools. They can be about policies they want to change, friends who are affected by guns in schools, or even just a rant, as long as they’re legit. A slideshow, art exhibit, or album of these letters can be created and shown to policy changers or given to PBS.
Word association: Create a public forum or create a poster on campus separated into different words, events, and people connected to gun violence in schools. People can come at their own time and write associations with each topic that’s put up. Members of the class can be at the scene in shifts, and interview willing participants about what they wrote up and why. These interviews can be brought together with pictures of the poster or screenshots from the forum.
1. Having accounts on all social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to be able to provide constant updates and fun things about the project to make the process more personably and accessible. Make posts asking people open-ended questions about their experiences or opinions on guns in schools or just overall about guns. 2. Create a public forum so that people can make posts and communicate with each other in an open manner. This could mean making a new Subreddit, or making a Facebook group for people to be able to talk in. Having interaction between lots of people is important for engaged journalism, and it's super easy with a Subreddit or Facebook group. 3. ZEIT Germany idea of organizing a meet-up separate from the community-based discussion. Their idea was to get people to meet up and have one-on-one conversations to get deeper into an issue than people might be able to if it's just an overall discussion with a lot of people. 4. Google forms was mentioned above but I also saw it on Gather- great way to anonymously gather a ton of information about people and their opinions. Getting a baseline of thoughts and ideas before people meet up in person would be effective for making the best discussions and problem-solving sessions possible. 5. Start an email newsletter full of people's stories. Somewhat similar to what Vox has done many different times, but maybe incorporate it into the Forms to have people tell their story or opinions if they have some. Newsletters are the future of getting information to people quickly and easily- Axios, Morning Brew, and Vox Sentences have been very popularized because they are effective in getting information to people. 6. Food! Whatever event it is, have some food there. People love food. Having a cover charge of like $5 would pay for a lot of food, and that's a super easy way of gathering people. It's also a great way to have people come together- some of the best meetings and conversations happen over meals. People are happy when they're eating together, and having people meet up this way would be effective in helping people have these tough conversations -Michael Gorman
After watching the videos in class it seemed like a lot of the reactions after school shootings were those of hopelessness. Many voiced their devastation but also their uncertainty about future steps. However, with the Parkland shooting the survivors used their voice to try and spark change. The fact that the call for change is coming from young school shooting victims is very powerful. I think it is important to use young voices as this generation is the one that is most impacted by guns in schools.
I think a youth lead conversation would be an effective tool in creating conversations about guns in schools. Instead of having adult journalist reporting and speculating about these shootings and the politics that surround it, why not hear voices from the generation that has grown up going through lockdown drills and question their safety in school. This could take the form of a youth lead newsletter or video project.
During our class discussion we talked about how the choice someone made to interview a young kid that survived the Sandy Hook shooting. It seems as though the reporter wanted to get the young girl’s perspective in order to spark strong emotions from the viewers. However, I feel like a different angle that would illicit a strong emotional response similar to that of interview the young girl and perhaps may be more informative, would be the stories of the first responders. They too have seen firsthand the trauma and would be able to provide a new and powerful perspective.
In Aitamurto’s article they talk about the positives of crowdsourcing for journalism. The ability to have research and perspectives in addition to the journalist offers a more whole story. I think it would be beneficial to start a blog modeled after this crowdsourcing technique. It could act as a collective database for information regarding gun violence, relevant legislation, and differing opinions that may spark conversation.
One of the most important things a journalist can do is listen. The Agora center’s article cites this skill to be crucial in order to effectively engage with their audience. I think a video blog, sharing the experiences of those involved with guns in schools, would allow others to simply just listen. This in turn, I believe, could spark really valuable conversation.
Lastly, I think it would be beneficial to get the different parties involved with gun violence’s opinion and start a conversation with differing opinions. This would include reaching out to organizations such as gun shop owners, school board members, principles, law enforcement, and politicians. Each of these groups of their own special interest and facilitating dialogue between the different opinions might help speak to the polarized views on gun laws and how we decide to keep our schools safe.
I focused on developing potential story angles. 1. One of my first ideas was around talking to stakeholders about their experiences and perspective on reporters and how issues of gun violence are covered by the media. Do they find that the coverage, attempting to seek out the truth, trying to find answers, is flawed or insensitive in any way? I think that telling a story about where reporting on gun violence has succeeded and fallen short would be super helpful. Focusing on getting some answers from different communities. 2. I thought Isabella's idea of focusing on the gendered aspect of the issue of gun violence in schools is crucial. I think this could be approached in a few intertwined ways. First, talk to men and women and determine whether there is a difference in the rhetoric and perspective about guns in schools. But I do think to focus on men and investigate what they see as the relationship between a male culture and the fact that nearly all perpetrators are men? I think this issue could be another crucial puzzle piece in the discussion around toxic/unhealthy masculinity. 3. Last year I did a final project for a film class that focused around spreading the facts around gun violence. I find that discussion around gun violence as a whole is sometimes supplemented with facts, but in many cases, it is solely driven by emotion. I think this angle works well if we also determine the audience we are trying to reach. Do they all of the same political predispositions or are we trying to reach all bases? If we are trying to cross aisles and reach everyone, I think just focusing on facts could be really cool. That said, when we conduct interview we could focus on quantifying certain parts of in the whole story arch of a school shooting. You are unable and should not quantify and compare trauma, but everyone to some degree is affected. For example how many hours have certain stakeholder spent with a mental health professional? 4. I don’t want to linger around the ‘individuals’ that perpetrate these horrific acts of violence, but I do think there must be a story that really tries to explore the root causes of these incidents. I watched this Vox video, titled What students really think about school shootings, where they asked students across the US to submit videos where they talk about how they feel on this issue. 5. There are some individuals who dispute the role that mental health plays in these tragedies, and there are some individuals who think it plays an important causal role. I watched Sue Klebold’s Ted talk on her experience. What she gathered about her son Dylan was that a lot of his homicidal tendencies stemmed from his depressive mentality, wanting to die. While this is only one data point I think it is a greater phenomenon to be explored.
Sharing Art (inspired by “Caregivers Speak”): Creating an artistic platform open to anybody who has been impacted by or has some sort of connection with the topic of the presence of guns in schools would allow these people to develop a support system and would function as an emotional resource for many of them. Art can be considered as one of the strongest political vehicles there is. It ties deep emotion directly to issues and allows for outsiders to take a step in and understand a point of view they may have never considered before. So while acting as a solace to victims and the family members of victims, the platform could also ignite a greater level of sympathy in outside viewers, waking them up from likely desensitization.
Hope Survey: Create an anonymous survey to be sent out all over the country to gauge levels of hope in relation to the topic of guns in schools. How hopeful are people after the latest shooting—the Parkland, Florida school shooting—that a solution can be found or at least is out there? Has the numbness and despair that usually follows school shootings set in, or do things feel different after Parkland?
Bipartisan Panels (inspired by the “Evergrey”): It could be helpful to stage respectful safe-spaces for people located in every area on the political spectrum to discuss the issue of guns in schools. It is important to initially acknowledge shared beliefs about tragedies that have ensued due to this gun violence. To begin the discussion with topics that everyone can agree on before moving on to the more politically-charged, polarizing discussion about what can be done to solve the problem of gun violence in schools is a way to lead a discussion that encourages the notion of listening to ideas that are not one’s own. This brings people to search for at least a sense of understanding in an argument they might adamantly disagree with. As Mayer expresses in the Gather article, these “projects [will be] about building understanding, not changing minds.”
Instagram: By paying for ads that will pop up while people scroll through Instagram, we will be able to instantly and easily reach out to a younger and more nationally spread audience. The ad could give viewers the option to either post their own experiences with the guns in schools topic on their own accounts, with the hashtag #GunsinSchools, or DM our Instagram account their stories (which can then be published anonymously) if the topic is too emotional to include in their own accounts.
Crowdsourcing the Interview Process (inspired by NPR’s Story Corps & Aitamurto’s Crowdsourcing article): In creating a website that encourages people all over to ask other people in their lives (ie: peers, family members, friends, community members, etc.) one simple question—“What is your connection to / perspective on guns in schools?”—we will get a variety of submissions that showcase a variety of opinions. Also, the choice to have the participants interviewing people they have some direct connection to might be likely to keep the interviewees more candid and less on-guard compared to if we conducted them.
W1D4 - How might we tell the story of Guns in Schools? - Isabella McShea
Tumblr: Tumblr has always been a format for people to create online communities about very niche topics. From specific TV shows to various types of art, many people have found incredibly specific communities on this platform. It could be interesting to take the time to see if there is a survivor/victim platform already in existence that we could work with in order to find people to interview for this project. Additionally, this could be a good place to work with the curators of these blogs to help use a “snowball” interview technique where you ask people to provide you with other individuals who could be useful for this type of research.
Colorado’s Political Divide (Spaceship Media + Alabama Media Group example): Living in Colorado Springs, we have the unique opportunity to find people with a myriad of political views outside of the typical and mostly liberal experience of people living within cities in Colorado. I always have loved the idea of doing dialogues or interviews with CC students and Air Force academy students. Another idea would be to ask similar questions concerning perceptions of guns in schools to random people within the community in Colorado Springs and compare that to responses we gather from people living in more liberal areas (Boulder, Denver, etc).
What already exists? (Using storytelling platforms we already have!): Podcasts are a beautiful source of information that can be readily analyzed and gathered from. As this is an extremely personal topic for many Americans, we should not assume we are the first group to attempt a project similar to this one. Using podcasts that have focused on gun violence in schools and particularly those centered on storytelling (The Moth, etc), we could more easily target those who are willing to be interviewed and understand what stories have not been told within the context of Guns in Schools.
Hashtags: Social media is obviously a great place to start. However, using super broad hashtags can often create too much response to question along the lines of “What do guns in schools mean do you?”. Perhaps finding niche twitter accounts with followers who are already active participants could be a more effective strategy. Going to the Everytown for Gun Safety Twitter and asking them to put up a poll for their followers could perhaps help streamline our research process!
Local Organizations: Working with PBS is a great start to collaborating with community partners. By centered the voices in our local area, we can more fully crowdsource using a local search. For example, if we want to understand how the boy scouts or veterans understand this issue (through the lens of toxic masculinity perhaps), we could reach out to local organizations to find people to interview!
Creating a database: I loved reading about how Swedish journalists were able to create massive databases within a horizontal research method. Perhaps we could literally just send out a call to all of our family/friends within our own social media platform to ask how many people they know have been affected by school shootings in the last twenty years to start creating a tangible and public map that could be very open and ever changing. I am not completely sure how this would work, however, I love the idea of open data as a way to help encourage unique and important engaged journalism.
Gender: There are many gender-based organizations working to combat gender-based violence in the United States. Although there is a major issue concerning anonymity within these cases, it could be a good idea to reach out to various NGOs to find out how we can properly address the issue of guns in schools and revenge against women. Femicide is a very important topic and could create a unique story angle for our projects. However, it is important that we remember how traumatizing and personal this topic is, so it might not be feasible for us to create usable content in such a short time period.
1. Reach out via social media to community members. Facebook is the home of many groups but often applies to an older (ish) crowd. Depending on the demographic you are looking for, post in groups of moms, local schools, gun safety advocates and invite them to a community discussion. Consider twitter for reaching younger groups.
2. Host a community discussion. Set guidelines for respect, assign someone the role of moderator and let people tell their stories. Decide which individual stories are most poignant to the larger story you are trying to tell and ask those people for interviews.
3. Listen (inspired by Agora article). Better your listening skills by downloading the Listeners Podcast. Notice the differences between guiding someone through an interview and letting them tell their story and waiting until after to apply it to your project.
4. Consider letting people tell their stories in different formats. Different types of journalism (photo, video, written) can engage different demographics. Film a day in the life (SOJC engagement tips) of someone directly impacted by guns in schools. Following school faculty members in elementary schools vs. middle schools vs. high schools would show the contrasts or similarities between precautions taken in schools for different age groups. Getting day in the life content might show people how schools faculty members are affected by the threat of guns in schools on an everyday basis.
5. Write your story. Pair the narratives of those interviewed with numerical facts. Pull from the Fox and Friedel piece to contextualize people’s worries in reality. Represent voices from all sides of the issue rather than the polar opposite ones to both represent the reality of the spectrum and not further polarize the guns in schools issue.
6. After your piece has been published, it is your job (as an engaged journalist) to create a forum for discussion and moderate it (inspired, in part, by the Crossing the Line project by the Fresno Bee). Create a facebook page that focuses on discussing guns in schools —let people discuss and also post pieces of engaged journalism and academic facts to add to the discussion. Open up the facebook page to everyone in the community.
1. A Collaborative Photo Series (inspired by Aitamurto) 1. Prior to reading ‘Crowdsourcing as a Knowledge’, I had no idea what crowdsourcing was. It is a method in which journalists will work to research a certain topic by receiving information from many different people. I feel that a crowdsourced photo series would be such an interesting way in which different peoples views and perspectives can come together. After watching the news segments in class today, I feel the videos and photos have the biggest impact on people. They can evoke such strong emotions, and I think that that is the best way to show people what the true issues are. By getting people nationwide to anonymously share their photos, I think a really powerful way to show this country the epidemic we are facing. 2. Facebook ( inspired by Mayer) 1. Facebook is one of the most nationally and globally utilized social media hubs. People of all ages use it. I think bridging the gap between older and younger generations through facebook groups could be a key way in which people could discuss gun laws. The major problem this country is facing in my opinion is that people aren’t listening to each other. Mayer suggests that people can be inspired by one another which I think rings really true in this situation. I think different focussed facebook groups could potentially be a productive way for people to collaborate and discuss methods of making change. Once people start listening to each other, then the possibility for collaboration like Mayer suggests in possible. 3. Twitter — sparking a new hashtag to make sure people don’t forget about the issues at hand. 1. The #NeverAgain hashtag created after Parkland was undoubtedly one of the most influential hashtags twitter has ever seen. Hashtags have the unique ability to unite people across the globe, and make a message heard in a concise way. If a new hashtag gets sparked, I think people would be less likely to forget about certain issues. I feel that after major events, like Parkland, people tend to forget about what happened and just try to move on. However, with a hashtag pervasively circulating the internet that would be challenging. Uniting people through the internet is a powerful way of making people feel they aren’t alone, as well. 4. Student produced documentary (similar to our task/ goal) 1. After learning more about my classmates I feel that we are a unique group with different perspectives. This gives us the opportunity to collaborate and create what I think will be some really interesting documentary clips for PBS. I feel that through our unique perspectives as students, our opinions are extremely valuable. People need to hear our perspectives. Students across the nation should be working towards a similar goal to produce a similar product. 5. Student Produced Podcasts 1. As discussed in class today some students have pretty directly related ties to the many school shootings this nation has seen over the past 2 decades. This, similarly to the documentary, could be a really interesting way to share student perspectives. Additionally It would be a good way to keep the conversation going. A weekly produced podcast produced entirely by students would show the country that students care and want their voices to be heard.
Telling the story of the people directly impacted is tough because, to be effective, it requires patience, empathy, and studies over a long period of time. Telling a holistic story of guns in schools when referring to its impact on the particular community requires a diversity of opinions with a stake in the matter who are given the opportunity to tell their own story. When reporting on the aftermath of a shooting, community engaged practices such as those outlined in “ONA15 Community Engagement Models for More Inclusive Journalism,” that require extended time spent doing community outreach, in conversation, and in collaboration would be beneficial. Similarly, to an example from Mayer’s article explaining a program that allowed dialogue across political divide through community engagement, an important part of telling any story that could easily become polarized is to, as Mayer claimed, “building understanding, not changing minds” (Mayer 2). Our goal as journalists is not to change minds or even attempt to, it’s to build understanding with communities directly impacted as well as gauge public opinion on issues that inevitably follow a school shooting. Storytelling and allowing community members affected by tragedy to share their own story at their own time in their own words, takes away some of the implicit bias that comes along with any interview style journalism. Working with the community in an engaged way to tell their own story will help identify what the community needs in terms of support and how to move forward in the wake of tragedy. Telling the story of gun legislation and the history of gun violence in the U.S. is a bit trickier. Americans’ all over the country have different sentiments when it comes to the validity and need for the Second Amendment, and to get a comprehensive read on what the American people in general want in the light of another tragedy requires a diversity of opinions to gauge public interest. Crowdsourcing, as Aitamurto explains, could be an effective remedy to this disconnect between the public and the press. Utilizing a newspaper or other press source as a task initiator with little contact with the participants to received bipartisan information. Finally, the concept of “co-creating” between crowd and organization as Autamurto also suggests, would allow a two way interaction where journalists can listen to communities, be transparent, find common ground, and meet people where they are in terms of knowledge.
I think that the question of how can we tell the story of guns in schools in and of itself the wrong way to look at an engaged journalistic approach to gun violence in schools. Assuming a practice of engaged journalism is an effective and strategic approach to a comprehensive story about guns in schools, we should not be the ones telling the story. We, as journalists, should be the facilitators who enable community members to tell their own story, however they want to tell it.
Pitch Night: One frustration from class today focused on the lack of solutions offered by newscasters after school shootings. Hosting some sort of pitch night focused on solving gun violence in schools forces us to take a more solution-oriented approach. The “pitch night” could occur virtually over a platform such as Facebook or in person. Facebook reaches a varied audience allowing us to get input from many different types of people and tap into viewers knowledge. One tip from Agora Journalism stated, “report on what’s working.” I think a pitch night would be a good way to facilitate a discussion on “what’s working” to combat gun violence in schools.
Get a Story, Give a Story Campaign: This campaign focuses on the idea of being a good listener mentioned in many of the readings. In the ‘Get a Story, Give a Story’, one person would record themselves speaking on how they connect to guns in schools and then pass the video along to another person of their choosing. The next person listens to the story and then follows up with their own story and so on. These stories could be compiled into some sort of database and examined for core themes. The themes identified would give us direction on what angle we could take in making the documentary for PBS.
The Sentence Project (Inspired by 6-words on Gather): The Six Words Project asked students from two racially different schools to come together and share stories. The students took photographs of their lives and captioned the pictures with “6-words.” I like the idea of one short sentence to sum up a large problem. Furthermore, asking for people’s opinion in just one sentence forces viewers to focus their ideas and is also conscientious of their time. It could also be very powerful to pair people’s sentence with some sort of simple photography project- matching their words with a related image.
Survey (Inspired by the Curious Project): The Curious project asked members of the community to vote on what news, sport, and technology stories would be of most interest to them. As a result listeners to the radio station increased. I think a good way to understand how to engage the community would be simply to ask the community. Since each member of our class is from different circles, each person could post a link to a survey on facebook or any social media, asking for responses.
Finding Common Ground: In an era of polarization surrounding gun violence in schools, we tend to forget that everyone’s solutions, while radically different, focus on the same goal of making school a safer place. Adding a post to Facebook framing the problem of gun violence in this way could spark conversation from many people who would not normally converse.
Local v Distant: This idea is focused around showing the same advertisement to people in the town of a school shooting and in a similar place where one has not occurred. This uses the idea of local v distance knowledge mentioned in the Tanja Aitmaro article. The purpose of this project would be to see if places affected by school shootings feel differently about the issues versus people who have never had such a tragedy occur in their town.
I worked this summer with the Peoples Climate Movement in NYC and managed all of their social media accounts in order to raise awareness for their annual Peoples Climate March. The demographic was similar, and so I thought I’d share some of the ideas we used, and then add some customization for this particular class.
Facebook - A super easy one, and one I’ve seen a lot of other classmates already post. You can actually pay a small amount of money to have an event or certain post ‘boosted’, where it can show up as an ad for certain Facebook users. You can completely customize the demographic of individuals who would see this ‘ad’. I always found it pretty helpful. Also, everyone and their mom is on Facebook. Facebook is what I always used as the main way of reaching people because there was the largest amount of people with an account. From there, I had links to Twitter and Instagram for those who prefer to use that as well.
Other Social Media - Utilizing Instagram and Twitter for younger individuals could be beneficial as well. It’s a little harder to get a following on these, but if we created some type of hashtag? That would maybe help.
School Organizations - I contacted a lot of different schools this summer. For PCMs case, I targeted a lot of Environmentalist groups. Most schools, at least from what I experienced, aren’t really comfortable with you contacting students individually, or hanging around the school. I found a lot of places have contacts of advisors or teachers who help run certain clubs we could focus our attention on right on their website. I also called the general office as well. Students who are more active in organizations are likely to help and talk to other students who aren’t as involved. Also, reaching out to parent organizations within the school would be a really great way to connect with parents.
Organizations throughout Colorado Springs - Same concept as students, but target general organizations throughout the city. The easiest thing to do is to just make a strong website or Facebook page and keep sending that link to whoever we think is important.
Website? - Facebook can only provide so much, so it might be helpful to make a website.
1. Connect with any local groups that are already addressing the issue. This is drawn from ONA’s slidedeck, which discussed the importance of meeting people where they are socially. Often, too, I think that several people are passionate about something but don’t combine forces, and it ends up lessening their impact. By collaborating with groups that are already on the ground, doing engaged work regarding gun violence all the time, we can both be more efficient and effective in our process. Additionally, this may give us a bit of an “in” to the community, which is the main focus of the rest of my ideas -- I think that the only way to get productive data is through community connection. People are much more likely to be honest, open, and critical when they feel as though they are being asked by someone who is within their community and who understands. We can contact these groups first by email and phone call, and then meet in person. A great thing to do would be to attend their public meetings, should they have them. 2. Create a list of individuals who we want to involve/interview and genuinely get to know them. This list should be mainly derived from the local groups that already exist. Any additional people could be identified by us if we believe that there are gaps within their networks. These gaps would be especially prevalent regarding voices that are often not heard. For example, in Colorado Springs, we may consider connecting with the homeless population, which doesn’t have as much access to digital technology to elevate its voice, and, with many veterans, has individuals who may be connected or interested in the gun conversation. Most articles incorporated this, with specific reference to engaging residents in “SOJC’s Five Tips.” 3. From these individuals, identify their core concerns and questions through interviews. This speaks mainly for itself, I think. We don’t know what our story is yet, only a general topic. Once we’ve collected multiple viewpoints, we can identify the trends and patterns before designing them ourselves. This concept of public curiosity comes from all of our readings, but was specifically mentioned by the ONA slidedeck. 4. Be accessible throughout the whole process -- not act as only as viewers/listeners, but as members of the community. Aitamurto discussed this act of being available and accessible, and of holding oneself on equal ground with the people you’re collaborating with. For us, this may mean opening social media pages where there can be a constant, open dialogue, and having students assigned to responding to comments with depth and within a quick time frame. It could also include creating an email address, or holding “office hours” for our group at a neutral location (local school, church, community center). 5. Hold public community dialogues. This might be a bit of stretch for us regarding our time frame; however, this could perhaps tie back to the partnering with local groups. If there are any community groups already having public forums and discussions, it would be beneficial for us to be present (and perhaps give a brief presentation / start a discussion regarding our specific topic). I think that it’s wonderful to be sharing our work at the end of the block, and again, know that there are many time constraints, but would love for their to be more follow-through beyond that. For example, if as many people as possible came together again for the premier in April and held a discussion, it would demonstrate a long-term commitment to the communities and individuals we worked with, along with an update on what has happened.
(inspired by Gather story on racism in Peoria) One viable option would be to crowdsource people’s individual stories about their connection to guns and schools via a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram. These platforms provide wide access to people who would be willing to voice their opinions and stories on the subject. One flaw in this model is that this would not serve as a formal set of data as there is no form of randomization or fair sampling in the responses.
2. Surveymonkey has proved itself as a useful resource for gathering information. It would allow us to formulate the way we ask out questions in an intentional manner to minimize the impact that the question would have on what the responders think. This model has a similar flaw to that of the facebook model, as the respondents would be limited to the people that the class has in their networks.
3. Aitamurto’s article on crowdsourcing emphasized that it is an iterative process. It relies on the regular input of the population it is involved with and changes its findings based off of that input. Our working process could be similar. We could release an original body of responses, whether they be video, audio, or written, and ask for responses to it.
4. The meeting in the Colorado Springs town hall that we already have planned could be used as an event to gather data. In addition to inviting community leaders, we could also choose a random sampling of community members and give them an opportunity to voice their opinions directly to their representatives.
5. As gun violence is such an emotionally charged topic, particularly for any individual whose life has been directly impacted by it, giving individuals a venue to use art to express what they are thinking on the subject would be a dual function exercise. It would allow us to gather data for the class and give the community an opportunity to express their emotions on the subject.
Learn about history of region I think it’s important to do this before embarking on our other strategies to find people and their stories. So far, we haven’t discussed the connection Colorado Springs residents may have to this issue. Although our scope goes beyond Colorado Springs, I think we may find a lot of insightful information here (I think the 2015 Planned Parenthood shooting has given many people some connection to gun violence that could translate to schools) and thus we should do our best to learn about the history of our region and where people could be coming from before meeting them. Social Media, esp. Facebook It seems that social media use is a recurring successful theme. As mentioned in the slide deck, once should “meet people where they are” physically, socially, technologically. Many people are already using Facebook, so it would be a very good tool for sharing articles, generating discussion and organizing events. Share findings and engage with feedback A central tenet of engaged journalism is, of course, engagement with audience. The articles and slides emphasized engagement post-publication as well. If we can share findings along our journalistic process, and engage with feedback from our readers as we iterate, our end “product” can be of very high quality. Hold public forum I was very inspired by the case examples that brought people together for face to face conversation, especially ZEIT online Germany and Community in Unity in Alaska. It would be very interesting to bring people together from the diverse Colorado Springs political spectrum to converse in a friendly setting. Crowdsource for initial leads Though it is clear that crowdsourcing won’t give us everything we need for a complete story, this could be an extremely useful and effective tool for gaining leads and giving us a better idea of where to look in our search for information in this short time span.
Practical strategies to approach the topic of Guns and Schools -Instead of interviewing survivors or witnesses immediately, give it more time - days or weeks. I think discussion between survivors about both their experiences and problem solving could be guided and synthesized by journalists to create a more thoughtful, accurate, and empowering narrative than is usually protrayed -It's important to "build bridges across the political divide" (Mayer). Bring diverse groups together to dicuss problem solving. I think both groups of students and adults could have productive guided conversations on this issue if they begin from understanding that they care about the same things (safety etc) -Open the conversation on gun control using social media. I think surveying diverse groups about their feelings on these events and on their opinions on problem solving - not just what to do but "do you think you have the power to do anything?" is important because the media sometimes make it seem like it's a 50/50 split between the NRA and Strict advocates for gun control. -A community event is a powerful way to build emapthy (Mayer). I think it would be powerful for survivors who are inclined, or other who feel deeply touched by this issue, to share stories at the kind of jounralist curated event described my Mayer, perhaps in their own community, but also in communities beyond who haven't been as touched by the issue, to build empathy to motivate problem solving. -Open up the story of problem solving to the public. Too often, big political voices and polar opinions dominate the conversation on "what to do". To build a sense of power and efficacy within the people, use crowdsourcing and co-creation (Aitamurto) to tell a narrative of what we can do in the wake of the issues. (Aitamurto).
1. A booklet of different people with different perspectives collected: Rather than getting little snippets of many different people’s experiences, we’d go into detail with a few specific people’s stories, possibly displaying the perspectives of a student, a first responder, a teacher, a family member and a politician. This way, the audience could really immerse themselves in the experience with having guns in schools. 2. A social media project: Through social media like instagram and facebook, it’s easier than ever to get information across in a simple format which people can always take the time to read/watch, even if they have a short attention span and wouldn’t want to spend their time reading traditional newspaper journalism. With multiple posts a week, we could get all we have to say out gradually without losing interest. 3. Hosting a conversation between opposing viewpoints: In a safe environment, we could facilitate a conversation between someone who may believe teachers should be armed, and another person who believes there should be increased gun reform. Fostering a safe space to share and respect each other’s opinions, they could find common ground and help viewers further define their opinions on the issue as well. 3. A docuseries, capturing different perspectives: As we all know, basically everyone views school shootings as a tragedy that needs to stop. However, different crowds have different ways of going about it. With a docuseries, each episode could focus on a different individual and why they have their viewpoint. Guests for each episode could include: a student, a parent, a mental health professional, a lobbyist, etc. 5. A photo series: While writing these stories is important, a photo is worth a thousand words. When it comes to school shootings, I feel nothing is more powerful than the devastating footage which comes out of it. After all, these victims and their families and people, not just numbers. Collecting different photos from different people’s experiences (with their consent), we could create a wide display of the effect which guns in schools have, and facilitate inspiration for change.
Photo project (inspired by Stand’s Photo Walk on the Gather database): Invite participants to document their experiences with guns, schools, and guns in schools through photography. For instance, encourage students to take photos documenting times that they feel particularly safe or unsafe in their schools. Ask for notes on the images and how the pictures relate to subjects’ lived experiences with guns in schools. This project could also involve teachers or school safety officers as well as people who use guns in their daily lives. These images would be collected into a digital art/photo gallery. (Also, shout-out to Grace and her thesis for some inspiration here as well.)
ReplyDeleteOral history (inspired by article about Gather): This idea is similar to the photo project, but this time the work is more about people speaking on their experiences with guns in schools. In an era of wide-spread access to technology, people can easily record themselves speaking on a subject. In lieu of formal interviews, people are tasked with telling their stories for as long and in as much detail as they feel is necessary. This takes cues from the Story Corp project and may even take the form of pieces like from the Moth podcast in which real people tell their own stories. Again, with permission of subjects, we would aim to publish the stories so that they can be shared with wider audiences.
A day in the life (inspired by SOJC engagement tips): Spend a day following various subjects around while they live their lives, with emphasis on the role that the issue of guns in schools may play in their decisions and actions. This would likely focus on specific stakeholders such as students, teachers, or campus safety officers for which this is topic is intimately relevant. In the cited article, this documentation was done by filmmakers, which may mean more hands-on work by us as reporters, although we could also consider arming subjects to document their own lives. Unlike the above two projects which focus on specific moments in time (and the oral history which tends to be more retrospective), this work focuses on capturing everything, including minutiae, and trying to get a more comprehensive view on the lives of subjects.
Engage subjects through puzzles/games (inspired by Austin Monitor’s Game Night on Gather database): In the cited article, subjects were tasked with trying to solve public issues through game-like simulations. In our case, this may involve asking participants to weight various factors such as security presence vs autonomy or asking participants to model their ideas for safer schools through proposing their own architectural designs for a hypothetical school. These games/puzzles may allow participants to take a step back from the more technical problem solving to take solution finding into their own hands. In this way, we involve constituents to come to their own conclusions on priorities.
“Ask a…” (inspired by ONA slide deck): Hold our own AMA-style event where people are allowed to ask questions of someone who works on the issue of guns in schools. This might include asking a student about what concerns they have for their safety so that those can be better addressed or asking school board members what issues they have to consider in their proposed solutions to hard questions. In doing this project, it would be important to make sure the person being asked questions is willing to be candid in talking to people who may have different backgrounds or understandings than they do. We also would need to vet questions before allowing them to be posed to subjects.
Besides the above, here are some other thoughts that I haven’t expanded on but want to make sure get documented --
DeleteA list of activity ideas: Conversation among people with different political views, collecting opinions through an online form/emailing us, encouraging sources to connect us to other people who they think may be stakeholders (engage the already existing network of contacts), collecting some form of geographic data, starting a hashtag.
Miscellaneous best practices: Make sure to maintain some sort of advisory network of experts who can check our work, ensure that tests/trial runs take place before widespread dispersal, reward participants for their help, make sure to vary options for communication so that people who may not feel comfortable with one form of submission can still feel heard.
5-7 Ideas on how to approach guns in schools – practical strategies and crowdsourcing
ReplyDelete1. Facebook (inspired by Mayer)
Use Facebook to find different groups that may have opinions about guns in schools (lobbying groups, anti-gun violence groups, organizers/participators in March for Our Lives, Parents groups, etc). Reach out to these Facebook groups and try to get interviews/videos about their experiences and opinions about guns in schools. Use these stories to guide a documentary-like publication.
2. Video blog (Idea from Aitamurto article)
Establish a blog website where people can share videos of their stories/opinions about guns in schools. We would then watch the videos and begin to come up with a story using what the public feels.
3. Talk to local stakeholders
Go to Colorado Springs Public Schools and talk to administration, students and parents about this issue. Learn from them what their thoughts and experiences are with this. Talk to them about how their opinions have changed over time. See if they have ideas on preventative measures for guns in schools. Use their stories to guide our journalism.
4. Call to Action (inspired by class today)
Research community organizations, lobbyists, PACS, etc. who are outspoken against guns in schools and speak to their leaders or members involved in the organizations. Use these interviews to educate viewers on what they can do to help prevent guns in schools. This idea is sparked from the fact that much of the information about guns in schools is sensational and not empowering. This would help give the public steps to do to start preventing more mass shootings.
5. Humans of New York Style FB posts (Garter by Kosa inspiration)
Share stories/opinions of people with a Humans of NY style format. The goal of this would be to get a variety of stakeholders and share their perspectives in this format. This platform could allow us to get a variety of perspectives shared and a variety of people involved.
In considering the question “who might we engage and why?,” my mind immediately went to ‘young people’: current students in middle and high school, other fellow college students, and folks who just recently graduated college and/or left the school setting. I am particularly interested in this demographic for several reasons. One, I think traditional journalism often neglects those who are not in positions of power, and young people are a member of this category. Therefore, in the spirit of engaged journalism, I think it’s critically important we collaborate with those who have historically been rendered voiceless. Second, past and present students are some of the citizens most directly impacted by guns in schools and thus deserve a central role in our project in my opinion. And finally, I am quite interested in whether current middle and high school students versus older millennials have different connections with and perspectives on guns in school given the contexts we talked about today that characterized their ‘formative’ years (e.g., Columbine versus Parkland). While I do have this specific interest in mind going into this project, I do not believe it stands in contrast with the spirit of engaged journalism and collaboration. My solutions proposed below ultimately encourage our participants to lead the direction of conversation wherever they choose, and if our ‘findings’ so to speak help address my initial inquiry—great—but that is not the primary objective.
ReplyDelete1. Snapchat: given 78% of U.S. Snapchat users are between 18-24 (https://www.omnicoreagency.com/snapchat-statistics/), I believe Snapchat is a crucial platform to use to engage young folks. Therefore, I propose we post a story to the ‘Discover’ section on Snapchat encouraging users to send us (the class Snapchat account) brief videos of them verbally exploring their connection with guns in school.
2. Facebook: (directly inspired by Vox’s Obamacare page from Gather) We could make a Facebook page specifically dedicated to current students who are directly (and presently) impacted by the debate surrounding guns in school where users can post, exchange information, engage in dialogue and build community with one another in an intentional space. We could invite our peers and encourage them to invite their peers and conceivably—hopefully—create a space with students from across the country.
3. Twitter: We could create a Twitter account where we pose a single broad question—“what is your connection with guns in schools?”—and have users send either short, written responses via tweets or video responses. In order to better target young folks, we could include them in our initial call (i.e., “current students and those who recently left school, what is your…?”). Per our conversations in class, the initial question needs to be broad enough so users and participants can direct the conversation whichever direction they so choose and so all potential contributors feel welcome and included.
4. Story Corps: (directly inspired by NPR’s Story Corps) I find NPR’s Story Corps program so incredibly powerful because it encourages conversation among people, which (based on my understanding) is one goal of the PBS project. Therefore, we could start a social media campaign on any of the aforementioned platforms and encourage young folks to talk with someone else—ideally another peer—about guns in schools and send us the audio recording.
5. Video/photo diaries: In addition to sending us videos of themselves exploring their connection verbally, participants could also send us photos and/or videos of their own schools and what that space shows about guns in schools. For example, students could send a picture going through a metal detector in the morning or a video of them during a lock down drill. While not directly addressing their perspectives, I believe these videos could illuminate their daily, lived experiences surrounding guns in schools in a deeply moving and revealing way.
1. Survey. I think it would be interesting to implement some sort of survey (via social media platforms?) getting some real data from people about their relations, experiences, stances, impacts, positionality, etc.
ReplyDelete2. Art, creative submissions, writing, etc. Creating some sort of open forum/submission/space for those willing to participate. Maybe we could have an open theme/concept asking participants to create something, anything, that captures guns in schools. I think it would be interesting to see how people choose to tackle guns in schools through art (maybe a painting, a video, spoken word, mixed media, etc.). I believe that including b-rolls of the submissions with audio might contribute nicely to the RMPBS publication as well as encourage the public to use not just speak about, but express their take on guns in schools. This engages thought and creativity through not just words via interviews.
3. Today in class we talked about what "ideal" reporting of school shootings would look like. How soon does the story get released? Is mediatizing the shooting and the shooter directly after the shooting helpful? What might trauma-informed reporting look like? Who gets to the lip-service to speak on the matter students? parents? victims? youth? law enforcement? journalists?...We could first investigate and/or ask on social media what the general public thinks is most important and pertinent to coverage about guns in schools. After getting a better understanding of what people think is important to show/report we could use it to our benefit when reporting on guns in schools.
4. Snapchat- filters, geotags, etc. this would be an easy way to get an influx of participants from all over with a variety of connections to guns in schools. We might need to check the legality of using snapchats that have used the filter or tag in our project but it would allow a lot of voices (especially young voices)..and I feel like people are always swiping on their snapchat to see what geotags, filters, stickers, etc. are available!
5. Regarding Tanja Aitamurto's article on crowdsourcing and co-creation, I believe we should use horizontal transparency (public submissions) for open forums, social media campaigns, etc. because it is more conducive to getting further expertise, relevant information, and sparking conversations. I believe that we should use vertical transparency (private submissions) when it comes to surveys because I think more people would participate in a simple private survey with their results not being shared to every participant but being used to get broad statistics on the matter.
Ideas for Telling Stories of Guns In Schools:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Google survey: After obtaining a census of Colorado Springs citizens/Colorado College students and faculty, randomly select a sample of at least five hundred and create a simple survey about guns in schools, covering occupation, relation to guns in schools, if they know people who were personally involved in any school shootings including themselves, and other questions regarding policy about guns in schools, ideas about what to do to raise local awareness, etc. This data can be collected to show how local citizens feel, especially since this is about the anniversary of Columbine, and these citizens are closer.
Behind the scenes: With permission, interview police officers or campus safety officers about procedures in case/call of a school shooter. Also, interview experienced journalists about how they want/feel they should cover gun violence. Combined with these interviews, interview students/citizens about what they think that officers/reporters should do, opinions about their job. Organize a public forum on a local scale at least to address misconceptions and new ideas.
Gun trivia: Test the public knowledge in a game or survey regarding guns in schools, including questions about how many shootings have happened in the past ten years, school policies regarding guns in schools, laws about guns in schools, politicians’ standings, etc. After results are founded, have a small prize for the person who gets the most correct. Host a debriefing after the games where citizens can raise questions, bounce ideas, and learn more about guns in schools. Casual interviews at the event can be recorded.
Community letter: Put up a large poster, create an online forum for the college/town, and/or place boxes around town for citizens to place anonymous letters in. These letters can be to anyone, about anything related to gun violence in schools. They can be about policies they want to change, friends who are affected by guns in schools, or even just a rant, as long as they’re legit. A slideshow, art exhibit, or album of these letters can be created and shown to policy changers or given to PBS.
Word association: Create a public forum or create a poster on campus separated into different words, events, and people connected to gun violence in schools. People can come at their own time and write associations with each topic that’s put up. Members of the class can be at the scene in shifts, and interview willing participants about what they wrote up and why. These interviews can be brought together with pictures of the poster or screenshots from the forum.
1. Having accounts on all social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to be able to provide constant updates and fun things about the project to make the process more personably and accessible. Make posts asking people open-ended questions about their experiences or opinions on guns in schools or just overall about guns.
ReplyDelete2. Create a public forum so that people can make posts and communicate with each other in an open manner. This could mean making a new Subreddit, or making a Facebook group for people to be able to talk in. Having interaction between lots of people is important for engaged journalism, and it's super easy with a Subreddit or Facebook group.
3. ZEIT Germany idea of organizing a meet-up separate from the community-based discussion. Their idea was to get people to meet up and have one-on-one conversations to get deeper into an issue than people might be able to if it's just an overall discussion with a lot of people.
4. Google forms was mentioned above but I also saw it on Gather- great way to anonymously gather a ton of information about people and their opinions. Getting a baseline of thoughts and ideas before people meet up in person would be effective for making the best discussions and problem-solving sessions possible.
5. Start an email newsletter full of people's stories. Somewhat similar to what Vox has done many different times, but maybe incorporate it into the Forms to have people tell their story or opinions if they have some. Newsletters are the future of getting information to people quickly and easily- Axios, Morning Brew, and Vox Sentences have been very popularized because they are effective in getting information to people.
6. Food! Whatever event it is, have some food there. People love food. Having a cover charge of like $5 would pay for a lot of food, and that's a super easy way of gathering people. It's also a great way to have people come together- some of the best meetings and conversations happen over meals. People are happy when they're eating together, and having people meet up this way would be effective in helping people have these tough conversations
-Michael Gorman
After watching the videos in class it seemed like a lot of the reactions after school shootings were those of hopelessness. Many voiced their devastation but also their uncertainty about future steps. However, with the Parkland shooting the survivors used their voice to try and spark change. The fact that the call for change is coming from young school shooting victims is very powerful. I think it is important to use young voices as this generation is the one that is most impacted by guns in schools.
ReplyDeleteI think a youth lead conversation would be an effective tool in creating conversations about guns in schools. Instead of having adult journalist reporting and speculating about these shootings and the politics that surround it, why not hear voices from the generation that has grown up going through lockdown drills and question their safety in school. This could take the form of a youth lead newsletter or video project.
During our class discussion we talked about how the choice someone made to interview a young kid that survived the Sandy Hook shooting. It seems as though the reporter wanted to get the young girl’s perspective in order to spark strong emotions from the viewers. However, I feel like a different angle that would illicit a strong emotional response similar to that of interview the young girl and perhaps may be more informative, would be the stories of the first responders. They too have seen firsthand the trauma and would be able to provide a new and powerful perspective.
In Aitamurto’s article they talk about the positives of crowdsourcing for journalism. The ability to have research and perspectives in addition to the journalist offers a more whole story. I think it would be beneficial to start a blog modeled after this crowdsourcing technique. It could act as a collective database for information regarding gun violence, relevant legislation, and differing opinions that may spark conversation.
One of the most important things a journalist can do is listen. The Agora center’s article cites this skill to be crucial in order to effectively engage with their audience. I think a video blog, sharing the experiences of those involved with guns in schools, would allow others to simply just listen. This in turn, I believe, could spark really valuable conversation.
Lastly, I think it would be beneficial to get the different parties involved with gun violence’s opinion and start a conversation with differing opinions. This would include reaching out to organizations such as gun shop owners, school board members, principles, law enforcement, and politicians. Each of these groups of their own special interest and facilitating dialogue between the different opinions might help speak to the polarized views on gun laws and how we decide to keep our schools safe.
I focused on developing potential story angles.
ReplyDelete1. One of my first ideas was around talking to stakeholders about their experiences and perspective on reporters and how issues of gun violence are covered by the media. Do they find that the coverage, attempting to seek out the truth, trying to find answers, is flawed or insensitive in any way? I think that telling a story about where reporting on gun violence has succeeded and fallen short would be super helpful. Focusing on getting some answers from different communities.
2. I thought Isabella's idea of focusing on the gendered aspect of the issue of gun violence in schools is crucial. I think this could be approached in a few intertwined ways. First, talk to men and women and determine whether there is a difference in the rhetoric and perspective about guns in schools. But I do think to focus on men and investigate what they see as the relationship between a male culture and the fact that nearly all perpetrators are men? I think this issue could be another crucial puzzle piece in the discussion around toxic/unhealthy masculinity.
3. Last year I did a final project for a film class that focused around spreading the facts around gun violence. I find that discussion around gun violence as a whole is sometimes supplemented with facts, but in many cases, it is solely driven by emotion. I think this angle works well if we also determine the audience we are trying to reach. Do they all of the same political predispositions or are we trying to reach all bases? If we are trying to cross aisles and reach everyone, I think just focusing on facts could be really cool. That said, when we conduct interview we could focus on quantifying certain parts of in the whole story arch of a school shooting. You are unable and should not quantify and compare trauma, but everyone to some degree is affected. For example how many hours have certain stakeholder spent with a mental health professional?
4. I don’t want to linger around the ‘individuals’ that perpetrate these horrific acts of violence, but I do think there must be a story that really tries to explore the root causes of these incidents. I watched this Vox video, titled What students really think about school shootings, where they asked students across the US to submit videos where they talk about how they feel on this issue.
5. There are some individuals who dispute the role that mental health plays in these tragedies, and there are some individuals who think it plays an important causal role. I watched Sue Klebold’s Ted talk on her experience. What she gathered about her son Dylan was that a lot of his homicidal tendencies stemmed from his depressive mentality, wanting to die. While this is only one data point I think it is a greater phenomenon to be explored.
-sam pfeifer
DeleteSharing Art (inspired by “Caregivers Speak”): Creating an artistic platform open to anybody who has been impacted by or has some sort of connection with the topic of the presence of guns in schools would allow these people to develop a support system and would function as an emotional resource for many of them. Art can be considered as one of the strongest political vehicles there is. It ties deep emotion directly to issues and allows for outsiders to take a step in and understand a point of view they may have never considered before. So while acting as a solace to victims and the family members of victims, the platform could also ignite a greater level of sympathy in outside viewers, waking them up from likely desensitization.
ReplyDeleteHope Survey: Create an anonymous survey to be sent out all over the country to gauge levels of hope in relation to the topic of guns in schools. How hopeful are people after the latest shooting—the Parkland, Florida school shooting—that a solution can be found or at least is out there? Has the numbness and despair that usually follows school shootings set in, or do things feel different after Parkland?
Bipartisan Panels (inspired by the “Evergrey”): It could be helpful to stage respectful safe-spaces for people located in every area on the political spectrum to discuss the issue of guns in schools. It is important to initially acknowledge shared beliefs about tragedies that have ensued due to this gun violence. To begin the discussion with topics that everyone can agree on before moving on to the more politically-charged, polarizing discussion about what can be done to solve the problem of gun violence in schools is a way to lead a discussion that encourages the notion of listening to ideas that are not one’s own. This brings people to search for at least a sense of understanding in an argument they might adamantly disagree with. As Mayer expresses in the Gather article, these “projects [will be] about building understanding, not changing minds.”
Instagram: By paying for ads that will pop up while people scroll through Instagram, we will be able to instantly and easily reach out to a younger and more nationally spread audience. The ad could give viewers the option to either post their own experiences with the guns in schools topic on their own accounts, with the hashtag #GunsinSchools, or DM our Instagram account their stories (which can then be published anonymously) if the topic is too emotional to include in their own accounts.
Crowdsourcing the Interview Process (inspired by NPR’s Story Corps & Aitamurto’s
Crowdsourcing article): In creating a website that encourages people all over to ask other people in their lives (ie: peers, family members, friends, community members, etc.) one simple question—“What is your connection to / perspective on guns in schools?”—we will get a variety of submissions that showcase a variety of opinions. Also, the choice to have the participants interviewing people they have some direct connection to might be likely to keep the interviewees more candid and less on-guard compared to if we conducted them.
W1D4 - How might we tell the story of Guns in Schools? - Isabella McShea
ReplyDeleteTumblr:
Tumblr has always been a format for people to create online communities about very niche topics. From specific TV shows to various types of art, many people have found incredibly specific communities on this platform. It could be interesting to take the time to see if there is a survivor/victim platform already in existence that we could work with in order to find people to interview for this project. Additionally, this could be a good place to work with the curators of these blogs to help use a “snowball” interview technique where you ask people to provide you with other individuals who could be useful for this type of research.
Colorado’s Political Divide (Spaceship Media + Alabama Media Group example):
Living in Colorado Springs, we have the unique opportunity to find people with a myriad of political views outside of the typical and mostly liberal experience of people living within cities in Colorado. I always have loved the idea of doing dialogues or interviews with CC students and Air Force academy students. Another idea would be to ask similar questions concerning perceptions of guns in schools to random people within the community in Colorado Springs and compare that to responses we gather from people living in more liberal areas (Boulder, Denver, etc).
What already exists? (Using storytelling platforms we already have!):
Podcasts are a beautiful source of information that can be readily analyzed and gathered from. As this is an extremely personal topic for many Americans, we should not assume we are the first group to attempt a project similar to this one. Using podcasts that have focused on gun violence in schools and particularly those centered on storytelling (The Moth, etc), we could more easily target those who are willing to be interviewed and understand what stories have not been told within the context of Guns in Schools.
Hashtags:
Social media is obviously a great place to start. However, using super broad hashtags can often create too much response to question along the lines of “What do guns in schools mean do you?”. Perhaps finding niche twitter accounts with followers who are already active participants could be a more effective strategy. Going to the Everytown for Gun Safety Twitter and asking them to put up a poll for their followers could perhaps help streamline our research process!
Local Organizations:
Working with PBS is a great start to collaborating with community partners. By centered the voices in our local area, we can more fully crowdsource using a local search. For example, if we want to understand how the boy scouts or veterans understand this issue (through the lens of toxic masculinity perhaps), we could reach out to local organizations to find people to interview!
Creating a database:
I loved reading about how Swedish journalists were able to create massive databases within a horizontal research method. Perhaps we could literally just send out a call to all of our family/friends within our own social media platform to ask how many people they know have been affected by school shootings in the last twenty years to start creating a tangible and public map that could be very open and ever changing. I am not completely sure how this would work, however, I love the idea of open data as a way to help encourage unique and important engaged journalism.
Gender:
There are many gender-based organizations working to combat gender-based violence in the United States. Although there is a major issue concerning anonymity within these cases, it could be a good idea to reach out to various NGOs to find out how we can properly address the issue of guns in schools and revenge against women. Femicide is a very important topic and could create a unique story angle for our projects. However, it is important that we remember how traumatizing and personal this topic is, so it might not be feasible for us to create usable content in such a short time period.
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ReplyDelete1. Reach out via social media to community members. Facebook is the home of many groups but often applies to an older (ish) crowd. Depending on the demographic you are looking for, post in groups of moms, local schools, gun safety advocates and invite them to a community discussion. Consider twitter for reaching younger groups.
ReplyDelete2. Host a community discussion. Set guidelines for respect, assign someone the role of moderator and let people tell their stories. Decide which individual stories are most poignant to the larger story you are trying to tell and ask those people for interviews.
3. Listen (inspired by Agora article). Better your listening skills by downloading the Listeners Podcast. Notice the differences between guiding someone through an interview and letting them tell their story and waiting until after to apply it to your project.
4. Consider letting people tell their stories in different formats. Different types of journalism (photo, video, written) can engage different demographics. Film a day in the life (SOJC engagement tips) of someone directly impacted by guns in schools. Following school faculty members in elementary schools vs. middle schools vs. high schools would show the contrasts or similarities between precautions taken in schools for different age groups. Getting day in the life content might show people how schools faculty members are affected by the threat of guns in schools on an everyday basis.
5. Write your story. Pair the narratives of those interviewed with numerical facts. Pull from the Fox and Friedel piece to contextualize people’s worries in reality. Represent voices from all sides of the issue rather than the polar opposite ones to both represent the reality of the spectrum and not further polarize the guns in schools issue.
6. After your piece has been published, it is your job (as an engaged journalist) to create a forum for discussion and moderate it (inspired, in part, by the Crossing the Line project by the Fresno Bee). Create a facebook page that focuses on discussing guns in schools —let people discuss and also post pieces of engaged journalism and academic facts to add to the discussion. Open up the facebook page to everyone in the community.
How Might we tell the Story of Guns in Schools?
ReplyDelete1. A Collaborative Photo Series (inspired by Aitamurto)
1. Prior to reading ‘Crowdsourcing as a Knowledge’, I had no idea what crowdsourcing was. It is a method in which journalists will work to research a certain topic by receiving information from many different people. I feel that a crowdsourced photo series would be such an interesting way in which different peoples views and perspectives can come together. After watching the news segments in class today, I feel the videos and photos have the biggest impact on people. They can evoke such strong emotions, and I think that that is the best way to show people what the true issues are. By getting people nationwide to anonymously share their photos, I think a really powerful way to show this country the epidemic we are facing.
2. Facebook ( inspired by Mayer)
1. Facebook is one of the most nationally and globally utilized social media hubs. People of all ages use it. I think bridging the gap between older and younger generations through facebook groups could be a key way in which people could discuss gun laws. The major problem this country is facing in my opinion is that people aren’t listening to each other. Mayer suggests that people can be inspired by one another which I think rings really true in this situation. I think different focussed facebook groups could potentially be a productive way for people to collaborate and discuss methods of making change. Once people start listening to each other, then the possibility for collaboration like Mayer suggests in possible.
3. Twitter — sparking a new hashtag to make sure people don’t forget about the issues at hand.
1. The #NeverAgain hashtag created after Parkland was undoubtedly one of the most influential hashtags twitter has ever seen. Hashtags have the unique ability to unite people across the globe, and make a message heard in a concise way. If a new hashtag gets sparked, I think people would be less likely to forget about certain issues. I feel that after major events, like Parkland, people tend to forget about what happened and just try to move on. However, with a hashtag pervasively circulating the internet that would be challenging. Uniting people through the internet is a powerful way of making people feel they aren’t alone, as well.
4. Student produced documentary (similar to our task/ goal)
1. After learning more about my classmates I feel that we are a unique group with different perspectives. This gives us the opportunity to collaborate and create what I think will be some really interesting documentary clips for PBS. I feel that through our unique perspectives as students, our opinions are extremely valuable. People need to hear our perspectives. Students across the nation should be working towards a similar goal to produce a similar product.
5. Student Produced Podcasts
1. As discussed in class today some students have pretty directly related ties to the many school shootings this nation has seen over the past 2 decades. This, similarly to the documentary, could be a really interesting way to share student perspectives. Additionally It would be a good way to keep the conversation going. A weekly produced podcast produced entirely by students would show the country that students care and want their voices to be heard.
Telling the story of the people directly impacted is tough because, to be effective, it requires patience, empathy, and studies over a long period of time. Telling a holistic story of guns in schools when referring to its impact on the particular community requires a diversity of opinions with a stake in the matter who are given the opportunity to tell their own story. When reporting on the aftermath of a shooting, community engaged practices such as those outlined in “ONA15 Community Engagement Models for More Inclusive Journalism,” that require extended time spent doing community outreach, in conversation, and in collaboration would be beneficial. Similarly, to an example from Mayer’s article explaining a program that allowed dialogue across political divide through community engagement, an important part of telling any story that could easily become polarized is to, as Mayer claimed, “building understanding, not changing minds” (Mayer 2). Our goal as journalists is not to change minds or even attempt to, it’s to build understanding with communities directly impacted as well as gauge public opinion on issues that inevitably follow a school shooting. Storytelling and allowing community members affected by tragedy to share their own story at their own time in their own words, takes away some of the implicit bias that comes along with any interview style journalism. Working with the community in an engaged way to tell their own story will help identify what the community needs in terms of support and how to move forward in the wake of tragedy. Telling the story of gun legislation and the history of gun violence in the U.S. is a bit trickier. Americans’ all over the country have different sentiments when it comes to the validity and need for the Second Amendment, and to get a comprehensive read on what the American people in general want in the light of another tragedy requires a diversity of opinions to gauge public interest. Crowdsourcing, as Aitamurto explains, could be an effective remedy to this disconnect between the public and the press. Utilizing a newspaper or other press source as a task initiator with little contact with the participants to received bipartisan information. Finally, the concept of “co-creating” between crowd and organization as Autamurto also suggests, would allow a two way interaction where journalists can listen to communities, be transparent, find common ground, and meet people where they are in terms of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI think that the question of how can we tell the story of guns in schools in and of itself the wrong way to look at an engaged journalistic approach to gun violence in schools. Assuming a practice of engaged journalism is an effective and strategic approach to a comprehensive story about guns in schools, we should not be the ones telling the story. We, as journalists, should be the facilitators who enable community members to tell their own story, however they want to tell it.
Pitch Night: One frustration from class today focused on the lack of solutions offered by newscasters after school shootings. Hosting some sort of pitch night focused on solving gun violence in schools forces us to take a more solution-oriented approach. The “pitch night” could occur virtually over a platform such as Facebook or in person. Facebook reaches a varied audience allowing us to get input from many different types of people and tap into viewers knowledge. One tip from Agora Journalism stated, “report on what’s working.” I think a pitch night would be a good way to facilitate a discussion on “what’s working” to combat gun violence in schools.
ReplyDeleteGet a Story, Give a Story Campaign: This campaign focuses on the idea of being a good listener mentioned in many of the readings. In the ‘Get a Story, Give a Story’, one person would record themselves speaking on how they connect to guns in schools and then pass the video along to another person of their choosing. The next person listens to the story and then follows up with their own story and so on. These stories could be compiled into some sort of database and examined for core themes. The themes identified would give us direction on what angle we could take in making the documentary for PBS.
The Sentence Project (Inspired by 6-words on Gather): The Six Words Project asked students from two racially different schools to come together and share stories. The students took photographs of their lives and captioned the pictures with “6-words.” I like the idea of one short sentence to sum up a large problem. Furthermore, asking for people’s opinion in just one sentence forces viewers to focus their ideas and is also conscientious of their time. It could also be very powerful to pair people’s sentence with some sort of simple photography project- matching their words with a related image.
Survey (Inspired by the Curious Project): The Curious project asked members of the community to vote on what news, sport, and technology stories would be of most interest to them. As a result listeners to the radio station increased. I think a good way to understand how to engage the community would be simply to ask the community. Since each member of our class is from different circles, each person could post a link to a survey on facebook or any social media, asking for responses.
Finding Common Ground: In an era of polarization surrounding gun violence in schools, we tend to forget that everyone’s solutions, while radically different, focus on the same goal of making school a safer place. Adding a post to Facebook framing the problem of gun violence in this way could spark conversation from many people who would not normally converse.
Local v Distant: This idea is focused around showing the same advertisement to people in the town of a school shooting and in a similar place where one has not occurred. This uses the idea of local v distance knowledge mentioned in the Tanja Aitmaro article. The purpose of this project would be to see if places affected by school shootings feel differently about the issues versus people who have never had such a tragedy occur in their town.
I worked this summer with the Peoples Climate Movement in NYC and managed all of their social media accounts in order to raise awareness for their annual Peoples Climate March. The demographic was similar, and so I thought I’d share some of the ideas we used, and then add some customization for this particular class.
ReplyDeleteFacebook - A super easy one, and one I’ve seen a lot of other classmates already post. You can actually pay a small amount of money to have an event or certain post ‘boosted’, where it can show up as an ad for certain Facebook users. You can completely customize the demographic of individuals who would see this ‘ad’. I always found it pretty helpful. Also, everyone and their mom is on Facebook. Facebook is what I always used as the main way of reaching people because there was the largest amount of people with an account. From there, I had links to Twitter and Instagram for those who prefer to use that as well.
Other Social Media - Utilizing Instagram and Twitter for younger individuals could be beneficial as well. It’s a little harder to get a following on these, but if we created some type of hashtag? That would maybe help.
School Organizations - I contacted a lot of different schools this summer. For PCMs case, I targeted a lot of Environmentalist groups. Most schools, at least from what I experienced, aren’t really comfortable with you contacting students individually, or hanging around the school. I found a lot of places have contacts of advisors or teachers who help run certain clubs we could focus our attention on right on their website. I also called the general office as well. Students who are more active in organizations are likely to help and talk to other students who aren’t as involved. Also, reaching out to parent organizations within the school would be a really great way to connect with parents.
Organizations throughout Colorado Springs - Same concept as students, but target general organizations throughout the city. The easiest thing to do is to just make a strong website or Facebook page and keep sending that link to whoever we think is important.
Website? - Facebook can only provide so much, so it might be helpful to make a website.
Hi! Bailey, this is you - correct??
Delete1. Connect with any local groups that are already addressing the issue. This is drawn from ONA’s slidedeck, which discussed the importance of meeting people where they are socially. Often, too, I think that several people are passionate about something but don’t combine forces, and it ends up lessening their impact. By collaborating with groups that are already on the ground, doing engaged work regarding gun violence all the time, we can both be more efficient and effective in our process. Additionally, this may give us a bit of an “in” to the community, which is the main focus of the rest of my ideas -- I think that the only way to get productive data is through community connection. People are much more likely to be honest, open, and critical when they feel as though they are being asked by someone who is within their community and who understands. We can contact these groups first by email and phone call, and then meet in person. A great thing to do would be to attend their public meetings, should they have them.
ReplyDelete2. Create a list of individuals who we want to involve/interview and genuinely get to know them. This list should be mainly derived from the local groups that already exist. Any additional people could be identified by us if we believe that there are gaps within their networks. These gaps would be especially prevalent regarding voices that are often not heard. For example, in Colorado Springs, we may consider connecting with the homeless population, which doesn’t have as much access to digital technology to elevate its voice, and, with many veterans, has individuals who may be connected or interested in the gun conversation. Most articles incorporated this, with specific reference to engaging residents in “SOJC’s Five Tips.”
3. From these individuals, identify their core concerns and questions through interviews. This speaks mainly for itself, I think. We don’t know what our story is yet, only a general topic. Once we’ve collected multiple viewpoints, we can identify the trends and patterns before designing them ourselves. This concept of public curiosity comes from all of our readings, but was specifically mentioned by the ONA slidedeck.
4. Be accessible throughout the whole process -- not act as only as viewers/listeners, but as members of the community. Aitamurto discussed this act of being available and accessible, and of holding oneself on equal ground with the people you’re collaborating with. For us, this may mean opening social media pages where there can be a constant, open dialogue, and having students assigned to responding to comments with depth and within a quick time frame. It could also include creating an email address, or holding “office hours” for our group at a neutral location (local school, church, community center).
5. Hold public community dialogues. This might be a bit of stretch for us regarding our time frame; however, this could perhaps tie back to the partnering with local groups. If there are any community groups already having public forums and discussions, it would be beneficial for us to be present (and perhaps give a brief presentation / start a discussion regarding our specific topic). I think that it’s wonderful to be sharing our work at the end of the block, and again, know that there are many time constraints, but would love for their to be more follow-through beyond that. For example, if as many people as possible came together again for the premier in April and held a discussion, it would demonstrate a long-term commitment to the communities and individuals we worked with, along with an update on what has happened.
(inspired by Gather story on racism in Peoria)
ReplyDeleteOne viable option would be to crowdsource people’s individual stories about their connection to guns and schools via a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram. These platforms provide wide access to people who would be willing to voice their opinions and stories on the subject. One flaw in this model is that this would not serve as a formal set of data as there is no form of randomization or fair sampling in the responses.
2.
Surveymonkey has proved itself as a useful resource for gathering information. It would allow us to formulate the way we ask out questions in an intentional manner to minimize the impact that the question would have on what the responders think. This model has a similar flaw to that of the facebook model, as the respondents would be limited to the people that the class has in their networks.
3.
Aitamurto’s article on crowdsourcing emphasized that it is an iterative process. It relies on the regular input of the population it is involved with and changes its findings based off of that input. Our working process could be similar. We could release an original body of responses, whether they be video, audio, or written, and ask for responses to it.
4.
The meeting in the Colorado Springs town hall that we already have planned could be used as an event to gather data. In addition to inviting community leaders, we could also choose a random sampling of community members and give them an opportunity to voice their opinions directly to their representatives.
5.
As gun violence is such an emotionally charged topic, particularly for any individual whose life has been directly impacted by it, giving individuals a venue to use art to express what they are thinking on the subject would be a dual function exercise. It would allow us to gather data for the class and give the community an opportunity to express their emotions on the subject.
Learn about history of region
ReplyDeleteI think it’s important to do this before embarking on our other strategies to find people and their stories. So far, we haven’t discussed the connection Colorado Springs residents may have to this issue. Although our scope goes beyond Colorado Springs, I think we may find a lot of insightful information here (I think the 2015 Planned Parenthood shooting has given many people some connection to gun violence that could translate to schools) and thus we should do our best to learn about the history of our region and where people could be coming from before meeting them.
Social Media, esp. Facebook
It seems that social media use is a recurring successful theme. As mentioned in the slide deck, once should “meet people where they are” physically, socially, technologically. Many people are already using Facebook, so it would be a very good tool for sharing articles, generating discussion and organizing events.
Share findings and engage with feedback
A central tenet of engaged journalism is, of course, engagement with audience. The articles and slides emphasized engagement post-publication as well. If we can share findings along our journalistic process, and engage with feedback from our readers as we iterate, our end “product” can be of very high quality.
Hold public forum
I was very inspired by the case examples that brought people together for face to face conversation, especially ZEIT online Germany and Community in Unity in Alaska. It would be very interesting to bring people together from the diverse Colorado Springs political spectrum to converse in a friendly setting.
Crowdsource for initial leads
Though it is clear that crowdsourcing won’t give us everything we need for a complete story, this could be an extremely useful and effective tool for gaining leads and giving us a better idea of where to look in our search for information in this short time span.
Practical strategies to approach the topic of Guns and Schools
ReplyDelete-Instead of interviewing survivors or witnesses immediately, give it more time - days or weeks. I think discussion between survivors about both their experiences and problem solving could be guided and synthesized by journalists to create a more thoughtful, accurate, and empowering narrative than is usually protrayed
-It's important to "build bridges across the political divide" (Mayer). Bring diverse groups together to dicuss problem solving. I think both groups of students and adults could have productive guided conversations on this issue if they begin from understanding that they care about the same things (safety etc)
-Open the conversation on gun control using social media. I think surveying diverse groups about their feelings on these events and on their opinions on problem solving - not just what to do but "do you think you have the power to do anything?" is important because the media sometimes make it seem like it's a 50/50 split between the NRA and Strict advocates for gun control.
-A community event is a powerful way to build emapthy (Mayer). I think it would be powerful for survivors who are inclined, or other who feel deeply touched by this issue, to share stories at the kind of jounralist curated event described my Mayer, perhaps in their own community, but also in communities beyond who haven't been as touched by the issue, to build empathy to motivate problem solving.
-Open up the story of problem solving to the public. Too often, big political voices and polar opinions dominate the conversation on "what to do". To build a sense of power and efficacy within the people, use crowdsourcing and co-creation (Aitamurto) to tell a narrative of what we can do in the wake of the issues.
(Aitamurto).
1. A booklet of different people with different perspectives collected: Rather than getting little snippets of many different people’s experiences, we’d go into detail with a few specific people’s stories, possibly displaying the perspectives of a student, a first responder, a teacher, a family member and a politician. This way, the audience could really immerse themselves in the experience with having guns in schools.
ReplyDelete2. A social media project: Through social media like instagram and facebook, it’s easier than ever to get information across in a simple format which people can always take the time to read/watch, even if they have a short attention span and wouldn’t want to spend their time reading traditional newspaper journalism. With multiple posts a week, we could get all we have to say out gradually without losing interest.
3. Hosting a conversation between opposing viewpoints: In a safe environment, we could facilitate a conversation between someone who may believe teachers should be armed, and another person who believes there should be increased gun reform. Fostering a safe space to share and respect each other’s opinions, they could find common ground and help viewers further define their opinions on the issue as well.
3. A docuseries, capturing different perspectives: As we all know, basically everyone views school shootings as a tragedy that needs to stop. However, different crowds have different ways of going about it. With a docuseries, each episode could focus on a different individual and why they have their viewpoint. Guests for each episode could include: a student, a parent, a mental health professional, a lobbyist, etc.
5. A photo series: While writing these stories is important, a photo is worth a thousand words. When it comes to school shootings, I feel nothing is more powerful than the devastating footage which comes out of it. After all, these victims and their families and people, not just numbers. Collecting different photos from different people’s experiences (with their consent), we could create a wide display of the effect which guns in schools have, and facilitate inspiration for change.