Strategy 1: Community Immersion

Reporters spend time in the community to study its geography, demographics, determine citizen needs, interests, aspirations, and generally to interact with community members as a step towards building trust.  Members of the Forum of Reporters for Equality and Empowerment (FREE) in the island of Mindanao, stayed with a local community in Maguindanao province for a week to more clearly understand its thinking on peace efforts at the height of fighting between government soldiers and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2000.  The result was a series of stories of citizen voices about the need to focus more on peace initiatives and what people think ought to be done.

Strategy 2: Community Conversations

Conducted during neighborhood gatherings or meetings, in small parks or plazas, barangay halls, in front of sari-sari stores or talipapa, and even in people’s living rooms, community conversations allow journalists to probe for insights without becoming intrusive or invasive.  A small group of radio reporters in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato began hanging out with locals to listen to what people really are talking about (and what they care most about), eventually engaging them in conversation and developing a daily program they called Pulso ng Bayan (Pulse of the Town).

Strategy 3: Focus Group Discussions

A more structured form of eliciting data and information, focus group discussions or FGDs allows for a more targeted discussion of a particular issue or problem with key community players like leaders of people’s organizations, civic groups, barangay officials, youth representatives, small business associations, and the local church or mosque.   The journalist must prepare a set of questions beforehand but must also be flexible enough to consider other angles that may develop during the discussion. The Visayas Examiner, a weekly paper in Iloilo City in Western Visayas, sponsored neighborhood roundtable discussions after people came to their offices complaining about noxious emissions from a hospital incinerator.  The discussions led to a series of stories and dialogues with reporters, editors, citizens, experts and authorities.  The incinerator was eventually shut down.

Strategy 4: Citizen Polls

Surveys or public opinion polling can cover a large segment of the community or geographic area and allows the news organization to put together, for example, a checklist of citizen concerns and perceived problems that would help it map out the story.  PBN Broadcasting Network in Bicol polled residents in one municipality after citizens expressed concern about the planned construction of a cement plant in the area.  It then facilitated a series of community dialogues where the pros and cons of the project were discussed and where the affected residents themselves drew up solutions allowing the plant’s operation under certain conditions.

Strategy 5: Community Interaction

Widening the network of sources and partners, listing down other players in the community, establishing contacts with NGOs, people’s organizations, community associations and even exploring dialogues with local governments and agencies often result in stories that examine problems and offer solutions.  It also opens opportunities for the news organization to play a more catalytic role in the community by providing avenues for dialogue through their news pages or programs. The Bandillo ng Palawan in Puerto Princesa City encouraged the different sectors in the province to discuss the creation of the Palawan Heritage Center to arrest the slow deterioration and loss of cultural and environmental artifacts.

Strategy 6: Alliances with the Competition

By pooling resources and talent with other media organizations such as TV, radio and print, news outfits can cut down costs while ensuring broader reach and bigger impact when doing public journalism.  This eschews the traditional mode of media competition that often verges on the cutthroat especially in broadcast.  Four radio stations in Kalibo, Aklan worked together for an hour each day to do a simultaneous broadcast of a collaborative program that tackles children’s rights.  The program soon attracted listeners to report and discuss cases of child abuse, a subject which was taboo before in the town.