HIGHLIGHTS FROM "MAKING THE LOCAL-GLOBAL CONNECTION" WORKSHOP
Poynter Institute - May 17-19, 2006
Sponsored by Public Radio International and THE WORLD - Notes by Paul Ingles

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a group of reporters and producers from around the country who gathered at the Poynter Institute in May for a workshop entitled "Making the Local-Global Connection." The three-day event was sponsored by Public Radio International and their fine program THE WORLD, which explores the global-local connection weekdays on its hour-long broadcast. The workshop featured many stimulating speakers and discussions so I thought I would try to pass along some highlights in a short series of posts. Those of you who are wanting to do more reporting that explores this global-local connection, may find some inspiration in here. In addition to THE WORLD, other national programs like MARKETPLACE and NPR news magazines are outlets interested in such stories.

The latest post is on top with earlier posts below.

POST THREE: Sessions with Andrew Steele and Rebecca MacKinnon

ANDREW STEELE is the Washington, DC Bureau Chief for the BBC.

Among the reporting basics that Andrew reviewed in his session were the three benchmarks for a good report.

> A Sense of Place
> A Sense of Person
> A Sense of Context

He spoke most about the importance of establishing a sense of place in a report. Get out of the radio station and into the field, he said, in order to root your listener into the place where the story is happening. Andrew, and the BBC in general, is a fan of the "standup" to help do that. In television (which Andrew also oversees), it's obviously the visual of the reporter reporting from the scene. In radio, it can be a moment in the story when the reporter is clearly engaged with the place. A track that might say, "From where I'm standing, just north of the bridge, I can see smoke from fires ignited by last night's bombings, still drifting over the city..."

Since the explicit use of the "I'm standing..." style of on scene reporting is less often used in American public radio, the relative merits and demerits of its use were discussed by the assembled workshop reporters. William Troop of PRI's THE WORLD said that standups and, for that matter, the use of reporter's questions in a piece are looked at skeptically at his editing desk - but if either suited the story's flow, they might be allowed.

In any case, all agreed on the value of giving the listener a sense of place through the use of descriptive writing and the use of sound.

Although many reports are relatively short, Steele says it's still important to establish some sense of the people who are involved in a story. The listener has to have a reason to care about how the story is impacting people. And, the listener needs to understand why the story is worth telling, which is the sense of context.

Steele offered other good tips about reporting in foreign countries in ethnic communities with which you are unfamiliar.

> Accept gifts, especially offers of food and drink, as turning them down are often considered a snub. Also, consider your dress. Scruffy reporter's day-to-day attire may not be appropriate on certain visits.

> Look carefully for a trusted guide. It may not always be the apparent community leader. It might be the person who's achieved the "crossover." Truly trusted in their own community but also respected outside the community, perhaps in broader government circles.

> Be sure to get your interpreting correct. Even the slightest misinterpretation in the translated voice over can sew a seed of doubt with your bilingual listeners. Plan your in the field interpreting strategy ahead of time so that you'll have the sound elements you'll need (the complete original voice and a clean and clear translation) when you come back in.

>Don't be afraid to look at the negative. Two examples he gave were that Asians have an element of shame around mental health and Africans are not used to using condoms. Be critical.

REBECCA MacKINNON is a veteran journalist and innovator in online citizens media. She is co-founder of Global Voices Online (www.globalvoicesonline.org), an international bloggers' network.

Rebecca says that international blogs can be a good source of story ideas since bloggers tend to be commenting on hot topics happening on the ground in their respective countries. She believes you can use bloggers as experts in your story (Opensource Radio does this), particularly the more reputable ones. As to the reliability of blogs, Rebecca says, blogs are as credible or not credible as people, generally.

Other tips: When trying to determine the relative popularity of a particular blog, enter the URL into http://www.Technorati.com to see who is linking to it. http://www.pubsub.com is a site that tracks RSS feeds, where you can see what words or phrases people are talking about, and who is linking to whom. Sometimes, you have to click through to other links to "get" what the blogs are talking about. Also check out other agregators like http://www.bloglines.com to see if the same topics are being discussed.

POST TWO: Sessions with Sandip Roy and Keith Woods

SANDIP ROY is an editor with New America Media, a national consortium of ethnic media. He is also the host of UpFront, a weekly KALW radio show about ethnic media and ethnic communities.

If you want to access diverse communities in your area, says Roy, connect with ethnic media outlets in your community (newspapers, radio hosts, websites). Visit with staff and patrons at ethnic restaurants, temples, churches, mosques, community centers. Connect with existing ethnic community organizations.

He offered these DO's and DON'Ts of Accessing Ethnic Communities

DO

> Identify trusted leaders in those communities. (It may have been Sandip or another presenter who said to look for people who have both one foot in their ethnic communities and one foot in the mainstream community. But it's important that they are respected and trusted in their own community).

> Think ahead about how best to build trust. (Paul's note: cultivate honesty and empathy)

> Figure out what you can offer them (i.e. on-air credit, future mutually beneficial collaborations).

> Study the politics before you dive in.

> ASK them what the story is. Don't go in TELLING them the story you want to do.

DON'T

> Just use them as merely a "tip" source. Engage them more fully.

> Use the same source every time.

> Assume that "one size fits all." (i.e. that all "Asians" think the same about a topic. Asia, for example, is a catch-all for LOTS of different countries.)

> Assume ideology.

KEITH WOODS is Dean of Faculty at The Poynter Institute and is a former reporter and editor at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He wrote an award-winning series in 1993 called Together Apart / The Myth of Race.

Keith urged everyone to focus on good storytelling practices. Be sure to connect the "what" of something that is happening to the "why" it is happening.

"Sometimes, the truth is all the balance that you need," says Keith about reporting. If you're telling the true story of an immigrant's wife, who died from the cold during a border crossing (a piece that Keith played for the group), you don't necessarily need to "balance" the story with "experts" from another side of the immigration debate. Keith said, "There ain't always two sides to the story."

Things that a good story SHOULD have, says Keith, include a) a strong voice b) context and c) complexity.

Another gem from Keith's presentation was the line "Sometimes your blind spots become your best stories." What I took from that notion is that we all need to move our attention toward populations, communities and issues that we don't normally gravitate toward or that don't seem top-of-mind on the so-called national agenda. There we'll find the untold stories that likely deserve the attention of the greater community - locally, nationally, or globally.

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POST ONE: Sessions with Doug McGill and Victor Merina

Doug McGill is a former New York Times reporter who now freelances in southeast Minnesota. He is also an adjunct professor of journalism and media studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. McGill is now editor of The McGill Report, a website of "glocal journalism"

McGill asked the group what we thought "glocal journalism" was. Here's the list we generated.

It's journalism that…

>bridges cultures on a voice to voice level.

>untraps people from their own neighborhoods.

>reminds people they are members of a global community.

>shows the local and human impact of global policies.

>tells not only what's obvious but also what's not.

McGill says you'd be surprised at the ways international stories ripple into local communities. He told the story of an Ethiopian tribe that was being victimized by ethnic cleansing. A large community of Ethiopian refugees in Minnesota were hearing details of the atrocities directly over cell phones from family members back in Ethiopia. He turned this "ripple effect" story into a piece for Minnesota Public Radio.

The key, says McGill, is to just keep talking to people in your community. Before long, you'll hear a story with a global connection that will "make your jaw drop" and you'll know you have something worth pursuing. He encouraged station-based reporters and news directors to make time for this type of exploration. He said that devotion to daily assignments and covering staged news events can often take time away from the development of truly surprising stories.

Poynter Institute fellow Victor Merina addressed the search for surprising stories too. The former writer for CBS Radio and the L.A. Times talked about getting story ideas from people all around us. In fact, Victor got into a conversation with an airport shuttle passenger recently who said, "A reporter or writer who is not aware of the synchronicity of life is going to miss the anecdotes that could be sitting next to you on the airplane or on the shuttle." Remarkably well put!

Merina added that if you have plans to travel overseas in pursuit of stories, don't overlook talking to people in your own community before you go. There are people in your own community who are from the place you are heading, or who have traveled there themselves, that will have lots of good background and story ideas for you to puruse.

McGill's session also produced the following list on the well-worn question: What makes a good story? There are always a few good reminders for all of us in a list like this.

>A Strong Narrative Arc

>Good Writing - good technique - good use of sound that paints a picture

>An Unexpected voice or angle

>Honest emotion

>A clear empathic path for the listener to care about the story

>Illumination of a universal theme through a particular local event

>When your jaw drops open and your eyes open wide and ask yourself, "how do I get this on the radio?"

>Something that connects things and people that haven't been made before.

>A story that has fewer "experts" quoted and more people who are actually living the story.