How to Listen Better

More than 30 tools, guides and examples to help journalists — and anyone else — be better listeners.

In my weekly newsletter, The Local Fix, I compiled a list of guides, tools, and examples of how newsrooms can listen more deeply to local communities. I’m sharing it here in case it can be useful to others, and to encourage people to add to the list.

Photo by Don Graham, used via Creative Commons

Listening Articles and Guides

• Listening is a Revolutionary Act: Part 1 and Part 2 — Jesse Hardman
• Five Kinds of Listening for Newsrooms and Communities — Josh Stearns
• Listening as a designer, not a journalist, helped me look deeper — Charla Bear
• Want to Attract More Readers? Try Listening to Them — Liz Spayd
• Sensing as Listening: How sensor journalism helps us listen to our environment and each other — Lily Bui
• Collective Story Harvesting — Amanda Fenton
• Big Listening — Upwell
• Listening to People Outside the News — Melody Kramer
• How Community Listening Sessions Can Help Reach New Audiences — Teresa Gorman

Photo by Simon Law, used via Creative Commons

Listening Projects in Newsrooms

• WNNO: The Listening Post
• AZPM: Dimelo Project
• Washington Post: This Year I Learned
• WNYC: TalkBox
• Carolina Public Press: News Exchange
• WMMT: Calls From Home
• Cape and Islands Public Radio: RadioBox
• Washington Post: N-Word Project
• StoryCorps: Great Thanksgiving Listen
• Coloradoan: Newsroom Cafes

Photo by runran, used via Creative Commons

Listening Tools and Models

• Engaged Newsroom Community Dialogue Toolkit
• IDEO, Creative Listening and “Hear” Toolkit
• Hearken
• GroundSource
• Ask — by Coral Project
• National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
• Public Insight Network
• Frontline Radio
• World Cafe Model
• Open Space Technology Model
• Feedback Labs

Finally, I want you to know that I’m listening. Share your additions, examples, stories and more as comments on this post. Help grow this as a resource.

Josh Stearns is Associate Director of the Public Square Program at the Democracy Fund. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jcstearns.

(Thanks to Teresa Gorman for help compiling this list)