Research roundtable: Collaborative scaffolding and solutions journalism (CJS2022 Day 2)

4:09PM May 25, 2022

Speakers:

Joe Amditis

Stefanie Murray

Caroline Porter

Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro

Spanish Interpreter

Keywords:

collaborative

scaffolding

solutions

outcomes

studied

journalism

collaboration

research

develop

phase

talk

report

newsroom

build

community

carrie

understand

mature

framework

members

Next up, to close out today's research roundtable, we have the newest paper just published this week, I'd like to welcome to the stage, Caroline Porter and Elizabeth Hanson Shapiro, who are going to talk about collaborative scaffolding. And this report is on the clever girls and website, we will drop a link in the chat and I'll turn it over to Carrie and Elizabeth.

Right.

Well, thank you so much for that introduction. Hi, everyone. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to talk today about some research that we've been working on for about a year and change. My name is Caroline Porter. And Elizabeth would like to

Hi, Elizabeth Hanson, Shapiro, happy to be here.

Terrific. So we had an opportunity to research the outcomes for six different solutions, journalism collaboratives, between the fall of 2020 in the fall of 2021. And we recently published the research just this week.

So we're going to talk you a little bit about what we found and the implications of what we found. Because while we studied a very specific set of collaboratives, we think the dynamics and insights that we generated have applicability to all kinds of collaborative projects. But just to kind of ground ourselves in where we began this research. So our kind of motivating question was to understand and track the outcomes that were being generated by a set of solutions journalism focused local media collaboratives. And this was really interesting to us. Because, you know, we've done a lot of work in the field around collaborative journalism. And, and there's been a lot of work on solutions journalism, as a as a different and generative approach to covering the issues that matter to communities. And the distinctiveness about these clevers that we started is that they were really trying to bring these two things together. So both collaboration and solutions journalism. So the animating question for us was, you know, what, like, what is the special sauce here for solutions, journalism, and what's happening in these collaboratives? That's allowing them to create different kinds of outcomes. And Carrie, are you still able to? Seems like we might be having some AV issues here? Yes,

we are.

Having a fun time over here. So we're good. We're gonna work this out, folks.

I'm with you guys. We're gonna work this out. Can you hear her? Okay? You're also Yeah. Okay. Keep going.

Okay, well, this is a perfect opportunity for all of you to open up your phones or your web browsers and key in either of these two links. You can read the full research report at collaborative journalism.org backslash soul journal. Or if you'd like to read the abridged essay form, which is condensed, but gets to a lot of the heart of our findings, you can visit the Tao medium page to see those.

And so what we, you know, we referenced this earlier, but we studied six different solutions, journalism collaboratives. And our research focus was specifically looking at their focus on dei sustainability and impact. To do this research, we leverage baseline studies, we also did surveys both of audiences and of collaborative members. And then we also did interviews with collaborative managers, collaborative members, audience members and leaders of the local media project. And finally, we also had observations where we sat in and got to be a just an a not a participant, but an observer for collaborative meetings, as well as project manager meetings and public facing meetings as well.

So when we were building out the theory of our case, one of the things that we wanted to make sense of is okay, we're working with these two different interesting components. We have solutions journalism framework, that the collaboratives are going to be, you know, learning from reporting with adhering to, and then we also have the separate entity that is a collaborative where you have the different members from different organizations coming together and supporting a new effort, in this case, choosing a specific subject with a solutions journalism lens. And so with those two different concepts, the collaborative and the solutions journalism framework in mind, we built out this theory of a case, which was that the separate entity that is the collab Then when you combine that with a solutions framework would generate new norms. And with those new norms, there would potentially be changes in outcomes. And so our findings, were, we started with this. So over the course of the time that we got to observe these collaboratives, we saw a pattern develop with how these collaborative takes shape. And through the course of today, and yesterday's Summit, we've definitely heard different clubs have talked about this. But there are these, you know, sort of signposts, if you will, for how collaboratives make sense of themselves. And so this is how we put this together. And we saw this through six different collaboratives that we were studying, the first phase is coming together, this is obviously one that requires patience, and in a lot of enthusiasm, and it is not only choosing the membership, and choosing your focus, but it's a big part of this phase is also establishing your protocols and policies. And this is a really critical phase for just developing the standards and the MO for the group. So we found that phase one coming together was like a critical linchpin for how the following phases would develop and the pace at which they would develop. The second phase we observed was the sharing of code sharing of stories, or CO sharing. So we're familiar with this, from previous research, where you learn about the different types of collaboration. So this is the one where we say, Hey, we're all gonna report on the subject. And this story that is within the bounds of our reporting focus, you can also you can also share and hear part of the work for the collaboratives that we observed has to do with the, you know, this is where collaborative work kind of, it doesn't fully hit the road, but it really starts to because you say wait a minute, you're gonna take my my story and publish it on this other person, or other outlets website and figuring out how you acknowledge that and credited how you share and how you also make sense of editing is critical. Also, you at this is a point where you start to really start to observe benefits, where you see like, wow, you know, we can expand the reach of this work. The third phase co creating content, this is where as collaborative members, you start to work together to, like build new reporting features. And so one example that comes to mind that we feature in the report is in Charlotte, where there was a joint effort from three different outlets to report on eviction data, and they had a huge trove of data they needed to make their way through. And they leveraged different types of like the members reflecting their different mediums like their original, whether it's TV or radio, or print, and they work together to publish that A and then the fourth is making space and here, you know, this is where you can really take advantage of working with non news members. And I should caveat that by saying that, ideally, the non news members

are participant also members the period from

the beginning, because they obviously provide a different perspective that can inform how to base your you know, everything from like, how you approach the stories to how you define your audience. And this fourth phase, we saw sort of like the the generative phase that leads to the most changes from traditional journalism to a more open mindset to what that journalism could look like.

Where are we here? Yeah, so we so the developmental lifecycle that we lay out, in the paper that we saw unfold amongst our collaboratives you know, as we saw them becoming stronger and stronger over time, part of what we were trying to understand is like, what is the what is this all leading to? So particularly amongst the mature collaboratives? Like, what is this What, what's the kind of like desired end state? Like, we know that collaboration is a great thing, but like, what, what, what are what do these folks seem to be driving towards as they get more and more sophisticated at working together? And so what we saw across the mature and maturing collaboratives that we observed was this, this really emergence of what we call collaborative scaffolding. So it's a way collaborative scaffolding is a set of values and an orientation so in the mature and mature and collaboratives that we looked at, they had a very clear community first value system and that that value really anchored their work together. And they also had a built a really high degree of trust. So as Kerry talked about each of those developmental stages, helped them become closer and closer together so that really strong scaffolding around trust could develop. And finally, in the in the mature and maturing collaboratives that we studied. You know, this scaffolding, this strong scaffolding also looked like a commitment to the collaborative as an entity. So, you know, the incredible thing about collaboratives is that they bring together people from different newsrooms, and people strongly identify with their home newsrooms, and that can sometimes get in the way of collaboration. But when we saw this developmental cycle play out in the mature and maturing collaboratives, what we saw is that people were really becoming committed to the collaborative as an entity in itself. So we spend a lot of time in the paper talking about collaborative scaffolding, and what it looks like and what it can do, because we think this is really the sort of the true flowering of a collaborative developmental process. And this is where you start to get the really interesting and important impacts for ecosystems and for communities. So I want to talk a little bit about the kind of so what of these strong collaborative scaffolding that we saw in our collaboratives. So we present a lot of evidence in the paper, that strong collaborative scaffolding has these kinds of outcomes. So one is deeper engagement with communities. And we have a whole bunch of examples in the paper about the mature and mature and collaboratives that we studied, really having a sophisticated approach to bringing communities into their reporting, to bring them into the story process to really being in conversation around their particular topic. We also collected all kinds of really exciting evidence for the mature set of collaborators, but also really across the set of positive funding and policy outcomes that were resulting from this process of develop developing strong collaborative scaffolding. And finally, you know, our window into the development of these collaboratives was like a year, you know, one year of observation, and each of them are sort of at different stages. But what was most exciting for us to see, early evidence of is that this kind of collaborative scaffolding and strong collaborative scaffolding that develops over time is really starting to build pathways to community change, and community change, not just in the sort of audience sense of like audiences, you know, are being served with different kinds of information and different kinds of critical information that makes a difference to their lives. But that there were also sort of catalysts for different kinds of action in communities around change around the specific topics that the collaboratives have chosen. So carryover to talk, just going

to determinative a couple weeks a little bit about some examples of the policy, positive funding and policy changes that we saw. And obviously, there's a lot of text on the screen. But we'll we'll run through these to just give you a flavor of some of the things that we observed in our period of observation. So in Charlotte, the collaborative covered solutions to expiring housing vouchers, and shortly thereafter, the housing authority there opted to move forward with one of the solutions identified in New Hampshire, they, the collaborative got wind of a controversial bill, and they happen to be in an interview with the governor, and they asked the governor about it got the governor on record, saying that he opposed it. And in the end, a weaker version of the bill was added into the state budget. And in Cleveland, we saw how a solutions focused story about housing legislation was picked up by a city nearby, and then two others also were interested in it. So those are some neat ways that we're seeing the solutions focus stories that the collaboratives are producing, being picked up in policy. And in funding, we have evidence of stories generating interest. And you know, we're familiar with the benefits of media amplification, and how focusing especially on a single subject can lead to can generate more buzz for a particular subject. So in Chicago, the Chicagoland vaccine partnership was awarded $1 million to distribute to its partners, and they attribute that some of that had to have come from the coverage that they received from solving for Chicago, and a similar kind of thing played out in Northeast Ohio, with an organization that hosted COVID-19 vaccination clinics and then later received funding from the Cleveland Foundation. And finally we have another example of this were in Philadelphia resolve Philly, which is the umbrella organization for broken Philly, one of the collaborators we studied. There they received $1 million to support men ers and their COVID coverage.

So, as we've been explaining, you know, the the collaboratives that we studied, were each in their own developmental cycle. So some of them were just coming out of the gate, some of them had been together quite a while. And what we tried to understand from all of the data we gathered is like what what, in addition to, you know, collaboratives, going through their lifecycle and learning how to work together and producing outcomes and content together, what seems to influence the ones that are developing stronger collaborative scaffolding, and the ones that seem to be struggling to develop that scaffolding. And we had a couple of observations, which we think are important just for collaboratives, generally. So one is obviously like, age and size makes a difference. And, you know, there's a couple collaboratives we studied, which started small, and it's and it seemed to us that those those collaboratives, that had a smaller membership at the beginning, were able to sort of build a strong foundation of relationships that could then allow the collaborative to grow and thrive over time. But deeply related to that is the in person, the the quality and type of in person interactions of the collaborative. We started this study right at the beginning of the pandemic. And, you know, we saw that like, as collaboratives had to make that shift to being totally virtual. Some of them that had not had that chance to develop those strong in person relation face to face relationships, like really struggled to continue that relationship building over zoom. So it's just very, very clear to us that the that the in person interactions make a huge difference for being able to build the trust and shared values. You know, the solutions journalism framework is an incredibly powerful one. And collaboratives, were able to kind of pick it up and make it their own in different ways and at different rates. And what we saw is that in the collaboratives, that were able to really, fully understand and embrace the solutions journalism collaborative, you know, through trainings through really like strong project leadership, they were able to build collaborative scaffolding faster than the ones who sort of, were slower to develop a shared understanding of the framework. And of course, all of this is kind of under the header of like collaborative leadership and project management really makes a difference. All across the cycle. But as Carrie said, like that first phase of developing protocols for how we're going to work together is just really critical. And you know, the collaboratives, that we're able to have robust project management. So like a person who could develop us, who could devote a substantial amount of time to tending to the group as its own thing, you know, those really those collaboratives are really able to thrive, there was somebody worrying about them as an entity. So that's another critical ingredient. And finally, we found that a clear subject orientation also really made a difference for how these folks developed collaborative scaffolding. You know, choosing their choosing a subject that's too diffuse, meant that people could kind of get confused or come with lots of different interpretations around how to divide up work and what constituted success. A clear subject orientation was really formed a strong basis for folks to come together and orient their work over time. So that was another critical ingredient.

So here, we are looking at one of my favorite slides. So the goal with this slide is to show you how, over time with it the benefit of a shared vision and values, as you commit into this collaborative and you make your way through the phases, you can see the changes the outcomes that can be generated. And in a way, this is how you might see collaborative scaffolding develop. So if you think of it, it can start at that individual level. This is if you think phase one, you're meeting people in our survey data, we saw how a majority of people that we interviewed said that they had made new, they establish new relationships outside of their own newsroom, and even inside their newsroom that were meaningful. And this is also, you know, in some cases, like we did one interview, where they talked about having to two news organizations that had historically been competitors sitting together at the table and talking through how to meet, like audience needs best. And, you know, that kind of conversation around orienting. What can we do to best serve our community is and you know, it's a really exciting time to come to the table and that conversation happening at the individual level was something that really pour out of our research and our interviews and survey data. The next one around collaborative, like the collaborative level, this is where, you know, we really start talking about the scaffolding and You know, what Elizabeth was sharing through the need for commitment for trust. And for a sense of shared values, this is when you have that buy in, really start to start to develop, you know, phase two, phase three. And as you really engender those, those concepts and, and have more buy in and also start to produce the content. It can grow increasingly expansive over time. And that's where we find ourselves at the media ecosystem level. And, you know, ultimately, the local news audience level, which that was one where ultimate, we just need more time to see those outcomes and see how that plays out. Over time.

Yeah, so and so this next slide, Carrie, I'm just going to pick up on on what you said there about kind of needing more time to both study and produce outcomes at that local audience level. You know, we, as researchers, we came into this, thinking that perhaps naively, that we would be able to capture and understand the changes at that local news audience level. And, you know, what we found is that this, this incredible developmental process is producing, like Carrie said, these sort of like, concentric, you know, expanding circles of, of impact and outcomes. But really, that is, that's the kind of holy grail at that local news audience level. And that's also what we think is going to take the most time. So, you know, the most, the most mature of our collaboratives, you know, have been together five years or more, and they are definitely creating change at that, at that audience level. But there's a whole cohort of folks who just need more time and resources to get to that. And what this research I hope lays out is that there is the pathways are there, the pathways are there for creating change, it's time together, it's resources, it's dedicated project, funding, and project leadership, that's really going to make all of those, you know, impact at that bigger level, actually, really start to flower. So care if you just go to the next slide. So this is just to like, go back to where we started, you know, our hypothesis had been, you have a separate entity, you have a solutions framework, and then you can get share in the best in the best cases, you can get shared values and new norms. And what we're seeing is that, you know, there's a very clear direct impact on the journalists and their relationship to each other and the relationships across newsrooms. And it's really through that shift in the ecosystem that I think we're ultimately going to get to this shift at the community level. So it's not you know, it's not the content that changes the audience's minds. We think our research suggests that it's it's journalists and news organizations working together in new ways, and engaging communities in new ways that produces that community change that we ultimately want to see.

Carry Carrie, you want to talk about? Oh, sorry. Yes, it's mine. No, so sorry. That said, let me just say one more thing about solutions, journalism, we we wanted to understand the sort of special sauce of solutions journalism. And I think what we found is that, you know, participants, as in many collaborations, like show up for the resources and show up because it's, you know, because it is a chance to expand their work. But the solution journalism approach is a shared mission. Really, it really was the glue that kept the collaboratives together and going. And so that to us, is the power of like a values and an explicit values and rigor, rigorous framework, is that it can really help these collaboratives stick together through the inevitable as everybody knows, ups and downs of working together. So I think, I think we should we leave it there, Carrie and see if there's questions. I think that

would be perfect. Five minutes.

Awesome, fantastic. I dropped this note in the chat a second ago. But I just want to say like, thank you both for this research, and thank you to Knight Foundation for funding it because it there's so much in collaboration, that that many of us who work in this area like No, like we kind of anecdotally understand that this is how things flow or this is what you need to have happen. And it's just really affirming. And to see it, you know, like just spelled out and explained so well. And I think there's a lot in this research that will help other other organizations looking to build build collaboratives What are IK? We've been having some technical issues here today. If anyone has any questions, drop them in the chat. We've got the q&a rather. We've got one in there. It's from Robin. She says Did you study any student At newsroom and pro organization collaborations with the same methodologies, time, resources, etc, that you talk about with the collaborative scaffolding work for student related collaborations?

Yeah. So I'm gonna go first, and then I'll chime in.

So I can think of a few instances where collaboratives worked with students. So in particular, in Charlotte, they have one of their members is Queen's University. And they leverage student interns to help with reporting, as I recall, and but we didn't explicitly narrow our analysis service around student journalism as part of a collaborative effort, but we were looking at them as part of non news membership.

And I think, I think this would, yeah, I think that the collaborative process we laid out, I think it would definitely apply to other types of student collaboratives. I mean, it's, you know, it is it really is about how you productively work together over time.

Sharon Broussard from Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative, she asked, Were you surprised by anything that you found during this research?

That's a great question. So I I'll just say I was I was surprised that I was surprised that the, where we landed that, like the, you know, the sort of work together and the building new connections would be the path, the ultimate path to some of the wider community outcomes, because I, my, I think my implicit assumption coming in like, I'm sure, others here is that like, it's the content that changes things. And, you know, ultimately, I think this is the story about the power of building new connections at an ecosystem level, that really is what shifts things. And, and so that that to me, I think we I think we landed in a surprising place for us around that, because we came in here with I think, a very content focused assumption. What would you say carry?

Yeah, I would just add that something that surprised me was hearing from member members in interviews about what it was like for them to feel like they were part of a newsroom. In many cases, these members are either working. And it also, you know, it's worth noting, we were doing this research during the height of the pandemic. And so for people working from home and adjusting, there was a sense of isolation that I think the collaboration addressed in in having an eye heard in several different interviews, talking about feeling like they were part of a newsroom again. But to be orienting from a position of collaboration, rather than competition was something that came up again and again, and returning to a public service mandate was something that I think felt very refreshing for a lot of the interviewees and so it was interesting to see how that kind of coagulated into this broader shared sense of mission, especially in a phase of such such dire need for important news that we had in 2020 and 2021.

Right, thank you both so much. And you can read the report at collaborative journalism.org/s o l journaux, J, o, u, r and l. We dropped that link in the chat earlier and we'll do it again. So thank you