Through a project called Curious City, radio station WBEZ Chicago asked their audience to be the ones submitting questions about what they wanted to know, as opposed to the traditional approach of journalists sourcing story ideas.
In this article from IJNet, Em Okrepkie, Dow Jones News Fund Digital intern at ICFJ, highlights four tips from WBEZ Chicago to involve a wider range of listeners in your reporting.
Instead of having conversations online, reporters went outside to catch up with listeners in their neighbourhoods and have a chat about potential questions. Curious City also cooperated with community organisations such as local libraries to reach more people.
Okrepkie points out that you should constantly listen to and engage with your audience even if they are not a suitable source for the piece you are working on at that moment, as they may lead to other stories in the future.
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