Engagement Reporting: Crowdsourced Journalism in Today’s On-Demand World

On January 9, 1956, “Dear Abby”, an advice column, was first published. Readers all over the country wrote in to Abby to ask mostly intimate questions about their love life, but also a range of other questions such as “Can an 8 1?2 -pound baby be this premature? What’s the difference between a wife and a mistress? I joined the Navy to see the world. Now, how do I get out?” Responses from Abby met with a receptive audience, and “Dear Abby” ultimately rocketed to become the most syndicated newspaper column in the United States with more than 95 million devoted readers.

What made “Dear Abby” so appealing? It solicited active participation from its readers, which was a rarity at a time when readers relied wholly on newspapers to determine what was relevant news. Moreover, “Dear Abby” changed the experience of reading the paper, which was typically solitary and static: A paper boy would toss a copy of the newspaper in the general vicinity of the front door while in motion astride his bike, and dads would carve out their favorite time of the day to spread open the paper and read it at leisure without interruption. Against this backdrop, “Dear Abby” simulated an interactive experience with the reader vicariously inquiring of Abby alongside the actual letter writer, who was identified with a descriptor like “Peeved Grandparent” rather than with his or her actual name.

“Dear Abby” was before its time. It foreshadowed the direction modern day journalism would take. Abby behaved like Google, except she wasn’t an impersonal search engine but more an endearing aunt, a trusted friend or a personal therapist.

According to a fact sheet published by the Pew Research Center, U.S. daily newspapers peaked in 1984, with a total estimated circulation of roughly 63,340,000. By 2017, however, the number had declined to approximately half: 30,948,419.

In today’s digital era, the tail now wags the dog: The entire news landscape has become interactive, and the Dear Abby format now drives the newspaper. Much of what newsrooms cover is dictated by the anticipated interests of the audience rather than the paternalistic decision making of the editorial staff. Readers will no longer wait patiently to have their papers delivered so they can read news stories. Instead, the tables have turned, and readers are now dictating what news content they want to see and callously ignoring content that doesn’t interest them, leaving news organizations scrambling to write articles that can successfully compete for the attention of fickle readers. And, the competition professional journalists face has intensified, with alternative news sources coming from freelance journalists, amateur writers, self-promoting bloggers and teenaged vloggers. The user-generated content has particularly reshaped journalism, giving rise to more entertainment-based content aimed at going viral. As a result, journalists are hustling to simultaneously refine their writing skills and master videography and audio techniques to keep up with a readership that cares less about credentials and more about entertainment value.

Newspapers today have reluctantly but finally made the shift to offering a digital version of their print articles and have jumped on the social media bandwagon. A handful of newsrooms have taken it even further through a new form of reporting known in the industry as engagement reporting.

Engagement reporting is essentially a response to the on-demand pressures of the modern world. With readers able and wanting to access content when they want it and only the content that interest them, news organizations have had to meet this consumer demand or perish. So, local newspapers in particular have turned to crowdsourcing their content ideas in hopes of being perceived as more relevant. No longer does the editorial staff pitch ideas and have the Chief approve them. Instead, engagement reporters inquire of their readers what they would like to see covered. They even invite reader contributions to the investigative process, asking readers to share personal experiences that may be relevant to the stories being written. By engaging the readers in this way, the newspapers are able to ensure that the readers feel invested in, and will read, the published stories and become more loyal subscribers of the newspapers.

Below are four innovative examples of engagement reporting from four different newsrooms.

Dallas Morning News: “Curious Texas” Forum (2017)

The Dallas Morning News (DMN) launched their “Curious Texas” project in December 2017. The graphic above illustrates engagement reporting in four steps. Readers are invited to ask about what makes them curious. A vote from the readership is taken to see which question interests the most.

Then, the most popular questions are investigated and reported by the engagement journalists. Finally, the article is published on DMN’s platform. Submitted questions have ranged from how to change the color of the Dallas Skyline to whether or not you should put your recycling in plastic bags.

ProPublica & NPR: “Lost Mothers” Investigative Project (2017)

In the summer of 2017, Propublica published its investigative series on deaths related to pregnancy in the U.S. After crowdsourcing the idea on social media, Propublica took it a step further by involving the readership in the investigative process. Its engagements reporters circulated a public questionnaire as well as partnered up with local graduate journalism classes (CUNY/NYU) to conduct a more extensive research than would have been possible. The crowdsourced investigation turned out roughly 5,000 responses with cases pulled from all 50 states.

POLITICO: “A Fake News Database” (2018)

In response to political leaders accusing news agencies of publishing ‘fake news,’ POLITICO launched its Fake News Database, which invites its readers to help flag impostors, hoaxes and manipulated content they come across. Readers and POLITICO staff work together to create a public disinformation database.

Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, El Paso Times, Houston Chronicle: “Reddit AMA Session” on Midterm Elections (2018)

In November 2018, five political reporters from five different Texas local outlets (representing their different regions) organized an hour-long, live Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session to field questions on the Cruz/O’Rourke midterm election. Readers, local representatives and reporters congregated online and generated a discussion totaling 787 comments.

According to the Nieman Lab , the next generation will most likely not know what it feels like to hold a newspaper. Nostalgics will have to accept the reality that, as technology improves tablet and mobile devices, we will truly go paperless. Once multi-platform delivery of information becomes the only available delivery method, journalism will have no choice but to cater to a readership that demands on-demand news feeds.

Digital news sites are already churning out articles like blue collar workers on an assembly line, trying to anticipate if the articles will trend. To ensure success, journalists search first for trending SEO keywords that they can piggyback on to get their pages crawled to satisfy Googlebot and become a trending item in turn. Newsrooms are all too cognizant of the shift towards online, multimedia content. Many have responded by rapidly creating never-before-seen positions specifically dedicated to SEO, engagement and audience development.

In the near future, engagement reporting may be taken over by AI that analyze cookies that track your activity and visits to generate article ideas. In 2019, the global AI market is projected to grow approximately 154% from 2018 levels. While creating spaces for engagement may be forward-thinking now, when will journalism reach a point where content generation and distribution will be wholesale handled by AI? It is only a matter of time before machines become faster and more accurate at predicting what will trend among online users using cookies and algorithms. Perhaps it will be a blessing in disguise, allowing reporter-turned-social-media-gurus to return to what they do best: fearlessly “gather, assess, create, and present news and information” (American Press Institute).

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