ABSTRACT Facing a range of challenges including a lack of attention to ordinary people, journalism outlets around the world have turned to practices such as engagement to better connect with and reflect the lives of under-represented audiences. While many of these efforts have deployed social media platforms as a means to interact with the public, such efforts have been criticized as transactional. A smaller group of journalistic projects have turned to face-to-face methods such as live journalism dramatizations, listening tours and the object of study here—temporary or pop up newsrooms—to connect with the public in physical spaces. This study carried out interviews with journalists in six countries who have participated in pop up newsrooms, finding that journalists valued being physically present in a space (often shared with community organizations or events); physical co-presence led journalists to engage in self-reflection on and critique of traditional journalism roles; and a temporary newsroom generated more interactions with less frequently covered communities.
Read full abstract