Gathering the News


The value of listening to the audience

An occasional perspective on newsgathering by
Chris Worthington, MPR's managing director of news.

Good journalism is mostly about listening - listening to stories, to tips, to instincts, to people with expertise and experience. Yet all too often, news organizations fail to listen to their audiences. Technology, of course, has made it easier than ever to include the audience in a regular presentation of the news. But let's face it, at times this seems more like blood sport than engagement.

For many news organizations, honest, active listening to audiences, which feeds back into coverage in a meaningful way, remains a low priority. Why? It's expensive, time-consuming and the value is hard to measure.

We don't just view audience engagement as trendy or fun at MPR News. We believe it's integral to our news operation. Our goal is to be a hub for important news, analysis and debate in Minnesota. Our audiences are smart, engaged and offer a wide range of informed perspective and experience. So why wouldn't we want them to gain insight from their collective knowledge?

Talk radio was actively engaging with audiences long before the Internet. Today, many guests exit the Midmorning or Midday studio and praise the high quality of questions from listeners. It's often true that the best segments are the ones with the best questions from listeners. A recent show about the long-term benefits of working with one's hands drew a call from Post-It Note inventor Arthur Fry. Another show about concussions in sports sparked scores of calls from coaches, athletes and referees.

We also see engagement as good journalism. Technology is allowing audiences to actively and enthusiastically gather around the topics they know best. As a result, it has become an expectation that news organizations offer similar depth of knowledge on a range of topics. That makes our audience knowledge - a tremendous asset of MPR News - more valuable than ever for producing meaningful stories.

We have a variety of ways to play-back the knowledge we hear from our audiences:

  • The Public Insight Network: A 25,000-person network of Minnesotans that contributes knowledge and first-hand experience around the news. In the past few months, the network told us about the rise of solar manufacturing in Minnesota, the controversy around the construction of a Roseville asphalt plant and the most effective way to stop neighborhood crime. You can join the network by clicking here.


  • Insight Now: A daily, hosted, digital conversation around a topic in the news. Amid a week of special reporting on MPR News about education standards, Chatfield High School students revealed that the standardized tests, so important to a school's rating, mattered little to them - a significant, systemic disconnect.


  • Commentary: A solicited, written piece that's published daily on MPRNews.org. The commentaries are not just from experts or pundits, but from everyday people living the news. Toward the end of summer, our web audience learned about a rare, fatal lake-borne infection from a mother whose daughter died from it.


  • Arts Hounds: Arts and cultural aficionados share their recommendations for weekend watching. An art gallery opening in New London, Minn., filled up recently, said the owner, because an MPR audience member - an "Art Hound" -- talked about it on the radio.


  • Today's Question: An invitation to share an informed point of view about an ongoing debate in the news. Here's how one woman answered a question about extending life at great financial cost: "Until you are faced with this question you really don't know how you will answer. My sister's husband died this spring at 43 from colon cancer. He was in the process of getting an expensive treatment that would give him three more months. They have 9-year-old twins. Of course, he wanted the extra three months. Before, I would have said no to the question, but now, I don't know."


  • MinnEcon: A blog about the Minnesota economy driven by the insight and experience of our audiences. A realtor recently passed along that cash purchases of bank-owned houses are up substantially, raising the prospect of properties being "flipped" for profit.

We continue to explore ways to allow our audiences to benefit from each other, a true commitment to listening to what you have to offer.