We should be transparent about our interests in engaging communities — e.g. If we’re for-profit or non-profit we disclose that The truth is that journalism has for time immemorial been in the business of mass dissemination and publishing. Engagement, such as we think about it now, has historically consisted mainly of letters to the editor. Codes of conduct related to who to publish, how much to edit, ensuring balance, etc. had to be developed and routinized as a result.

The goal should be to try and help as many people as we can. No matter if they sometimes drift astray. Once they get it, and you're still answering their questions to the best of your ability, your askholes will love you for life. We might have great intentions organizing a community convening. But we don’t spend the time and care to make sure the right people were invited in to speak, leaving key communities and perspectives out of the conversation, effectively silencing them. Community Engagement can be powerful when the right people—the communities most affected—are doing it, and it is done right and has support. For example, I learned of a community engagement effort rallying Latino parents around education. Parents of a particular low-income school were asked what their top priorities were. Their answer: school uniforms. This is a public school, so the concept of school uniforms was interesting. But that’s what the parents wanted. And the school and the District listened and negotiated. All the kids at that school wore uniforms. It was awesome. To come together, to have your voices heard, to have your suggestions implemented—what something like that does for a community’s morale cannot be overstated. They felt hope and they wanted to work harder and to be more engaged civically. It must be like that time when Mulan, disguised as a dude, finally realized that she was just as smart and strong as any of the other guys! Then you can tame it! Iwould love to learn more about how you spin(or don't spin) and the work you are doing. Your editorial mandate: The Parkland shooting has people around the country talking about gun violence. Your newsroom wants to create a newsletter for youth in your community around this topic and drive coverage around the midterm election.

From personal experience, I’ve found it easier to say my opinion and then move on from the situation. I can’t say I didn’t try help, and now, the ball is in my friend's court as to whether he or she takes what I’ve said to heart or not. How might newsrooms create an ethical framework around their engagement work, similar to a code of conduct for staff relationships? “Engagement” is becoming more central to newsroom revenue models, and with it comes a lot of thorny issues that start with the question: “why exactly are you trying to engage the public?” If the answer doesn’t include “to learn and in-turn create more useful content for the public” than it’s worth interrogating the purpose of that work and the forces at play calling for something else. The following is the beginning of a draft of such a framework, drawn from a SRCCON 2018 workshop led by Jennifer Brandel of Hearken and Andrew Haeg of GroundSource . This piece is co-authored. From the election of Ronald Reagan to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 80’s (AKA the Eighties) was an era of popularizing slang. This decade saw the advent of MTV, Valley Girl culture, and TV hits like the Simpsons; of course it’s vernacular was going to explode. Here’s a list of the oddest or […] Just move a few states away. Once you aren’t available to hang out whenever and do them favors and stuff they forget you in a couple weeks. Have either you or your friend create a debt. The best way I’ve seen it is: “There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other is to lend.”

Slang squad! It’s time for some tea, fam — we’re going all out on another roll-call, and this time we’re focusing on the dankness that is Millennial slang. Recently, we’ve been scoping plenty of sketches and songs that are trying to yeet in this kind of slang left and right, often to great comedic effect. […] Is it really a bad thing to be an askhole? If you take the term at face value, the description I just gave you, or the for the feeling you have about the term, then you may think I just insulted you, but let’s looks at this in a slightly different way. The majority of the time, people may become upset or offended because they expect their friends to take on everything they say and follow their advice, word-for-word, which of course, never happens. Your editorial mandate: Your newsroom is in a community experiencing the effects of the opioid crisis. You need to get people directly affected by the crisis to be involved in your coverage in a sustained way. Have something traumatizing happen to you, then they will just leave because they think you are crazy or are tired of hearing about your problems.Stop asking to hang out because you feel like you’re annoying and unimportant even though it’s not true. Researchers estimate people have 60.000 thoughts a day of which 60% to 80% are negative thoughts. Like I can't do it, it won't work, I am not worth it, I am not smart enough and so on.