Suggested Speakers
- Jennifer Brandel | @JenniferBrandel
Hearken - Julia Haslanger | @JuliaJRH
Hearken
“Make It and Take It
Session Description
Do you have a project (or beat) that you want to engage your audience around? This one-hour workshop takes you through the steps of building a plan for how to reach the people you want to reach. Walk in with an idea, walk out with a written plan for achieving that goal (and an accountability buddy to help you stick to it).
The workshop will be lead by Hearken CEO Jennifer Brandel and the company’s engagement consulting team. Hearken works with dozens of newsrooms on audience engagement, and they’ve learned a lot about how to plan a successful engagement project that they want to share with you. We will focus on general strategies (read: this isn’t a pitch for Hearken).
A 5-minute intro to get your brain whirring about engagement, then everyone breaks into groups and rotates around the room. Each group starts at the center and then (in any order) visits the four corners of engagement:
Center: Who is your audience? What do you want to know from them?
Corner A: Where is your audience, IRL and/or online? What are some ways to reach them there? Who could you partner with or ask to be an ambassador for you?
Corner B: How will audience input shape your work? Who will manage ongoing communication with the people who engage with you?
Corner C: How will you highlight the value of your audience’s participation? What ways are you giving people to continue to engage with you post-publication?
Corner D: What’s your deadline? What are some benchmarks you can put on your calendar?
How does your submission contribute to the diversity of the conference?
This session is being pitched by four people in the Midwest (Chicago), who come from a variety of backgrounds (varying professional backgrounds, as well as personal backgrounds). The four speakers are all women, two of whom have never attended an ONA event before, and one of whom is biracial (black and white). We range in age from early 20s to mid-30s. The lessons shared as part of this session come from our work with people all along the spectrum of the media landscape: tiny newsrooms, big broadcasting companies, public media and commercial media, regional and trade, etc. Our work is driven by our passion for helping to diversify media, both in terms of who is in the newsroom and who is served by that newsroom.