What is Your Relationship with the Community?
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It’s important to be clear about what you think about your community and the role you’re trying to play. You also need to know what people in your community expect of you.

The more explicit you can be about this, the more effective you’ll be as a journalist. Why? Because journalists work in relationship to their community. And, as with any relationship, the better we understand it, the more effective we can be.

Your perceptions

• How do you perceive your community?
• What is the basis for those perceptions?
• What kind of relationship do you want with the community?

Community perceptions

• How do people perceive you and your organization?
• To what extent do people see issues of importance to them reflected in your coverage?
• What level of trust and credibility do people feel toward journalists and your organization?
• What kind of relationship do people want with journalists?

Implications

• What do these perceptions suggest for your journalism?

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