It is possible to learn from third places even if you can’t physically go to them.  

You can ask people - civic leaders as well as informal leaders - about the conversations they have inf third places in one-on-one conversations.  

Here are some examples of questions to ask:  

• When you get together with people (not in official places), what sorts of issues or concerns do you hear people talking about?  
• Why do people talk about these issues/concerns?  What leads people to bring them up?  
• When it comes to this issue/concern, what is most important to people?  
• What are their aspirations for this issue/concern?  What do they hope will happen?  Why is that important?  
• What are people trying to figure out when it comes to this issue/concern?  What questions do people have?  
• What do you think people would like to see when it comes to news coverage on this issue?  Why is that important?  

When you talk to people in the community, no matter what type of leadership position they hold, try out these third place questions to see if you can make new discoveries about issues.  

John offered some great suggestions about getting information from Third Places without actually visiting them. I hope he’ll post some of that information here so we can all benefit from it.

Since I hadn’t blogged here until after I had run into the problem, my approach for solving it was a bit different (although I still plan to use John’s suggestions). I offered to take the only female member of the council to lunch and I let her pick the place. The restaurant turned out to be a Third Place in and of itself, which worked out really well. We saw quite a few people (most of them officials or quasi-officials, but you have to start somewhere, right?) and I was able to get a couple of story ideas and make a few connections. 

 I also have adopted a blanket approach to story suggestions. I meet anyone and everyone and rarely do interviews over the phone. I know this won’t work for everyone, but it works for me (in part because I work for a weekly and because the company I work for takes a creative approach to community coverage). I have also developed standing features that force me to go out and meet people I otherwise wouldn’t. I know that ”cold calling” is not my favorite activity, but I also know it’s a great way to meet people. One of my features, Yard of the Week, forces me to find a pretty yard and then talk to the owner about it. I’m nervous every time I knock on a door or ring the doorbell, but people have been really receptive to me and the idea of having their yard in the paper. It’s a way to get me out into the community and get people’s faces into the paper. And you’d be surprised by the things you learn while talking to people about their yards. It’s been interesting.

 What ideas do you have for connecting with your community?

I have to admit: When I got this job, I felt as though I had won the lottery. I couldn’t have written a better job description. Having spent the last two years studying virtual and geographic communities, I was excited to put what I learned to work. So, the idea of redesigning a newspaper AND a Web site was especially appealing.

I knew I made the right choice when I met with one of my bosses on my first day of work. Here are a few of the things he said:

• “Have fun; try stuff; take a ton of chances.”
• “Think of it as a fun little lab and you’re the mad scientist.”
• “Listen to what people say, get feedback and act.”
• “Don’t be afraid to try.”

Seriously, how many bosses say those kinds of things? A lot of us in the journalism industry talk about how newspapers are reluctant to take chances and embrace change. I’m glad I work for a company that’s willing to take a chance on me and my ideas. But I also know I’m under pressure to create a product that resonates with the community and no amount of cheerleading is going to make that happen unless I get out and connect with the people I’m supposed to be covering.

And that’s where I’m running into some hurdles. I’m a middle-class white woman. My community is a melting pot in the truest sense of the phrase. It has slightly more African Americans than it does Caucasians with some immigrants and Indians thrown into the mix. According to the United Way, about a quarter of the population lives in poverty. I have no idea what that’s like. I’m supposed to get people engaged with the paper, but I’m pretty sure most of them are juggling multiple jobs and don’t have time to be citizen journalists for me. I’ve had no problem exploring the official and quasi-official layers of civic life, but I’m having trouble finding Third Places. I asked one councilman and he told me about a couple of places where people gather to talk. One of them was a barber shop, and he was pretty sure I wouldn’t fit in there. The other was a fireworks store, where the town’s elders get together in the back room to discuss the latest happenings. Again, he said it wouldn’t work if I went there.  I’m back to where I started: Desperately seeking Third Places. So, what do you think I did (or should do) next?

We’re interrupting your summer siesta to let you know that the blog will soon have new content.

 I’m Heidi and I’ll be your host for the summer. I worked on the CoveringCommunities project while I was a graduate student at the University of Kansas. Now I’m the editor of a weekly newspaper in South Carolina. I’m in charge of revamping the paper to make it more engaging, interactive and community-oriented. Over the next several weeks, I’ll blog about my experiences — both good and bad. Tune in to learn about my lunch at the Squat and Gobble II (yes, that is the actual name of the restaurant. Seriously, I couldn’t make that one up). Find out how I failed to hold my own at a car show. Discover how I’m incorporating Rich Harwood’s Key Insights into my day-to-day work. Watch as I try (and fail) to manage my time and have a life while working on the relaunch.

I plan to blog a few times a week (as much as my regular paying gig will allow) and I hope that the rest of the CoveringCommunities team will chime in with their thoughts and comments. You’re also welcome to join the conversation. The more, the merrier, I say. 

 So check in later this week and see what’s happening with my attempts to connect with my community. It’s going to be a fun ride.

 Chat with you soon.  

Hello folks,

It’s summer break for many journalism students and instructors. We’ll be checking the blog frequently but the postings will be rare. We’ll announce Web site changes and updates here, so stay tuned!

Next fall: another group of journalism students and their professor will host the blog.

- peggy kuhr

I really enjoyed this blog.  I thought it was an important aspect of our class.  It allowed us to interact online, not only with our fellow classmates, but with others that we would not have had the chance to.  I thought everyone brought great insights and comments to the table and I enjoyed reading them. 

Anna Nicole’s baby is finally with her…….rightful father?  Rosie is leaving the View.  Sanjaya was kicked off American Idol!!!!!!  Who cares?  When I turn on MSNBC or CNN or the nightly news I want to actually see news, not what is going on in the land of Hollyweird.  What is going on in Darfur?  What are recent goings on in Iraq?  What are the latest happeneings in congress?  That is what I want to know.  And yet time and again I am bombarded with this nonsensical fluff at the beginning of every news show.  I think it is time that everyone sit down and take a real look at their priorities.  What entertainment tonight to find out about who is doing what.  Watch MSNBC to actually find out what is going on in the world.

I thought that this blog was a good idea, and was an interesting addition to the class, but I found it difficult to create posts.  If you know that a group of people are going to view your words, sometimes it makes you a bit self-conscious.  I Even though our entire class has been blogging together, for some reason I still had a hard to working with this website.  I think there’s also something about the act of typing.  I can force out written responses upon command if need be, but for some reason I have a really difficult time typing out responses at a specific alloted time.  So, as my last words I just wanted to say that the blog was an interesting tool for this class, but I personally had a hard time working with it.

I think that Don Imus caught a raw deal with the loss of his radio show over his poor choice of words.  All things considered, you have got to wonder, how poor of a choice were his words?  As a shock jock, Imus is expected to say edgey and borderline offensive things; and with the vocabulary of this day and age, how uncommon is it to here the word “ho”?  Pop in any modern rap cd or tune into a stand up comic and more often then not, you’ll hear a “ho” before you know it.  In my opinion, though his comments may have been offensive and insensitive, that’s his job and he should not have been dealt with so harshly.

 What’s your opinion?