Questioning our assumptions: basic reporting processes, mass tragedy and engagement

This panel will explore community engagement at its most basic level: by examining and critiquing how journalists interview sources and report on the scene. By using insights from research into coverage of a mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, we will raise this question: To truly engage with and build trust with the public, do journalists need to re-examine the most fundamental processes of their jobs?

Identifying and questioning basic, underlying assumptions is a necessary part of creating and sustaining change in any industry, educational psychologists say, but it’s often overlooked. This panel will use critiques of coverage and journalistic processes gathered not only from journalists, but from members of the community of Roseburg, Oregon. Why did the community members grow to resent and distrust the journalists? What did the journalists wish they hadn’t had to do? How can engagement not only rebuild that trust, but help to build a better journalism? The panel may not come up with definitive answers, but it will provide a provocative discussion.

Organised in association with the Agora Journalism Center, the gathering place for innovation in communication and civic engagement, at University of Oregon's School of Journalism & Communication. Additional support was made possible through a generous grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.