That makes for a predictable or boring newspaper. And that doesn't help in terms of cultivating a variety of news sources. Yes, we've been guilty of not getting a complete picture of the community, partly because we were not in contact with enough diverse sources. As stated before, this is a flaw we've known about for some time, and we're trying desperately to correct . Our most common problem is going back to the same sources too often.
Reporters get in a rut, thinking that one person represents a group.
Residents point out specific problems from time to time, sometimes on the phone or in writing, but often in person. We watch for all this and address it with regular reviews of our performance . Taylor covers the Hmong, Somali and African-American communities on her beat as an International Communities reporter. We don't talk enough about our choices to say that we actively know what we're doing. Audit results sparked a revelation among reporters that the more they seek out real people affected by the issues raised in traditional reporting, the more reflective of the community their sources became.