Building Community from Diversity, Santa Ana, CA 2002
Partners:
The Orange County Register, OCRegister.com
Excelsior
Myoc.com
Reporters developed a deep understanding of the Latino population in the Santa Ana readership area with a community mapping project that included a phone survey, an academic cultural study and a dynamic database of sources structured to stay useful even as reporters move on and off the beat.
The Register announced its mapping project to the community with fliers sent to 750 Santa Ana community groups and through messages sent to community email networks. Then a team of two project leaders, two reporters and a news assistant began the process of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 100 community members. They also compiled detailed lists of “third places” in the community, where people go to attend to issues important to them and their families and neighborhoods.
The information was entered into a database of community resources used as a newsroom tool. It is cross-referenced by each person’s interest, role in the community and particular affiliation. A hyperlink in each entry connects to the original interview with the source so that the reporter-user can understand the background and context of an issue and the source’s involvement with it over time.
The information was also entered on a literal map, posted in the newsroom and updated each week with stickies showing new places the team found and lists of community assets. The team created a video so the whole staff could learn how to use these resources.
In September 2002, the paper conducted a survey in Spanish of 209 Latino homes in Santa Ana to learn more about life in the community. Meanwhile, a doctoral candidate from the California State University-Fullerton conducted a cultural study of one Santa Ana neighborhood. The paper published stories reporting the results of the survey and study but, more importantly, the project uncovered interesting stories from the community. For example, the Register covered an annual reunion of Mexican American alumni who desegregated a Santa Ana school in the 1950’s after learning about it through an interview. The database also enriched the reporting of other stories. A November 2002 story about immigration done by the paper’s Washington bureau benefited from Santa Ana sources found in the database.
Contact:
Dennis Foley (former Ombudsman for The Orange County Register)
County Government Reporter
The Orange County Register
PO Drawer 11626
Santa Ana, CA 92711-1626
Phone: (714) 285-2862
Email: dfoley@ocregister.com