Finding stories in blind

spots & gaps

Juan Pablo Garnham
Urban Affairs Reporter - The Texas Tribune - @jpgarnham
We did what we do...
- Talked to the people going through the problem.
- Talked to housing experts and lawyers.
- Explained the answers and connected them with a solution.
My lessons from this story
- Audience engagement pays (especially right now).
- It’s the time for service and solutions journalism.
- A lot of stories hide in our blind spots.
Audience & engagement
- We’ve been doing callouts and using Screendoor to manage this
information.
- We’ve received thousands of entries.
- We have our newsletters, Facebook group and a really active team
working in this area.
Service and solutions oriented journalism
- Experience covering immigrant communities: our stories need to be
useful.
- Right now, people need answers.
- We do it in many articles, but we also have our Texplainer section.
Finding stories in our blind spots
- Motel-hotels
- Mobile home parks
- Undocumented people
- Urban/Rural/Suburban divides
Photo: Gary Rhodes for The Texas Tribune
Photo: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas
Tribune
Photo: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune
Thanks!
jpgarnham@texastribune.org - @jpgarnham