Sub-prime mortgages seen through class Fault Line

Is there an assumption that most of the borrowers are lower income? How much does poor credit correlate with income?
One story ideas: Look at range of borrowers, from speculators to those who borrowed to get more house or to buy bigger toys.

It’s not my fault…I was raised this way!

My personal response to Jean Marie Brown’s “Fault Line” presentation

Sitting here listening to Fort Worth Star-Telegram Managing Editor Jean Marie Brown’s presentation on Fault Lines, I am somewhat offended.

I feel like a little kid being lectured. I feel like I am already considered ignorant of issues on diversity. I feel like someone must have thought it necessary to have someone come in here and tell me how to include race, gender, geography, class and any other identifying factor into my reporting when I already know how to do that. 

Then again, I guess that’s just my own fault line.

As a white dude born in 1983 in Los Angeles, I’ve been raised in a pretty diverse world relatively free from exposure to racial tension. I had to learn later in life that prejudice still exists, even in incredibly subtle ways that I might never experience first hand. Just because I’ve never dealt with it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

I’m also a product of my generation. I was raised amongst and played with peers of multiple races, classes, genders, religions, geographical backgrounds and sexualities.

I’ve lived in four different cities in two countries. I’ve eaten at restaurants that boast three Michelin stars and I’ve eaten freshly killed chickens in the lean-tos of Dominican coffee farmers.

I’ve gone to college, and I’m currently in a top-rate graduate journalism program that emphasizes high ethical standards, one of which is a dedication to telling the whole story.

What I see as obvious might not be as blatant to others. What others see every day might sit squarely in my own blind spot.

Although I sometimes think I’m above all this diversity stuff, I’d be an idiot not to realize that not everyone’s like me.

But if I don’t see that by now, that’s my fault.

Subprime lending – brainstormed story ideas: geography angles

1- The ripple effect -trace the effect of subprime loans and foreclosures by identifying a “ground zero” and tracing the neighborhood/local/county/state/regional/national effects.  Good potential for interactive online presentation.

2- Paint a city’s complete subprime profile.  Show how different neighborhoods are feeling the effects differently - Bakersfield as an example - certain neighborhoods are hit harder than others.  One Hispanic neighborhood in particular saw huge growth in recent years but is seeing little foreclosure right now.  This trend could point to future success of that part of town - where the city will continue to grow, rather than high-foreclosure neighborhoods, which could fail economically.

Group 3: Race as a Fault Line on Sub-Prime Lending

How might race be used as a filter for news stories?

Our group has severall story ideas related to the subprime lending issue coverage:
1. Create a profile of lending institution officers and their demographics. Are financial institutions creating special programs to recruit minority officers?
2. Examine high-minority neighborhoods and examine the sub-prime lending market and use peer income neighborhood for comparison.
3. Examine African Americans isolated in high-income, racial enclaves and whether they have received different loan rates vis a vis their neighbors.
4. Look at multi-family home ownership...several family members coming together to buy a home.
5. Redlining and the subprime market. Where are these in our coverage area and how does subprime play out in this community.
6. Look at diff. ethnic populationsa and lending practices. What are the differences?
7. Muslim banks don’t believe in loan interest. How do they handle the mortgage market.
8. How African Americans use the telephone to prescreen for mortgages before they fill out loan applications.
9. How investors have used sub-prime mortgage to purchase investment properties and who is actually defaulting in areas that are experiencing a housing bubble.
10. Use multimedia Google mash-up to overlay geography, income and mortgage packages like a Zillow interface.

Fault Lines: Story Ideas (Group 1)

Story Idea 1 for Generational Fault Lines for sub prime lending

Story idea 1: Investigate sub-prime foreclosure data to see if there are any generational statistics relating to other groups (possibly older investors) that may be affected, which may contradict the assumption it’s generally a younger demographic over-spending on housing.

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Across Generational Fault Lines

One story idea our group had for how to approach the subprime mortgage crisis from a generational standpoint was to look at the crisis on a macroeconomic level. Is this financial crisis comparable to the Depression? What do people who lived through the Depression, who typically have conservative financial views because of that, think of the current economic situation? How do the children of that generation, who are now homeowners, view the crisis and how do they view personal finance and savings? What do macro-economics think? 

Fault lines: Exploring a story idea through gender

Our group considered possible gender-related story ideas for sub-prime mortgages. There are many lens through which to look at this issue via gender, but our ideas were:

*Profiling people in trouble from a gender perspective, including single men and women, single mothers and fathers, etc. How did these people get their sub-prime mortgages? How are they coping now? Find out what’s happening to their lives and how this financial struggle is playing out.
*Profile the same gender breakdowns from an additional or different angle—who is availing themselves of recent government aid? Do they know about it? How are they using it? Is it making a difference.
*Mine the data. Look at a gender breakdown of who got sub-prime loans throughout your coverage area. Are there any differences in gender that correspond to geography other factors? Who gave out the loans and are there any gender trends there? Get data on the homes for sale, possibly from the realtor board or association, and review property records to determine owner. Get data on foreclosures. What are the genders of the folks using sales to get rid of their homes and/or what are the genders of those going through foreclosure? What about refinancing? Who is doing that or able to do that?

-- Deedra Lawhead, Kentucky.com

Barack Obama—Is he Christian Enough?

We’re in the Fault Lines session, and are talking about race—the question was posed “Is Barack Obama black enough?” as a presidential candidate, and how that question can mean lots of different things to different people based on their fault lines. It got me to thinking about the Washington Post A1 story this week about Obama’s ties to Islam. This story drew lots of criticism, from even within the Washington Post staff, and it seems to be a clear example of people’s fault lines getting in the way of their reporting....

What does everyone else think? David, did you see any backlash in your newsroom over this? Is this an example of fault lines?

Other coverage:
WaPo Obama Muslim Story Under Fire
Emails Spread Obama Muslim Rumors

Ideas: Connecting with “Communities of Difference (Series Index)

On Friday, Dec. 7, I’m presenting a two-hour workshop entitled “Strategies for Connecting with Communities of Difference in a ‘Me’ World.”

The more I researched this topic, the more I realized that “meatspace” is far more important than “cyberspace” when it comes to communities that currently aren’t well served by (or tuned into) mainstream news. That’s because communities are comprised of people…

If a community has a poor, spotty, or nonexistant relationship with your news org, you’ll almost certainly have to do more than reach out to them via media channels (online and otherwise) in order to connect with them and build a constructive relationship. You’ll actually have to go where they are and learn from them.

That’s why in this session I’ll focus on some ideas for connecting with typically underserved communities via online, print, broadcast, and real-world means. The point is people, not technology.

Here’s what I’ll cover in the session (time permitting, depending on discussion and tangents):

Tech-focused options:
1. Which communities are “different?”
   
2. Mobile publishing
3. Blogs
4. Twitter
5. Audio: radio, net radio, and podcasting
6. Tagging content for targeted feeds
7. Customized print editions
8. Other geeky but cool options




People-focused options:

9. General tips & context for approaching communities
10. Civic orgs
11. Simplified stories for ESL and literacy programs
12. Highlight community contributions

Caveat: My aim is to present ideas and examples. I am not claiming that any or all of these is “the answer.” In fact, I’m certain some of them are pretty bad ideas for your news org. My point is merely to draw the seminar group into a process of exploration—because you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t start moving.

Note that this series of posts is basically a first draft of a module that Adam Glenn and I are developing for the Knight Digital Media Center. What happens in this seminar will shape that module.

Want to influence this module? Speak up in the comments to the relevant posts! Thanks!

1. Who’s “Different?”...

1. Who’s “Different?” Defining Communities

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

People identify with communities in lots of ways, some of which are “mainstream” in your coverage area. Here are some characteristics that tend to mark some communities as “different” from the demographics that most news orgs tend to focus on serving…

• Class: Working class and the “underclass” (poor, unemployed, homeless, etc.).

• Geography: Rural people, whether in farming/ranching communities, or in sparsely populated ares such as mountains or deserts.

• Race and ethnicity: Includes people of color as well as ethnic distinctions such as Persian, Slovak, Tuareg, Bengali, or Hmong.

• Language: People with little or no English skills, or who prefer another language to English. Mainly immigrants, but can be cultural preference.

• Ability: People who face significant challenges with vision, hearing, mobility, cognition, development, and communication.

• Age: Children, teens, and seniors have unique needs and preferences for news and community.

• Military: The military is its own society, for both soldiers and their families.

• “Queer” (Sexual or gender orientation): In the US, if you’re not primarily heterosexual and presenting a gender that matches your “naughty bits,” you’re “other.” Also includes less-recognized communities around alternative sexuality (like BDSM) or relationship structure (like polyamory)—common fault lines today.

• Faith: In most regions of the US, any faith beyond the Judeo-Christian mainstream is treated as “other.” But for many people, faiths such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Jainism, or Santeria provide their primary community identification.

• Literacy: People who can’t read well or at all are often “out of the loop” for print news and other information sources.

• Incarceration: Some regions have a huge prison population, which is largely ignored by most news orgs except in stories about prisons or crime. But most of these people will get out of prison some day—and they’re still people, even while in jail.

NEXT: Let’s take a look at how technology can help you connect better with these communities, starting with:

2. Mobile publishing...

2. Mobile Publishing: “Gateway Drug” for News

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

Cell phones are everywhere—current research puts their penetration at 82% of the US population. They’re surprisingly popular in many communities typically underserved by news orgs (especially the working poor and immigrants).

Therefore, it makes sense to offer relevant mobile offerings—especially to communities of difference—and to promote mobile offerings through those communities’ preferred media. This can create a bridge between their current media of choice to the news organization’s core offerings.

Mobile offerings also can provide two-way communication that’s “close at hand”—limited for true conversation, but adequate for feedback purposes.

Some mobile content ideas…

While USAtoday.com (and many other national and metro dailies, like the LA Times) have great mobile offerings that work, the news offered there is fairly mainstream and generic—not necessarily optimized for relevance to communities of interest.

It’s pretty easy to offer mobile syndication for any RSS feed. Figure out what content might be attractive to communities you aren’t yet reaching well, and try feeding it to them via mobile.

Options to consider:

• Text messaging: For breaking news, daily headlines, or event announcements—like Go2 (more about them)

• Voicemail updates: Either delivered to users’ voicemail, or they get an occasional text message reminder to call in and listen for the latest news or special announcements. Can help overcome literacy and even language barriers. Fox News Radio does updates-to-voicemail.
  
• Headline syndication agreements for news sources on relevant topics (like EIN News) or in relevant languages (like Somali Sports & Culture). This can serve both online and mobile delivery. Twin Cities Daily Planet does this with online Hmong headlines from Hmong Today—content that could easily be syndicated to mobile.

Experimenting is easy! If you can’t afford or don’t want to build your own mobile syndication infrastructure, you can get easy mobile distribution of any feed via services like BuzMob or Twitterfeed. (Each has limitations, see what would work for you.)

PROMOTION VIA PREFERRED MEDIA

How are these communities already getting their news, info, and entertainment? Promote your mobile services via channels they are already connected to. Yes, this means buying ads or sponsoring programming. Tell people what you offer, why they should care, and give them a quick, easy way to subscribe by mobile. Examples include:

• Broadcast radio and TV (you could buy ads or sponsor programming). Talk, sports, and culture programming are especially good options.
• Satellite radio & TV
  
• Community newspapers and magazines (especially in other languages, like Ming Pao Toronto)
• Church, community center, or school bulletins
• Free paper inserts or ads
• Fliers and posters

The point is to go where they are, and tell them what they can do with something they probably have in their pocket to get connected to you—and why it would be worth their while. Even if it’s just rugby scores, it’s a connection you can build upon.

3. Blogs as a Community Content Hub...

3. Blogs as a Community Content Hub

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

If your news org is committed to making a special effort to reaching certain underserved communities, blogs can become your hub for collecting and creating content specifically relevant to those people.

Examples…

• Homefront in Focus: For SignOn San Diego, by a local military spouse

• Houston Chronicle offers three Spanish-language blogs.

• LA’s Homeless Blog. News, commentary, and citizen journalism aimed at an unlikely target community by an advocacy organization.

• CityRoom: This NYTimes.com metro blog does a great job of promoting other local blogs addressing various communities of geography, ethnicity, culture, and interest. Even if they’re just linking out, from a venue like this that’s a big boost. Even better would be if they would routinely highlight and republish (with permission) the best content and discussion from those community blogs.

TIPS:

Start with the blog, and expand. Community content and conversation that first appears in your blog can later be expanded into traditional coverage (news, features for print or broadcast) as well as mobile, podcasts, etc. Always link back to the blog as a center of community focus.

Respond to comments. If your news org needs to prove it’s listening to previously underserved communities, then acknowledge them when they speak up. If you’re taking their suggestions into account, show them how.

Followup. Community-focused blogs can be a great place to provide targeted followup on key news stories. For instance, if you’ve just run a big series on school funding, your Arab-community blog could be the perfect place to include extra info on schools in Arab immigrant neighborhoods; or to ask open questions to invite community input

Make it mobile. Offer a mobile edition of at least the headlines and summaries of your community blogs.

4. Twitter...

4. Twitter: It just works

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

Twitter is a popular free social media service that allows “microblogging.” You can post short “tweets” (up to 140 characters) to your account. Other people can “follow” you, and you can “follow” them. Some control over privacy of posts.

Twitter posts can be viewed online, via feed, via SMS text message to mobile devices, etc. Supports posting from mobile devices via text messaging. It’s simple and it just works. Dead easy to subscribe to and use.

Examples of how Twitter can be useful to news orgs and communities…

• KPBS. NPR affiliate in San Diego offers updates on Twitter. During the fires, this became probably the best use I’ve ever seen for Twitter. Undoubtedly useful for evacuees whose most reliable contact with the outside world was their cell phones. now they’re syndicating headlines and other updates. 961 followers currently.

• Event coverage. I’m Twittering this KDMC seminar right now! Follow me!

• Community news & outreach. Teeth offers syndicated headlines from Pakistani bloggers.

• Twittermap can showcase local tweets.

5. Audio: radio, net radio, and podcasting...

5. Audio: Radio, Net Radio, and Podcasting

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

Audio is a key method for reaching underserved communities. Thanks to evolution, the human voice is a peculiarly effective means of establishing human connections. Literally talking to—and especially with—communities can go a long way toward bridging gaps.

Advantages: Helps overcome limitations of literacy, language, free time (people can listen to it while doing other things, like driving or construction work).

Audio creation, production, and editing skills should be in every journalist’s toolbox these days.

Some audio ideas…

Broadcast radio: Despite a broader array of listening choices, broadcast radio remains surprisingly popular overall, and particularly in many communities typically underserved by news organizations.

Get Arbitron ratings for your coverage region: Which stations and shows do your target underserved communities listen to? Does your news org have a presence on these? Opportunities include guest spots, regular segments, advertising, and sponsorship of programming or events.

Create your own audio content: Even if you’re a newspaper. Great example of this is SignOn Radio from SignOn San Diego (Union-Tribune site). It’s role in the community really shown during live talk coverage involving journalists and call-ins of the recent San Diego County wildfires. Right now it’s just streaming net radio, but they could syndicate this out: podcast, broadcast, satellite, mobile.

Another example: AP radio. Syndicates to broadcast and satellite.

Internet Radio: Hmong American Radio News (Hmong Language)

Podcasting: I listen to the Denver Post news headlines podcast every weekday. (Even though they don’t make it easy to find or subscribe.) Also to Colorado Public Radio’s Colorado Matters podcasts. Both news orgs could be doing much more with both those shows to reach out to underserved communities and raise revenue potential.

Mobile audio: Fox News Radio delivers news updates to voicemail.

Podcasting: If you have a large S. Asian community in your region, see what they’re interested in and maybe partner with relevant podcasts from Podbazaar in the relevant languages.

6. Tagging...

6. Tagging Content and Targeted Feeds

(NOTE: This post is part of a series. Series index.)

These days, feeds are the key to any kind of distribution you’d want to do in your own venues and beyond. Your content management system (CMS) should allow you and your users to flexibly “tag” (categorize) any piece of content on your site (text, pictures, audio, video, interactive, comments).

If you can tag content and generate a feed from that tag (or any combination of tags), you can selectively remix and syndicate the content you need to serve specific communities…

Tag your content to help analyze your coverage and spot gaps:

• Geotag (zip code, neighborhood). This allows you to create a map mashup and geotagged feeds—or integrate more effectively with YourStreet.com
• Story type (crime, fire, health, environment, business, etc.) Tag by story, photo, etc., not just section or beat
• Check social media services to see how others are tagging your content.

If your CMS doesn’t yet accommodate tagging, first complain to your management about how they’re preventing you from helping the company make money.

Then hire a geek to set up a script on your server to mash up Del.icio.us with your posted content. That way, when you post content online you can also tag it, and generate feeds via Del.icio.us that you can use in various ways. Not a perfect solution, and ther emay be some IT staff resistance to overcome, and it requires an extra step for every story, but it’s better than nothing because it gives you lots of syndication flexibility.

7. Customized print...