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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, June 13, 2004

Staff project reveals new layers of diversity

By Sandra S. Oshiro

Round up the usual sources.

It's an easy habit to fall into if you're a reporter with a deadline approaching. Snatch quick quotes with the least amount of hassle.

Although that gets the job done, it can be a problem.

In our rush to write up the daily story and get it in on time, we've too often tapped the same tried, tired sources.

When reporters run on autopilot like this, how well does the newspaper reflect the diversity of our community? Have we failed to tell the stories of groups that rarely, if ever, hit our news radar?

How are we serving our readers if we don't get out among them and find out what is most important in their world?

In the past year, we've asked ourselves these questions and found ourselves falling short in a critical area: covering the lives of everyday people who aren't officials, don't hire public relations firms and rarely see themselves in our pages.

As part of a national effort sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Advertiser staff took time out to evaluate just how well our newspaper reflected the wide spectrum of our readership.

It was clear from our review that we weren't doing as well as we should, particularly in covering the distinct ethnicities and cultures that make Hawai'i the colorful stew that it is.

So in the past month, almost all of us in the newsroom put our usual work on hold and participated in what we called "The Plunge."

We spent a day in communities from Ka'u to Nanakuli talking to people about what matters in their lives.

We asked them to give us ideas for stories, names and contact information for those who speak for their groups, and events and celebrations that mark major points of passage in their communities.

The Plunge was a revelation for many of us.

Editors who had not been out of their offices for months dived into communities and came back excited about new story ideas.

Page designers ventured out, sometimes paired with staff writers, and returned with valuable contacts to add to our newsroom source list.

Photographers morphed into reporters and handed in notes with details on events that we had little notion were celebrated by ethnic and religious groups.

We've already seen the results of our staff's effort in our pages — real-life stories that didn't come to us via a press release, quotes from new sources who had not appeared in print before and profiles of folks we first learned about in our community dive.

In coming months, we'll continue to mine the ideas and contacts that we generated in our Plunge. We're staying in touch with the people we've met, subscribing to their newsletters, and renewing our pledge to chronicle Hawai'i's story in all its rich diversity.

Assistant managing editor Sandra S. Oshiro oversees the Business, Sports and Island Life sections. Reach her at 525-8063 or soshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.