Public Insight Network
When you join the Public Insight Network, you help us as journalists cover the issues that matter to you. Public Insight Journalism relies on your expertise and personal experiences to help inform our news coverage.
The Columbia Missourian is working alongside journalists at KBIA, KOMU and the Reynolds Journalism Institute, and what you contribute to us will also be accessible to journalists in those newsrooms.
We'll ask you to share your observations, insights and experience. We then pass on your information to reporters and editors who may follow up with a request for more information or perhaps an interview. With your permission, they might publish your insights as well.
What we're asking now:
- What is your perspective on job loyalty and mobility?
- What is the value of children learning foreign languages early?
The Public Insight Network, a project of American Public Media, has a growing network of more than 130,000 sources. You can choose to be a source just for mid-Missouri newsrooms or for a broader pool of journalists nationwide.
What's your expertise?
The answer to that question might be something related to your work, where you've lived or a specific set of facts you've acquired. The answer also might relate to life experiences. Have you cared for a parent with dementia? Are you a film buff? Are you involved with your neighborhood association? Do you coach your daughter's soccer team? Just about anything could at some point be relevant to how we cover our community.
Here's a video explanation of what it means to be a source.
What you can expect by becoming a public source
- Emails asking for your insight on issues we plan to cover — you respond only if you have knowledge or forward to a friend with relevant experience in the topic.
- An occasional follow-up call or email to get more information, if we follow a lead you provide.
- Confidentiality: We won't quote you without your permission.
- An open line for you to tell our newsrooms and programs what stories are important to you, your family and your community and help us set our coverage priorities.
- No spam, marketing calls or requests for money — your information is private and is not shared outside of a small circle of trusted journalists.
- You may be called on to help with national stories through American Public Media programs, such as Marketplace, local newsrooms such as MPR News or partner newsrooms around the country.
Ready to be a source?
Sign up here. And thank you. Questions? Contact Joy Mayer, the Missourian’s director of community outreach.
