Building readership with a sense of community

By Frank Denton

People with a strong sense of community or belongingness are also good newspaper readers. So if newspapers actually can develop and encourage a sense of community, are they not also building readership? In the absence of any evidence, it does make sense.

So how does an editor build this sense of community into coverage? By understanding the concept of psychological sense of community and considering its components.

While psychologists have used a variety of approaches to understand and measure sense of community, a 17-item psychological sense of community scale devised by William B. Davidson and Patrick R. Cotter in 1986 has been tested a number of times and found valid and reliable. (It was reported in "Measurement of Sense of Community Within the Sphere of City," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 16:7, 1986.)

In the hands of creative newspaper editors, it might offer a new way to think of community identity and how a newspaper can reflect it. Here are the 17 questions that, together, provide a good measure of sense of community:

Sense of Communty Scale

1. When I need to be alone, I can be.
2. It is easy to make friends and meet people in this city.
3. The people in this city are polite and well mannered.
4. I like my house (or apartment).
5. I like my neighborhood.
6. I feel safe here.
7. I like my neighbors.
8. This city gives me an opportunity to do a lot of different things.
9. This is a pretty city.
10. I feel I can contribute to city politics if I want to.
11. It would take a lot for me to move away from this city.
12. It is easy to get around in this city.
13. I would say that I am involved in lot of different activities here.
14. If I need help, this city has many excellent services available to meet my needs.
15. There are good opportunities for me to practice my religion in this city.
16. When I travel, I am proud to tell others where I live.
17. I feel like I belong here.

Since these items measure psychological sense of community, might we encourage that sense — and thus readership — by augmenting or reinforcing these attributes in our communities? While some are beyond our influence (No. 1, for example), others offer potential as elements of our coverage.

For instance, the statement, “There are good opportunities here for me to practice my religion in this city,” shows a need for strong and useful religion coverage. Or, “If I need help, this city has many excellent services available to meet my needs,” points to aggressively providing information on what help is available related to a story’s topic. “This city gives me an opportunity to do a lot of different things,” and the newspaper can list them all, with helpful information. Traffic updates can help the reader easily “get around in this city.”

More subtly, “This is a pretty city,” tells a newspaper that readers and potential readers want to see the attractive aspects of their town when they pick up their papers. That may mean more photos of the city at its best, more coverage of museums or historic homes, more pages for gardening and outdoor activities to show the natural beauty. A typical weather photo can show a community scene negatively or positively and still accurately reflect the weather. It involves reflecting the community from a different mindset.

The same goes for, “I feel like I belong here.” Combine that with, “I feel I can contribute to city politics if I want to,” and stories about politics may become framed around community problem-solving and help for getting involved.