As politicians debate the fate of the nation, the rest of us struggle with deep political, economic and social divides. Three Public Insight Network reporters take to the virtual road to ask folks what they still expect from America and from each other.
Do you ever listen to the news and realize you know more the people quoted in the story? You find yourself thinking:
“I drive that road every day and it’s always been dangerous.”
“I work in that industry and no one should be surprised by what just happened.”
“That problem’s already been fixed at my kid’s school. Don’t these people talk to each other?”
That’s you being an expert. But it’s too bad we don’t know that. It’s why journalists too often end up talking to a short list of Usual Suspects.
The Public Insight Network is bridging that gap every day in more than 50 newsrooms across the country, from Minnesota Public Radio to the St. Louis Beacon to The Miami Herald to the PBS Newshour. We’re committed to the idea that the collective experience of regular folks from all walks of life can help us understand the news in ways that professional pundits, professors, politicians and other traditional “go-to” sources seldom can. We’re committed to going beyond quick context and easy analysis and instead getting out in the world to listen – really listen. We’re committed to public service journalism that is not just about and for, but by and with the people it purports to serve.
We need your help. When you join the Network, you share your expertise, whether it comes from a formal education or job, or just from living a full life – parenting, teaching, gardening, caring for aging parents, playing country music in your basement, understanding seismography, or a passion for maps and traveling. 
Vetted journalists can then search our unique, protected database for that expertise. Then they contact you by e-mail to ask if you can help them understand or shape or fact-check a story.
Along the way, you make the news better.
Now we want to go one step farther, and ask you to help us discover stories that reflect the lives you really live. That’s the next chapter of our work at the Public Insight Network. It’s time to tap the more than 140,000 people who have already joined the Network, and ask them to share what really happens and what really matters in their corners of the world.
We’re going to start by taking a virtual road trip through the Network. We might stop by for a visit (by phone) and ask you some big questions that seem to be tugging at all of us right now: What were your expectations of life in America? Have those expectations changed or failed? What is the value of work in your life? What do you worry about? Where do you find hope?
We’ll listen, hard. Then we’ll go deeper to explore the roots and realities and consequences of what we’ve heard. Our tools on this exploration are a sophisticated database of confidential insights from people like you, a form building platform that makes it easy to collect and sort stories from thousands of people at a time, and the basic curiosity that motivates every good journalist to seek new sources and new stories every day.
We invite you to join us on the road and in the Network:
https://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/source/en/apm/
And feel free to send us a question, offer a suggestion or share a story any time using the Ask Us Anything link.
