News414 is Connecting the Community to Journalists and Resources and Vice Versa Through Text

In times of crisis, there’s always a lack of access to vital information that can sometimes mean life or death for people. COVID-19, and now with the most recent murder of George Floyd by the police, and countless others, so many people are left wondering where to go next for resources, such as mental health services or access to food.

The News414 project was created to provide an avenue to connect the community with journalists to find the resources and information that they need. Based off the responses of the community, News414 is focusing on five areas: food access, housing, health and safety, jobs and money, and mental health and domestic violence.

Residents are encouraged to text MILWAUKEE to 73224 to begin to receive free, personalized data via text messages. There’s also an option to directly connect with a journalist to dive deeper into the issue or concern you want to know more about.

This service is available through the partnership between Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS) and Wisconsin Watch. Together, they’ve received a $234,000 grant from Google News Innovative with both newsrooms investing $110,000 of their own resources into the project.

Through News414, they’re looking to change the way journalists find their stories and how they interact with their audiences. This service will allow NNS and Wisconsin Watch journalists to heavily base their coverage on what the community wants.

“I think I know, but you don’t know till you know,” NNS Editor and Project Director Ron Smith said about knowing what the community wants to see in the news. “Very rarely do we ask our reader, ‘What do you need?’”

This idea was based off of Outlier Media’s model, which roughly reaches 500-750 Detroiters each week with vital information about housing, utilities and COVID-19, according to NNS’ site.

News414 is both a service for resources and an avenue to create investigative stories wanted and for the community.

News414 Project Manager Jeff Roman is bringing his background of community organizing and activism to the service. Residents can text the service and ask for resources, but Roman said it’s more about genuine connections and relationships.

“We don’t want to enter into the community without building trust,” Roman said.

The service’s target audience are central city, low-income residents. Along with providing this service, the News414 team is helping residents with computer literacy. To some, navigating sites like the IRS’s to check the status of one’s stimulus check can be a task.

News414 was launched in March of 2020 and already has 20-25 questions coming in daily, according to News414 Community Engagement Manager Jimmy Gutierrez.

Ron Smith (T), Jimmy Gutierrez (M) and Jeff Roman (B). (Pictures provided by News414)

Gutierrez said this is a very straight forward service and it’s here to stay for a long time, even when the crisis slows down.

“Here’s a different way to do journalism,” said Gutierrez. “It can be more community controlled.”

For more information, click here. If you have any questions you can contact Ron Smith at ronald.smith@marquette.edu, Jeff Roman at jeff@milwaukeenns.org and Jimmy Gutierrez at jimmygootz@gmail.com.