Reporting on the Recession from the Street: Your Uncommon Economic Indicators

In the early days of the recent economic crisis, television news showed the plunging Dow, rows of houses in foreclosure and economists talking about “toxic assets.” At WNYC, host Brian Lehrer invited his listeners to create a different narrative. He asked, “What does the recession look like in your neighborhood, on your street, in your workplace?” The response was immediate and exceptional.

It was late January 2009, just months after experts declared the U.S. to be in the worst financial condition since the Great Depression. Brian directed his listeners to a web page the station created called “Your Uncommon Economic Indicators” at WNYC.org. Nearly a year later, it remains a destination for public radio listeners to learn about, map and share personal observations of the economic collapse.

In just ten days the project had 8,000 page views. Listeners sent us stories and photos of anything they suspected was a result of the financial collapse. They told us how a new, typical elevator greeting became, “I still have a job,” as layoffs ensued and they reported on the unusually high number of young dads at kindergarten pickup. They told us their strategies for saving money on lunch and they documented the view of closed storefronts from New Jersey to Queens (including Madison Avenue). But perhaps most special of all, listeners shared their solutions for coping with tough financial change: dates at the grocery store, choosing a walk over a taxi, a church passing out money from their collection plates, librarians coaching hoards of job seekers and vacationers staying close to home (or even AT home!).

Your Uncommon Economic Indicators has drawn together hundreds of listeners from New York City, parts of New Jersey, the Catskills, Connecticut and Long Island, to view and share their observations in story, photo and geographic form. The New York Times economics writer Steven Greenhouse called the story archive details that “would make up a great novel.”

It is from this collection that Brian Lehrer Show producers search for trends or unusual stories that represent the human experience in the financial crisis and recovery. To produce a segment, we invite professionals or experts to expand upon an observation, or we ask a WNYC reporter to find out more and talk with us. For some segments, we simply invite the contributor to come on the air to share their story, and then have callers respond.

Your Uncommon Economic Indicators is a blanket narrative, a patchwork of unique observations pulled together to reveal things about the 2009 recession that won’t appear in the history books. It also serves to contrast personal stories with the often abstract financial reporting based upon employment data or GDP reports. When people wrote about their eating and grocery habits, we discovered that the kitchen table is where most listeners felt the pinch first. When one contributor described a somber atmosphere at work, where she was surrounded by empty desks, we explored the pressures of the layoffs with a segment called “Mental Recession.” Finally, when the government declared recovery underway, individuals questioned the optimism with comments about unrecovered jobs and benefits.

Collaboration between contributors, producers and our newsroom allows us to connect the dots and spot economic stories. The station now identifies itself as providing “Uncommon Economic Coverage,” which we attribute right back to our listeners at every opportunity. By creating a story-reporting interface that allows our audience to share with us and allows us to respond to them, we have forged new bonds with amateur reporters that builds trust on both sides.

The Team
Host: Brian Lehrer
Senior Producer: Megan Ryan
Producers: Lisa Allison, Jody Avirgan & Paige Cowett
Online Project Editor: Annie Shreffler
Digital: Valentina Powers, Kevin Lahoda & Jacob Smuyllen
Senior Executive Producer: John Keefe

© 2010 WNYC Radio
Crowdsourcing: A Fieldguide from WNYC is a project of public media’s Economy Story collaboration, which is made possible, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting