The general philosophy behind Hearken is that the more you involve your question-asker in the editorial process, the more invested they'll be in your work. Involving them helps ensure the final story you create meets their expectations and is of interest to your whole audience. Plus, they'll be more likely to share your work with their networks and help you build more engagement. 

This level has two parts:

Pre-interviewing your question-asker about who they are and why they're curious about a particular question can inform the kinds of questions you ask when you're out reporting. Pre-interviewing can also add more content to your final story. 

Example: KQED talked to a question-asker and found out he was curious about the lack of racial diversity in his county because his daughter was the only Asian student in school. Including this context helps all readers/listeners feel more invested in the question.  

Write up a quick profile of the question-asker, either for a web post or a simple social post. It's a way to be transparent with your audience about what you're working on and get them excited about the story. And it's good audience engagement to recognize the awesomeness of your audience members. 

Before you finish writing or recording your piece, but once you've hit a natural end-point for your reporting, loop back around and have another conversation with the question-asker. Record the audio, if permissible, or even invite them into the studio. Let them know what you've found and hear their reaction. See if they have any questions about the answer that you can address (which can help you see gaps in your reporting or editing). Oftentimes their reaction can be a good kicker for a piece. 

During your initial conversation, you can see if the question-asker wants to take a more active role in the reporting process. If the person is local, that could mean accompanying you on an interview. They can ask their own questions of sources, visit locations that are central to the story, or visit you in your newsroom while you sort through documents. 

This is also a great way to teach your question-asker how reporters conduct themselves while out in the field. For example, if they're accompanying you on an interview, you can talk with them beforehand about how you choose the questions you ask, how you conduct yourself if you believe a source isn't being truthful, etc. This can help you set expectations for the question-asker on how she or he should behave. 

If the question asker is remote, you can gauge their interest in staying updated on your findings throughout the reporting process. (That includes being able to suggest questions you use in interviews, for example). You and your editor still have complete control over what goes into a published piece. But having the input of an audience member throughout the process can be fun, fulfilling, and result in a more interesting story. 

Once you've chosen someone's question to go into a voting round, it's a great practice to get back in touch with the question asker to gauge how much they'd like to participate, anonymous or not. If they're anonymous, it is not a bad idea to circle back with them to double check they don't want to participate in the reporting process. Sometimes a person chooses to remain anonymous because they're in a high-profile position or role at an organization. Other times people change their minds about staying anonymous once they realize you've chosen their question to pursue or that it's won a voting round!  

There may be times where you just can't get in touch with the question asker. Someone may have purposefully or accidentally given contact information that's incorrect, or they're on vacation for two months and not checking mail. We recommend you make best efforts to get in touch, whether that's Googling to try to find another way to contact him / her or waiting a day or two to hear back if you get no response. Feel free to do the story, but just mention you could not get in touch with the person who was responsible for asking the question. You  don't absolutely need a question-asker's involvement to do a story answering their question. You can read our help doc on this topic for more advice. 

Thanks so much for asking your question, "[their question]?" I think it's a great one, and I'm starting to research it. I'd like to learn more about why you're interested in this topic. Would you have time for a 5 minute phone call, or to answer some questions by email before [give date for response]? I'd love to highlight your answers in the story, and help everyone get a better understanding about this issue.