MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In Florida's Tampa Bay area, there's a new twist on the book club. Instead of reading a book and then getting together to chat about it, people compare notes about a news article.
LAUREN PEACE: For a long time, journalism institutions waited for readership to come to them or just trusted that they would, and that hasn't been the case for quite some time.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Tampa Bay Times reporter Lauren Peace started the article club.
PEACE: We can't sit back anymore and just expect people to understand what we do and how we do it.
MARTÍNEZ: The article club meets once a month at a bookstore in St. Petersburg.
PEACE: I've been thinking a lot lately about how important it is to gather in community and to create opportunities to come together. There's a loneliness epidemic, right? Journalism organizations can serve readers in the community by giving people the opportunity to gather and connect.
MARTIN: The club reads articles about all kinds of things - undocumented workers building roads under dangerous conditions, the parental rights of sperm donors and Tampa Bay's changing restaurant scene. Participants also get to talk to the reporters who wrote the stories.
PEACE: It's an opportunity to strip back sort of the curtain and get into the mechanics of how something was reported, the decision-making process, what went into a story, to help grow and build media literacy, too.
MARTÍNEZ: Club attendance has climbed. When the club first met in January, Peace says about a dozen people showed up. Last month, 30 people filled the bookstore. Peace says some are really into the news, others not so much. Either way, they're not shy about asking questions such as why reporters didn't go deeper into a specific part of a story.
PEACE: Our reporters were able to say, well, because a story can't do everything (laughter), right? And, oh, we did look into that, and actually, we found that the data didn't back it up.
MARTIN: Sherry Pagrocco (ph) looks forward to returning after dropping in last month with her husband, Tom (ph).
SHERRY PAGROCCO: It was wonderful because you really heard all of the information that was put into the article, the research that they did, and it changed your perspective because, truly, like, if you're left or right or in the middle, you might've prejudged, but you might've been wrong.
MARTIN: Peace hopes it strengthens ties between journalists and the community they report for.
PEACE: We have a real culture of supporting local businesses in the Tampa Bay area, and the Tampa Bay Times is a local business.
MARTIN: Local news - so important, whether it's your local newspaper or your NPR member station.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A DAY IN THE LIFE")
THE BEATLES: (Singing) I read the news today. Oh, boy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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