By mass-texting local residents, Outlier Media connects low-income news consumers to useful, personalized data » Nieman Journalism Lab

By mass-texting local residents,  Outlier Media connects property news  to neighborhood consumers to useful, personalized data

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Using Outlier’s method and delivery system, it’s such efficient beat development. I learned so much about housing so quickly. You can talk to hundreds of people in a week instead of just talking to a few.”

But she also focused on what reporting she could rapidly (and realistically) provide to people. Alvarez pulled local data from United Way’s 211 line, a hotline set up for people seeking resources on topics such as domestic violence, veteran support, addition rehabilitation, and housing and utilities assistance. “I knew if I could find out what people were complaining about, I would know a good starting point for my reporting,” she said. After comparing it to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “housing was far and away the biggest thing.”

Thanks to FOIA, public data, and data scrapers, she has access to the number of blight tickets per address, names of a property’s registered owners, whether or not it is at risk of tax auction, and how much taxes are owed.

The first few interactions are automated, from her introductory message to the prompt for entering an address to follow-up messages — about additional searching, the need for an Outlier journalist to follow up, or if the texter thought the service was helpful (very, kind of, or no).

In 13 months, Alvarez has sent messages to about 40,000 Detroit cell phone numbers in her quest to reach “as many Detroiters as possible”; between 1,200 and 1,600 Detroiters have used Outlier to search for information on an address. (Opting out from Outlier’s messages is always an option as well.) She developed the system as a JSK Fellow after reporting for Michigan Public Radio.

If you received an unsolicited text message about a free service offering to check the public record of your house or landlord, would you respond?