Photo by Sam Tranum

Dublin’s big, and we’re a small team here at Dublin Inquirer.

We get out and around Dublin as much as possible, meeting and chatting with people, and doing our best to write stories from all across the city.

But we don’t know your neighbourhood as well as you do, so we’d love to be able to draw on your expertise from time to time.

Would you be willing to chat with one of our reporters now and then about what’s going on in your area?

If so, please fill out this little survey, and share it around to other people you know who might be interested – we’re trying to cast as broad a net as possible.

There’s one more question on the survey, too, which we’re hoping you might have the time to answer.

Local elections, citizens’ agenda

The current Dublin City Council’s five-year term is winding down, with the next local elections already on the horizon in May.

(If you live in the area, and you are over 18, you are probably eligible to vote in this election, whether you are an Irish citizen or not.)

In our coverage of the election, we are planning to use what New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen calls a “citizens’ agenda”.

The idea is simple: we’re going to ask Dubliners, “What do you want the candidates in the upcoming local elections to be discussing as they compete for votes?”

From your responses, we’ll build a six- to eight-point list/agenda of issues, and we’ll use this to shape our coverage of the election.

Rather than just waiting to see what parties and candidates talk about and writing about that, we’ll use this citizens’ agenda to help us decide what stories to write.

And we’ll do our best to get candidates to respond to the list, saying what they’d do, if elected, to address the issues you put on the agenda.