Information needs assessments can help provide a snapshot of how information moves through a community, what issues are most important to residents, and how best to expand the news conversation to a diverse audience. 

This information needs assessment is the initial project of El Tímpano—an an initiative Madeleine Bair founded in 2017 to develop two-way channels of communication to better inform, engage, and empower the Latino immigrant community in Oakland, California. 

The goal of this assessment is to identify what kinds of efforts exist to both get and share news and information with local residents specific to their communities, and to share examples of news engagement projects in other communities that might be useful or instructive to community groups in Oakland. 

This information needs assessment was funded by the Listening Post Collective, through a grant from the News Integrity Initiative. The Listening Post Collective is an Internews initiative aimed at addressing information needs of underserved communities across the United States.