Illustration by Eva Bee / Ikon Images I remember the first time I was sent out as a reporter on work experience to ask members of the public what they thought about something in the news. It was the summer of 2011 and I was spending a couple of weeks at my local paper, the Ealing and Acton Gazette , with a team of veteran reporters (they were probably 28, tops) who seemed impossibly intrepid and glamorous (we once had lunchtime shandies at an O’Neill’s). My assignment was to head to the high street and ask residents about the government suggesting they change their commuting habits to lessen congestion around the London Olympics. I also had to ask how old they were, what they did for work, where they lived – and take a photo. I can still remember my palms clamming up, my mouth drying up and my face turning red. I needn’t have been so terrified. That afternoon I learned that people, on the whole, are happy to talk, to be listened to, and to give their view.…