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Topics:
Civic Communication
Civic
Journalism
Six Case Studies
A
Joint Report by The Pew Center for Civic Journalism and The Poynter
Institute for Media Studies
Copyright
© 1995 Tides Foundation.
Edited
by Jan Schaffer and Edward D. Miller
Reported by Staci D. Kramer
Index
Introduction
Our nation's civic life is in disrepair and the implications for
journalism are ominous: Citizens who don't participate in the life
of their community have little need for news. Civic journalism seeks
to address some of this detachment and improve journalism in a way
that may help stimulate civic discourse.
Charlotte,
North Carolina
In the award-winning "Taking Back our Neighborhoods/Carolina Crime
Solutions" initiative, the newspaper partnered with television
and radio in an ambitious project that went far beyond traditional
crime coverage and into the neighborhoods most affected by violence.
The community response has been overwhelming.
Madison,
Wisconsin
Whether using citizen caucuses or citizen juries, inviting citizens
to interrogate gubernatorial candidates or listen to "closing
arguments" of state Supreme Court candidates, "We the People,
Wisconsin" has bypassed formulaic journalism and given citizens
creative ways to interact with politicians and with each other.
Tallahassee,
Florida
In one of the country's most complex exercises in civic journalism,
"The Public Agenda" project has elected to focus not on an election
or a single issue, but rather has sought to launch ongoing community
dialogues on all elections and issues that affect the community.
Boston,
Massachusetts
"The People's Voice" was an experiment in giving citizens an active
role in political campaigns. Like most experiments, it had hits,
misses and lessons. But the idea survived to be tried again in
the 1996 presidential campaign.
San Francisco,
California
The "Voice of the Voter" had several high-water marks. It enabled
several thousand readers, listeners and viewers to participate
in the election. It used the power of the press to force political
candidates to listen - and respond - to what the people had to
say. And it gave birth to a newspaper-led voter registration drive.
Seattle,
Washington
In the "Front Porch Forum," the media partners built a veritable
front porch where residents could talk to political candidates
and to each other and where a poll picked up unexpected anxieties
about the future of the family and affordable housing.
Introduction
July
1995
Journalists
have begun to worry about democracy, and that worries still other
journalist.
Why all
the worry? After 220 years, the American "experiment" in self-government
seems well rooted. Besides, journalism's job is to stand apart
and tell the story of democracy in action, not tinker with the
machinery.
Still, some
of us worry that too few citizens are involved in community life,
and that those who choose not to take part come to their indifference
out of frustration and helplessness, a feeling that some how the
system works for insiders and special interests, but not for them.
Some have called this "corrosive cynicism." Others more sanguine
have called it business as usual.
Journalism
and public life have always been yoked. The authors of the First
Amendment recognized this link as they tried to reconcile two
opposites:
- Protecting
the private life of the young country's citizens while
- Encouraging
an active public life through free speech.
The First Amendment
deals with both. It protects us as we worship, gather together,
and petition our government. By protecting our ability to speak
out, it ensures the discourse essential to public life.
But that
discourse is in disrepair. By most common measures of citizenship—registering,
voting, volunteering—citizens are shunning public life. The
implications for democracy are serious; self-government depends
on individuals taking responsibility. The implications for journalism
are equally ominous; citizens who don't participate have little
need for news.
During the
1990s, journalists who worry about these corrosive forces have
taken steps to invigorate journalism's role in a democracy. To
some, the clear objective is better journalism, with invigorated
public life as a desirable but secondary byproduct. To others,
enhanced public life is the end itself, and journalism is the
means. These complementary motives meet in a movement called "civic"
or "public" journalism. It proceeds on two assumptions.
- Self-government
depends on citizen participation: when civic engagement erodes,
so does the need for news media.
- Journalism
can work toward better self-government and public life without
sacrificing its cherished values and traditions: indeed, those
values and traditions lose their voice in the absence of a spirited
public life.
The strategy
of civic journalism is simple: Improve the coverage of public life,
especially election campaigns, by actively engaging the diversity
and complexity of citizens in that coverage. Citizen involvement
does not threaten the independent values of journalism; old habits
and routines are under scrutiny, not values.
Civic journalism
seeks to bridge the dangerous detachment from community that has
become the norm in too many newspapers. It encourages journalists
to discover how their work can be improved by first acknowledging
the detachment, then reaching out to citizens as sources and resources,
thus bringing citizen voices and ideas to the foreground.
Our two
organizations have been active in this arena.
- The Pew
Charitable Trusts of Philadelphia created The Pew Center for
Civic Journalism in Washington to enhance community life through
better journalism.
- The Poynter
Institute for Media Studies believes it can improve newspaper,
radio, and television news reports by showing journalists how
citizens can be valuable allies in the cause of good journalism.
The starting
points differ, but the combined objectives—better journalism,
better communities—are compatible. This collection of case
studies begins to tell the story of their efforts.
The
Pew Center for Civic Journalism
By 1993, the
Pew Charitable Trusts were exploring ways to stimulate citizen involvement
in community issues. They invited Ed Fouhy, a former network news
executive and producer of the 1988 and 1992 presidential debates,
to research the problem.
His findings
turned into a proposal to create the Pew Center for Civic Journalism,
the centerpiece of the Trusts' "Renewing Our Democratic Heart"
initiative.
The project
brings together major newspapers and television and radio stations
and helps them develop ways to reconnect to their communities
by making the coverage of local issues more meaningful. Indeed,
many recognize that their news reports—filled with litanies
of social illness and scorecards of special-interest groups—may
be contributing to the undercurrent of cynicism and alienation
detected throughout the country.
Using polls,
surveys, focus groups, "living-room conversations," and old-fashioned
shoe-leather reporting, these media coalitions are finding ways
to include citizen voices in their coverage. In city after city
the result has been both better journalism and improved civic
dialogue. The lesson is clear: When journalism helps citizens
get involved, community problem-solving improves. And so does
the journalism.
This collection
of case studies describes three very different approaches. In
Charlotte, N.C., the newspaper, a local television station, and
two radio stations have addressed the problem of crime in some
of the city's worst neighborhoods. In Madison, Wis., a partnership
of five media organizations has again and again engaged people
in issues ranging from elections, to health care, to the state
budget. And in Tallahassee, Fla., citizens have started a dialogue
to determine the public's agenda.
Jan Schaffer
Pew Center for Civic Journalism
Washington, D.C.
The
Poynter Institute and National Public Radio
By 1988, election
campaigns had become a ballet for the press and the candidates.
Citizens, for the most part off-stage, found the performance of
the politicians and the press increasingly irrelevant. First in
Wichita in 1990 and then in Charlotte in 1992, editors began reforming
their coverage to bring citizens back to center stage.
In 1994,
their successes inspired The Poynter Institute to team up with
National Public Radio in five cities—Boston, Wichita, Dallas,
Seattle, and San Francisco. In each city, the leading newspaper
and public radio station, and in some cases television, cooperated
to improve campaign coverage by involving citizens. Involvement
included:
- Polls
and interviews to determine the "citizens' agenda."
- Issue
forums and town meetings for citizens to discuss these issues
with one another. The Kettering Foundation, originators of the
National Issues Forums, provided valuable training and support
to NPR affiliates.
- Public
meetings to hear speakers and candidates talk about the citizen-identified
issues and the possible solutions.
- Citizen
advisory panels to help sharpen the deliberations and advise
the media on how to make the coverage even more effective.
Heading the
program for NPR was John Dinges, editorial director, and Jude Doherty,
election project director. The NPR involvement was funded in a large
part by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, whose funds enabled
NPR and its local affiliates to augment staff and pay their share
of local issues polls.
This collection
of case studies includes three of those cities: Boston, San Francisco,
and Seattle.
Edward D.
Miller
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies
St. Petersburg, Florida
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