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Topics:
Civic Communication
NPR
Election Project
In a pilot
project to develop a reporting model for the 1996 presidential
race, more than 90 NPR affiliates teamed up on 1994 elections
coverage, emphasizing the process of voters thinking through the
issues and making up their minds. In Boston, Dallas, San Francisco,
Seattle and Wichita, local NPR staff worked with daily newspapers
on issues polling and systematic issues reporting and to develop
joint deliberative forums, hotlines and citizen panels. In other
cities where partnerships were less formal, NPR affiliates sponsored
forums with papers or other community groups; collaborated with
newspapers on election reporting; and/or shared election-related
information on an NPR-sponsored computer bulletin board. Participating
journalists attended training sessions developed jointly by NPR
and the Kettering Foundation, covering citizen forums, the principles
of deliberative civic life, and the internal basics of the election
project itself. The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, also
a collaborator on the project, is assisting in its design and
implementation. The project is funded by a grant from the Pew
Charitable Trusts.
A
case study by Project
on Public Life and the Press
New York University, Department of Journalism,10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003, (212) 998-3793
©
Project on Public Life and the Press,1994 The Project is funded
by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
National
Public Radio affiliates with
- Boston Globe
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Dallas Morning News
- Wichita Eagle
- Seattle Times
Jude Doherty
National Public Radio
Chief Editor, Election Project
2025 M. Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 414-2031 (Judy Doherty)
(202) 414-3026 (fax)
Initiative
Election project
Dates
January-November 1994
Lead
Editor
Jude Doherty, election project editor
Executive
in charge
John Dinges, editorial director
When
and how did this initiative get started?
According to an October 1993 NPR memo to member stations, "The
project builds on NPR's 1992 election coverage, which stressed
comprehensive issues reporting, voter views and reactions, reporting
on the role of the media, and 'citizen commentators,' while de-emphasizing
reporting on horse-race aspects such as polls, negative campaigning
and events orchestrated by candidates." Poynter also collaborated
on the Charlotte Observer's 1992 election coverage, which will
serve as a model for the NPR initiative.
What
are the goals of the initiative?
"To develop approaches to political coverage that will reconnect
voters and candidates on the one hand and citizens and the media
on the other," the NPR memo stated. Another goal: to strengthen
reporting at member stations and to create closer links between
those staffs and their Washington counterparts.
What
does the initiative entail?
Coordinated training and communication
In January and February 1994, nearly 70 representatives from NPR
stations and two dozen print journalists attended one of four
training sessions conducted regionally by the Kettering Foundation
and NPR's coordinating editors . Participants went through a "National
Issues Forum" session, discussing an issue in depth with peers
to get a sense of how people sort out public issues together to
reach a broad consensus.
In August,
NPR established an Internet listserve, allowing partners with
Internet access to trade ideas, exchange updates and elicit help
with stories.
Local
initiatives:
- Boston:
"The People's Choice": (Boston Globe, WBZ-TV, WBUR-FM). Coverage
began after a late spring issues poll, with a small sampling of
respondents serving as focus group to discuss issues in depth
with representatives from the paper and WBUR. The Globe asked
its citizens' panel to track all elections coverage and raise
questions for followups with candidates; shortly after coverage
began in June, the rival Boston Herald announced the establishment
of its own citizen panel, playing a similar role.
In October,
the two papers broke precedent and cosponsored the two U.S. Senate
forums in which both Ted Kennedy and Milton Romney made their
only joint broadcast appearances. In the second of the two, 12
citizens (from each paper's citizens' panels) queried the candidates
in a discussion broadcast live statewide on TV and on NPR affiliates,
and carried nationally by C-Span.
The Globe
and WBUR closely coordinated kickoff coverage, with the paper's
1A Sunday coverage complemented by reports on WBUR's Boston Sunday
Morning, both beginning June 12. During that launch week, both
partners ran additional stories, with WBUR also offering a two-hour
talk show on the first issue covered, crime. The NBC affiliate,
owned by the Globe, "has not been as involved as we might have
hoped," said Globe Assistant Managing Editor Walter Robinson.
For example, the station aired a conversation between citizens
and U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy on a Sunday morning, so many voters
missed the exchange in which Kennedy responded angrily, asking
citizens "what gave them the right" to question him. However,
WBZ consistently provided the promotion and broad reach that made
citizens aware of the coverage effort. (Contacts: Walter Robinson,
Boston Globe; Sam Fleming, WBUR.)
- Dallas:
Texans Talk: The People's Agenda: (Dallas Morning News, KERA-FM
and KERA-TV). Tracking the findings of a February statewide issues
poll, KERA held and broadcast citizen forums to discuss the top
concerns named in the survey; participants were poll respondents
from the Dallas area The paper covered the discussions, reporting
them in major Sunday stories, and took key questions to candidates
for published responses. Since Labor Day, the paper has integrated
stories about major issues with more traditional pieces on candidate
strategies and standing; the first such piece detailed the concerns
of voters in a rural community where road conditions were a top
concern - reporters asked gubernatorial candidates to address
the issue for the first time in the campaign. Subsequent stories
have used one family's concerns to track through a specific issue.
KERA has continued to broadcast discussions with voters and to
focus elections coverage around issues. Both media elicited questions
for candidates from citizens throughout the campaign. The partners
teamed up to sponsor the only gubernatorial candidate forum in
which both contenders appeared. Twenty citizens, drawn from previous
KERA forums, shared the stage and the questioning with four reporters.
(Contacts: Morning News: Mark Edgar; KERA: Marla Crockett, Jeff
McCrehan)
- San Francisco:
Voice of the Voter: (San Francisco Chronicle, KQED-FM, KRON-TV)
Efforts began with a poll of Bay Area residents, released in March,
from which a group of 300 project participants was drawn. In March,
partners began tri-weekly series on issues-related stories; began
running weekly features with candidates answering citizen questions;
and set up voice mail In May, a jointly sponsored Democratic gubernatorial
debate was the only such event attended by all three Democratic
candidates. NPR national reporter Linda Wertheimer visited San
Francisco to convene a focus group for a national story about
elections trends, voter concerns and economic issues. Overall,
the partnerships can be characterized by a remark made by Dan
Rosenheim, managing editor at the San Francisco Chronicle: "If
I get some type of scoop, I'm not going to share it with (the
broadcast partners), but we can still plan our coverage together
and share resources." (Contacts: San Francisco Chronicle, Dan
Rosenheim)
- Seattle:
Front Porch Forum: (Seattle Times, KUOW-FM, KPLU-FM [Tacoma]).
After four spring focus groups across the state, the initiative
kicked off in the Times on May 22 with a 1A-box and editor's explanation;
the piece also highlighted radio programming and offered contact
phones and addresses for the media partners. Summer coverage centered
on results from a broad-ranging May poll, with questions influenced
by focus-group conversations. It asked citizens about political
alienation, attitudes about the media and to top concerns ("In
thinking about yourself and your household, what are some things
that are important to you?" "In your opinion, what would you most
like to see happen in your community in the next five years?")
The Times
ran weekly takeouts during July on the top issues named, while
NPR affiliates developed similar stories and also broadcast four
one-hour forums, with poll respondents as participants. (In one
case, participants were solicited from station listeners.) When
the election season heated up after Labor Day, the partners focused
on the U.S. Senate race. The Times highlighted candidate stands
on the issues named in the poll, and devoted a full open page
weekly to answering two- to three-dozen questions received weekly
from readers. In late October, the partners co-sponsored the only
post-primary conversations in which both senate candidates appeared;
they were quizzed by citizens who had sent in questions and participated
in on-air forums. The paper ran a full transcript the day after
the taped forum was aired. (Contacts: Seattle Times, Carole Carmichael;
KUOW; KPLU, Mike Marcotte) - Wichita: Your Vote Counts: (Wichita
Eagle, KMUW-FM and three other Kansas public radio affiliates).
Results of a May poll of 603 Kansans led to an increase in coverage
centered around leadership and government trust issues, after
the survey asked respondents to name the biggest "problems" facing
the state before they were asked about the top "issues." Before
the August gubernatorial primary, the partners held two citizen
forums, focusing on crime and on unresponsive government. The
eight panelists were drawn from survey respondents who expressed
a special interest in these issues. Two more two-hour forums were
held after Labor Day - including one in late October - featuring
gubernatorial candidates and citizens. The forums were co-moderated
by KMUW News Director Gordon Basham and the Eagle's Jon Roe, who
is assigned to the public journalism beat. The conversations were
taped, edited and broadcast statewide; the paper ran stories on
them. The Eagle 's coverage also a weekly "Ask the Candidates"
column, featuring questions from citizens; this is the only new
feature developed for this year's election coverage, which in
many of its elements repeats efforts pioneered in Wichita in the
1990 gubernatorial campaign. (Contacts: Wichita Eagle, Sheri Dill;
KMUW, Gordon Basham)
How
many people are working on it?
Among the 90 member affiliate stations and the newspaper partners,
more than 100 around the country.
Along with
efforts in Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle and Wichita,
other major partnerships included:
Council
Bluffs (Iowa) Daily Non Pareil-KIWR. Joint recruitment of citizens
group to identify key issues; joint voter-registration drive.
Florida
NPR affiliates with Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg
Times, Bradenton Herald, Tallahassee Democrat. Joint issues polling,
pool candidate interviews, pool issues stories and other efforts,
detailed in separate PPLP Research Report (See Florida Issues
'94)
Greeley
(Colo.) Tribune-KUNC. Joint development of a series of citizen-driven
stories, joint sponsorship of fall citizen forums.
- Phoenix:
Arizona Republic and KJZZ-FM. Results of a Republic issues poll
serve as a baseline for citizen-driven coverage from both partners.
Cross promotion. The Republic is "sharing" citizen participants
in focus groups with KJZZ for issues forums.
New Hampshire
Public Radio with New Hampshire Public TV, WGOT-TV60, Nashua Telegraph,
Concord Monitor, Valley News, Keene Sentinel. Joint issues polling.
Response
to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
Attitudes at the newspaper partners vary. In Wichita, one project
partnership site, the newspaper and the NPR affiliate have coordinated
elections coverage before; in other cities, citizen-centered campaign
reporting is new. At NPR, affiliates are enthusiastic about closer
coordination with national news and public affairs programming.
When the project first was announced, some NPR reporters were
leery of working more closely with the citizenŐs voice, NPR Editorial
Director John Dinges said at the time. But reactions vary. Said
NPR Elections Project Editor Jude Doherty, "This philosophical
conflict about the value of citizen opinion is a tough nut to
crack, and either you respect it or not. It has a lot to do with
the individual reporter. ... If what turns my reporter on is the
celebrity status of having dinner with powerful people, forget
about" the reporter becoming enthusiastic about including citizen
voices.
From
the newsrooms of the newspaper partners:
- Boston
Because "politics is second only to baseball" in the local culture,
and because two papers compete, "institutions here including the
Globe itself have been more resistant to wholesale change in way
we do things," said Globe assistant managing editor Walter Robinson.
Traditional political coverage - including horse-race coverage
- has remained a consistent element, but, Robinson said, "coverage
of races has been better informed because we're paying attention
to voters, even though we're doing things in many ways the way
they have always been done. The coverage is a little more relevant
to what's on voters' minds."
Reporters
are "for it," said Assistant State Editor Mark Edgar. "They have
long looked for ways to get more people in paper." The partnership
has freed up additional newsroom resources, meaning a reporter
writing a political strategy story doesn't have to seek out a
citizen's voice in addition to the rest of the coverage - another
reporter can help, in some cases developing another story altogether.
"The underlying thing we've tried to do is expand the cast of
characters reporters turn for information. We sought to teach
readers to be more active citizens, to show them what's needed
to make public life work, and it's just become a part of the everyday
political coverage, We've just tried to find ways for citizens
to engage candidates directly so they can see a trace of themselves
in the paper."
- Seattle
The Times dropped horse-race coverage in 1986, so the culture
change of a greater emphasis on citizen voices was not a wholesale
overhaul, said Assistant Managing Editor Carole Carmichael. "Reporters
said (the citizens) asked some real good questions; they were
enthused." However, in the candidate forum, the gap between what
journalists do and what citizens do was obvious as citizens failed
to follow up fuzzy answers with repeated questioning or requests
for a real response.
Among
other local media:
The Boston Herald announced a citizen-driven elections effort
with weeks after the Globe and WBUR began publishing and airing
their work. The Herald and the Globe cosponsored U.S. Senate forums
in October, their first-ever collaboration.
In Dallas,
a local television station not involved in the partnership announced
"a bold new way of covering the election called 'Listening to
Texans.' Gee, where in the world did they get that idea?" Morning
News Assistant State Editor Mark Edgar asked.
In
the community:
- Boston
While callers in early weeks of the elections effort complained
in a live WBUR forum that they "wanted to hear from experts,"
not other citizens, Robinson said he believes the coverage over
several months has been "an empowering phenomenon. People see
that people like themselves are having a say in the election,
that people like themselves are demanding that the candidates
deal with their problems--which is quite a lot different than
(journalists') issues. When we raise issues it's kind of bloodless.
But when voters raise their problems, it personalizes the campaign.
The candidates can't just blather on with their stump speech."
- Seattle
Both media partners reported heavy citizen involvement and awareness
of the changes in coverage; for example, a coffee-shop worker
asked a reporter "What's on the Front Porch this week?" referring
to the project logo, "Front Porch Forum."
- Wichita
Strong response to call for citizen questions for candidates,
and citizens "have put a sharper bead on" the differences between
two similar gubernatorial candidates, said Eagle Executive Editor
Sheri Dill. However, the logistics of fielding questions from
citizens has sometimes been a problem because some of those who
posed questions didn't want their pictures in the paper, a standing
element of the paper's "Ask the Candidates" feature.
Among
politicians:
In Boston, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy responded angrily in a live,
televised June session, the first in which he fielded questions
from the citizens' panel, asking them "what right" they had to
question him.
In Dallas,
candidates seemed used to responding directly to citizens, as
similar approaches were used in 1992 presidential elections (where
Texan Ross Perot was a candidate) and the 1993 U.S. Senate campaign.
In Seattle,
incumbent U.S. Senator Gorton Slade said an early debate was his
last, but agreed to participate in the conversation with citizens
sponsored by the media partners. It was arranged quickly by the
partners after challenger Ron Sims suggested discussing issues
with voters directly. "It was pretty clear where the idea came
from and we jumped on it," said Carmichael, the Times assistant
managing editor. During the forum, Slade said, "We ought to do
more of this kind of thing," Carmichael said.
In Wichita,
gubernatorial candidates have been surprisingly slow to respond
to citizen questions, said Eagle Executive Editor Sheri Dill.
"Truth to tell, getting the candidates to respond has been a bit
of a challenge. ... My sense is that they don't like to be pinned
down."
What's
next:
A post-mortem on the partnerships is planned for November in San
Francisco.
In Dallas,
the Morning News will use an approach similar to the elections
coverage for the legislative season. Polling of legislators and
citizens statewide is planned as the foundation for legislative
coverage, and citizen questions will be posed regularly to top
state officials, "continuing that effort for the people to somehow
hold the politicians accountable."
Case study
written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public
Life and the Press, September 1994. Lisa is also a member of the
CPN Journalism editorial team.
More Information
Project
on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793
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