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Topics: Civic Communication

The Public Agenda

Now we take what has come to be known as public journalism or civic journalism to an entire new dimension with "The Public Agenda" . . . This is not the Tallahassee Democrat's project or WCTV6's project. It is not our agenda. We bring no agenda to this. "The Public Agenda" is just a vehicle that will provide a forum, the blank sheet of paper. You, the citizens of the community—all of you who get involved—will determine what issues, what solutions, what common goals will be written on that paper. Ultimately, we hope you will determine in a more effective way than ever before the priorities and the preferences that will guide our community's future.

-Carroll Dadisman, Publisher, Tallahassee Democrat
November 16, 1994

A week after the November 1994 mid-term elections, more than 300 Tallahassee residents—college students, activists, average citizens looking for a way to become involved—crowded into the chamber of the Florida House of Representatives, in part, to hear more about something called "The Public Agenda" but mostly to raise their own voices about issues affecting their community. In the end, what was said during the two-hour session didn't matter nearly as much as the fact that so many people came.

"I think this signifies that we're all willing to work together," state employee Bert Mitchell, 31, told the crowd. "But it's going to take us rolling up our sleeves and getting active. It may not happen overnight, but it can happen."

Fast forward seven months—to a smaller, less imposing room where a dozen people, black and white, are talking about affirmative action. Edward Malo, a white retired architect, carefully explained his reasons for opposing affirmative action. Just as carefully, Willie Merrick, a black state government employee, tried to explain the issue in non-racial, non-gender terms. This was a subject that could have erupted quickly into heated argument or personal invective but not in a room filled with people who have spent the last six months learning to talk with each other—not at each other.

By the end of the hour, the members of this group were taking action, planning a public forum on affirmative action to educate others in the community. Both events are "The Public Agenda" at work, yet both are very different. The large meeting at the Capitol, known as a "Community Dialogue," was planned by the organizations sponsoring "The Public Agenda"—the Tallahassee Democrat, WCTV6, Florida State University and Florida A&M University-then publicized heavily and videotaped for a television special.

The smaller meeting grew out a second community dialogue that was held December 1, but the more intimate group was organized and run by the citizens, using their own agenda. Representatives from "The Public Agenda" sit in on these small group meetings, primarily to observe and occasionally to act as a resource. Even though the meetings are publicized in a newsletter and in the newspaper, some groups do not always encourage new participants. Instead, participants hope newcomers will start their own groups. Once people can talk with one another they can work with one another. That principle is at the heart of "The Public Agenda."

In less than a year since the launch of "The Public Agenda," more than a half dozen issue groups have started meeting. Some are operating quietly, without media attention, in the hopes that they can accomplish more without the glare of publicity. These groups represent only a fraction of Tallahassee's 206,000 residents and yet their very existence represents much more.

They are the core of one of this country's most complex exercises in civic journalism, a mixture of research, reporting, community outreach and public dialogue. "The Public Agenda" shares the goal of most civic journalism projects—to encourage and facilitate informed participation in public policy—but the path toward that goal is far different than in most other projects. Instead of focusing on a major event, such as an election, or a single issue, such as crime or racism, "The Public Agenda" wants to change the way people deal with all elections or issues that affect their lives and their community. Designed as a three-year program, "The Public Agenda's" approach has included:

• Ongoing community outreach to pull diverse elements of the community into extensive public discussion of community issues.
• A partnership between the market-leading television station and the major newspaper.
• A variety of research techniques, including issues polling, interviews about attitudes and community leader surveys. Continuing measurement of community attitudes is built into the project.
• Use of the Tallahassee Free-Net , a free public access community network, to expand access to discussions, relevant articles, background about issues, and a schedule of events.
• Creation of a World Wide Web page.
• Small discussion groups of six to twenty people, who have focused intensely on such issues as crime, growth and the environment, and young people's concerns.
• A paid staff of non-journalists to organize events and conduct community outreach. Staff members include a project director, two part-time community outreach coordinators and administrative assistance.

From Theory to Proposal

In some ways, everything Heldman did as a journalist before taking over the Tallahassee Democrat led to "The Public Agenda." At the Detroit Free Press, he learned that a newspaper could be part of a community and not sell its readers short. In Miami, he discovered the value of exploring the community and asking the readers for guidance as he helped create El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language edition of the Miami Herald. Moving to Boca Raton to spearhead Knight-Ridder's 25-43 project, Heldman refined the use of focus groups and experimented with different ways the newspaper and the community could interact.

"The important thing about focus groups [is] I don't think, for the most part, readers—people—are heard in newsrooms," Heldman said.

"The Public Agenda" isn't the Tallahassee Democrat's first foray into civic journalism. In 1992, with little fanfare outside Tallahassee, the Democrat focused on local elections with "Your Vote, Your Future." The paper spent $10,000 on an issues poll, then worked with public television and radio to produce election specials. Unlike many election projects, the effort wasn't limited to a small cadre in the newsroom. Every newsroom department contributed copy and everyone in the building was encouraged to support the editorial effort. Staffers even wore "Your Vote" T-shirts on Fridays preceding the election and the business staff gave the editorial staff a party.

Election officials credited "Your Vote" for a 15 percent rise in voter registration that fall and a Tallahassee turnout that led the state. Some of the methods the election project embraced became part of the paper's legislative coverage, especially the efforts to engage the public. Encouraged by that effort, Heldman wanted to find a way to move civic journalism beyond elections and politics. About the same time, editorial writer Bill Edmonds spent a month at Duke University as part of a Knight-Ridder continuing education program. During an ethics course in the religion department, Edmonds came in contact with Daniel Yankelovich's book Coming to Public Judgment. Excited about the possibilities Yankelovich offered for public action through public dialogue, Edmonds wrote Heldman a long letter about the book, and the potential of its ideas for the Democrat.

"That was really the first spark although we didn't realize it at the time," Heldman recalled later.

Assembling the Pieces

The page evolved from Heldman's determination to give the theory of civic journalism some practical applications. "I had to think in terms of how things go on newspaper pages," Heldman said.

Heldman heard that The Pew Charitable Trusts were talking with Knight-Ridder about providing seed money for some civic journalism initiatives and took the next step. He talked to nearly two dozen people as he framed a proposal for funding. Publisher Carroll Dadisman was supportive from the start. Equally important, Heldman was able to shift some of his newsroom responsibilities to Managing Editor Bob Shaw and to use Shaw as a sounding board about the proposal.

"The intent all along was to keep the [initial] planning and organization of this outside the newsroom," Shaw said. "Planning a project of this magnitude would have stretched [the news staff] very thin."

Recruiting Partners

General Manager Dave Olmsted instantly bought into the idea. "It's a rare opportunity when you can be associated with a cause that affects the entire community," Olmsted said. "This belongs to the community. All we do is facilitate the dialogue." Olmsted also saw a practical side. "It puts your newsroom in touch with the issues."

Mike Smith oversees WCTV6's news and production departments; he is responsible for making "The Public Agenda" happen at the station. "I was a little skeptical when Lou and I started talking. I was concerned about the kind of power we had. I didn't want us to dictate the public agenda."

Smith committed to the project once he was convinced the idea was for the public—not the power brokers or the press—to set the agenda. He had other concerns, too: "I didn't want us to go into this thing thinking it was going to end or stop. At some point, it will just be a way of thinking and I don't think people will have to think about doing it."

As part of the proposal, WCTV6 pledged to use the station's news and public affairs resources to showcase "The Public Agenda." The station would produce and air at least four town hall meetings during the two-year public phase of the project; each would be preceded by a series of reports on WCTV6 and in the Tallahassee Democrat.

Pew accepted the proposal for a three-year project. The funding covered research, "The Public Agenda" staff salaries and some administrative and outreach expenses. The newsrooms would foot their bills for coverage. Recruiting other partners came next. The natural ally in a college town is the university and Tallahassee has two: Florida State University (FSU) and Florida A&M University (FAMU).

Heldman held a meeting with various people in the community, including the presidents of the universities. "You've got to get people to learn what you're doing and hopefully you'll get a buy-in. That's critical to anything you try to do," Heldman said.

Both universities signed on as partners. FSU's Center for Professional Development & Public Service offered meeting space, office space and part of the salary for a community coordinator, plus graphic design services for brochures and the logo. FAMU's School of Journalism, Media and Graphic Arts contributed a survey conducted by students and led by faculty. Faculty members from both schools serve as moderators at the community dialogues.

Hiring Staff

Marti Johnson, a powerhouse with wide connections in the community, was hired as community coordinator with direct responsibility for outreach. A part-time program assistant also was hired.

Many administrative problems might have been avoided at the start if all the project's staff were housed in the same office. Jones worked out of her home, while Johnson and the program assistant shared the equivalent of a walk-in closet at FSU. In early 1995, operations were consolidated in an office leased from the League of Women Voters.

Matters were further complicated because Johnson's employment status called for her to work for the Center for Professional Development a quarter of the time and for "The Public Agenda" the rest. The situation led to tension. That arrangement ended in early 1995 when Johnson resigned and the project decided to split her job between two part-time coordinators.

Splitting the job between two coordinators allowed "The Public Agenda" to have a representative present when more than one small discussion group scheduled a meeting on the same night, Heldman said. "We found that [having a "Public Agenda" coordinator present] is a source of comfort to the people in the groups because . . . they like having a lifeline to the project."

Mimi Jones said she thought it was wise that the project was designed from the very start to operate outside the Democrat—not only because it gave the initiative some independence, but also because it helped avoid any conflicts for the media partners.

"I think it's good that we are not technically part of the Democrat," Jones said. "It was protection for the newspaper, should I goof or if the groups should goof."

Living Room Conversations

The Harwood Group kicked off the research with a round of "living room conversations" in June 1994. Harwood, using the Prizm method, interviewed a small but highly representative segment of the population by breaking the community into demographically similar clusters. Professional moderators from Harwood conducted 10 separate two-hour sessions in Tallahassee living rooms with a total of 29 participants in groups ranging in size from two to five. The number may seem small but the clusters represented 91.4 percent of the households in surrounding Leon County.

Paired with quantitative research, the living room conversations offered a detailed glimpse of the issues that most concerned Tallahasseans, their attitudes, and the most fruitful way to engage them in future dialogues. Harwood reported that many people were intrigued by the idea that the Tallahassee Democrat and WCTV6 "would actually be interested in what they think."

Bolstered by the Harwood Group's findings, the researchers and the partners were able to frame a detailed quantitative survey. More than 800 residents participated in the October 1994 random-digit dialing survey conducted by Kerr & Downs. Kerr & Downs also sent the same survey to more than 350 community leaders in Tallahassee and Leon County to compare what residents said with what the leaders thought they would say. More than 50 percent of the leaders responded. The phone survey showed:

• More than 70 percent thought the lack of citizen involvement was at the heart of Tallahassee's problems and more than 70 percent said Tallahasseans were talking about themselves and their neighbors, not the community as a whole when they use the word community.
• Crime was the leading issue confronting Tallahassee, followed by growth, education, economy and race relations.
• Loss of family values registered high on the list of concerns.
• Nearly half of the respondents saw Tallahassee as a community at odds with itself.
• More than half said they would become involved in solving community problems if someone would tell them how.

Countdown

In September and October, "The Public Agenda" sponsored two National Issues Forum training seminars. The two-part seminars trained moderators to facilitate public discussions. Some of the participants started their own discussion groups even before the project was formally launched; others led the first discussion sessions after the launch.

At the Tallahassee Democrat, City Editor Byron Dobson assigned reporters Keith Thomas and Barbara Ash to work as "The Public Agenda" team. The paper kicked off the project with a four-part, Page-One series that ended on November 16, the day of the first community dialogue.

WCTV6 introduced "The Public Agenda" on its Sunday public affairs show and began producing a special based on the community dialogue and interviews with survey participants.

As they planned the kickoff, the partners and staff worked to make the event as accessible as possible. Detailed maps that highlighted where participants could park were published on November 15 and 16. Refreshments were served a half-hour before the 6 p.m. start; child care and transportation were provided. All entrances to the Capitol were open and signs clearly marked the way to seating in the House of Representatives chamber. The planners hoped for 150 to 200 participants; instead, more than 300 people crowded into the chamber. The organizers ran out of some supplies, including information packets. The event was so successful, plans were immediately made to hold another community dialogue on December 1 at a local church.

The Democrat reported the results of the meeting on Page One the next day, with a fisheye-lens photo that captured the size of the crowd. "Full House establishes a dialogue," declared the headline.

"This was [the participants'] chance to say what's been on their minds and to listen to their neighbors—maybe find some common ground," wrote reporters Ash and Thomas. "It was their chance to begin working toward solutions and to shape `The Public Agenda'."

Mike Smith was surprised by how quickly "The Public Agenda" caught on: "The other station has actually done stories about it. They even had Mimi [Jones, the project director] on live one night. It was just too big a thing to ignore." About 250 people showed up at Bethel AME Church on December 1. The crowd quickly split into smaller groups to focus on seven issues identified in the research and the earlier meeting: Children, Education and Values; Community Improvement; Community and Race Relations; Crime; Growth and the Environment; Jobs and the Economy. Participants then chose times to meet again. A person didn't have to attend one of the larger sessions to join a discussion group later, as Willie Merrick discovered.

A relative newcomer to Tallahassee, Merrick was looking for a way to become involved in the community. After two different friends suggested "The Public Agenda" race relations group as a place to start, he decided to try a December meeting.

"I was anticipating a meeting where people would be talking about their differences and how to overcome them. Is that what happened? No. . . .For the first few meetings everybody seemed to have a private agenda. There was no real organization," he said.

A couple of meetings later, he said, the group decided to split into four smaller groups. Each was assigned to agree on five things that would benefit the Tallahassee area. All four groups combined their lists and ultimately came to common agreement on five things—personal responsibility, integration, symbolism, affirmative action, and the media. Those things became the group's agenda. Each participant also was assigned to talk about something, an exercise that opened windows on participants' perceptions and gave individuals a personal task.

Merrick doesn't see "The Public Agenda" as a place for easy solutions. "I envisioned at the onset that it would not last any more than maybe a year, year and a half, then we would all go out as facilitators and start 20 to 25 more groups and in another year and half that would happen again and within 10 to 12 years all of Leon County would take part." Instead, he realizes that projects such as "The Public Agenda" will take longer to foster public change.

It is too soon to gauge the effectiveness of the project, but the small groups seem to be working. Here is a snapshot of some of their activities:

• Children, Values and Education. This group split into six subgroups to tackle such issues as teens, preschool years and parent education, vision, moral values, agency coordination and program monitoring. Teenagers, for instance, have proposed the creation of a "skate" park, for such things as skateboards and roller-skating.

• Crime. This group meets regularly with community experts, often at the Tallahassee Police Department, as part of their effort to deal with crime prevention and intervention. One idea is a community organization to prevent drug abuse and serve as a support to the poor.

• Community and Race Relations. One of the most active groups, the participants have planned an affirmative action panel for the fall of 1995.

• Growth and the Environment. Meeting every other week, this broadly representative group of developers, politicians and environmentalists hopes to mesh planning and growth with environmental concerns. Achieving a consensus on these issues would be a first for Tallahassee. The group hopes to try vision planning, which calls for communities to use slides to gauge public attitudes. For instance, some people might react negatively to a slide of palm trees and hibiscus in median strips, others may like that but object to mirrored buildings.

• Jobs and the Economy. Meeting intermittently, this group has focused on teen unemployment, bringing new jobs to the area and coping with a large pool of underemployed, overqualified workers. Some members are employment-support professionals.

• Teens Speak Out. Teenagers have led forums on such issues as crime, teen pregnancy and racism. They have also petitioned the Leon County School Board for classes on multiculturalism. Plans for late 1995 include a larger forum on education with local music groups and sports stars as a draw.

Viewers of WCTV6, Channel 6, can watch weekly features about people or groups connected to "The Public Agenda" participants. The 90-second pieces by Jacqui Bauer have become regular features of Monday's "News at Six." Bauer's reports are the station's only locally produced segments that appear weekly. The station runs promotions about her reports and often airs public service announcements about "The Public Agenda."

The station followed the kickoff of "The Public Agenda" with an hour-long special in December based on interviews and the first community dialogue. WCTV6 also covers many "Public Agenda" events as news while news director Mike Smith searches for ways to integrate the project even further into the newsroom.

"Newspapers, I think, look for something different," Smith said. "For us, it's just another story. It's more in line with what we do already. The uniqueness is the organization and the concept behind it, not necessarily our reporting."

Keeping Track

"The Public Agenda" page got off to a good start immediately after the first community dialogue, but the paper failed to meet its initial goal of publishing the page once a month. The page appeared only three times in the first six months of the project. Concerned that the page was not appearing often enough to underscore the project's importance or support any momentum, the editors, in June 1995, decided to speed up the pace by publishing a "Public Agenda" front every three weeks.

"We just thought they weren't frequent enough to give people a sense of where the debate was going," Associate Editor Bill Edmonds said. "Like most things that are new, it turned out to be a little more cumbersome to shepherd into the paper." Edmonds and others at the paper hope that more frequent publication will not only make it easier to plan for the page but also raise its profile.

The editorial page also has published its first in-depth series about issues raised by "The Public Agenda." The topic: teenage pregnancy.

Public radio and some other Tallahassee media organizations have run announcements and news reports about the project, even though they are not official partners.

Both the Democrat and WCTV6 have met with some resistance when they sought to cover "The Public Agenda's" small discussion groups. Some of the groups worried that media coverage might inhibit discussions or draw publicity before they were ready for it. The newspaper has been allowed more access, but has been challenged to figure out how to cover a group of people sitting in a room and talking.

Keith Thomas, even though he is now a member of the editorial staff, still covers "The Public Agenda." "If you are a news reporter and you go cover this meeting, you go back to your city editor all excited. Then he says, ` When are they going to have this workshop? Who are they going to bring in?' Now you're thinking what a dud of a meeting."

The lesson learned was not every meeting would produce a story, but reporters who attended the meetings often discovered other stories. Bob Shaw sat in on a discussion about underemployment and returned to the newsroom with a cover-story idea for the business section.

The Tallahassee Democrat has not been very successful at integrating "The Public Agenda" into the newsroom, said the newspaper's executives. Shaw calls it the biggest mistake the paper has made. "I think it's seen by the staff as a two-reporter project. I don't think it's really sunk in. I've been disappointed at how few reporters have bothered to show up at [Public Agenda] meetings."

Thomas' new position has added some focus and energy to the editorial page's efforts and may give Bill Edmonds a chance to concentrate on the paper's efforts to give the project a stronger presence on-line.

"The Public Agenda" is only part of the way home. Another round of research is surveying both those people who have gotten involved and those who have not and will provide some quantitative measures of success. Many of the accomplishments, however, will remain unmeasurable.

"`The Public Agenda' was created as a way to enlarge citizen's capacity to intelligently shape community affairs," said Heldman. "We've succeeded in focusing widespread attention on the need for involvement, but fallen short of our goal of getting thousands of citizens committed to ongoing dialogue. "That's our challenge for the coming year."

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