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Topics:
Communication
Tallahassee
Democrat
In its extensive
"Public Agenda" project, the Tallahassee Democrat is engaging
the views of citizens and measuring citizen interest and attitudes
on democracy and participation. In "Your Vote, Your Future," the
paper focuses its election issues coverage and encourages voter
registration. Case study plus.
Index
Public
Agenda
Your Vote, Your Future
Contents
Public
Agenda
Public
Agenda
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.
Initially
envisioned as a monthly page featuring a status report on critical
community issues, a Q&A and excerpts from community conversations,
the "Public Agenda" concept now embodies plans for a large-scale,
two-year initiative. The Democrat is working with the local CBS
affiliate and two state universities in a major coverage, research
and public awareness effort. The project includes a two-year series
of polls designed to measure citizen issues interests and citizen
attitudes about democracy and participation. The media partners
are jointly sponsoring community issues forums and the ongoing
neighborhood discussion groups. The initiative is funded by a
grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Tallahassee
Democrat (newspaper)
P.O. Box 990
277 N. Magnolia Dr.
Tallahassee FL 32302-0990
(904) 599-2150 (phone-Heldman)
(904) 599-2100 (gen'l))
(904) 599-2155 (fax)
Ownership
Knight-Ridder
No. newsroom employees: 60
Circulation
57,900 (daily)
78,600 (Sunday)
Circulation Area (population): Leon County (150,000)
Initiative
The Public Agenda
Dates
Nov. 1994-June 1996 (Planning began December 1993)
Lead
Editor
Bob Shaw, managing editor
Executive
in charge
(If different from above)
Lou Heldman, executive editor
When
and how did this initiative get started?
Heldman came up with the idea of a "public agenda page" at the
first API-Project on Public Life and the Press seminar in November
1993, and presented it there to fellow participants. Later, Heldman
wrestled with the issue of bringing citizens into the process
of setting the agenda for the issues covered on the page. He was
particularly interested in designing an initiative that genuinely
embodied the process of citizen deliberation. The full-blown initiative
is an outgrowth of that exercise. It also was spurred on by the
prospect of a Pew Charitable Trusts grant under the "Renewing
Our Democratic Heart" project, designed to encourage public journalism
partnerships between newspapers and TV stations.
What
were the goals of the initiative?
For the news staff, Heldman writes in a description of the project,
the Public Agenda will "help us set priorities for coverage and
story play and increase the stature of personnel covering those
issues." Research will be used "not just for stories reporting
the results, but to add depth on ongoing coverage" of issues citizens
identify as being of greatest importance. For the community, Heldman
writes, the Public Agenda is "really about changing the way people
think and act. If those now calling themselves 'residents' or
'taxpayers' begin thinking of themselves as 'citizens,' and acting
in intelligently empowered ways, it follows that public officials
will begin to think differently about citizens and their own responsibilities."
What
did the initiative entail?
During summer 1994, the partners:
- Hired
Harwood and Associates to conduct a series of 10 in-depth conversations
with 29 Tallahassee residents representing 90 percent of the
area's demographic clusters. In these June/July 1994 conversations,
researchers probed for top community concerns and general attitudes
about government and community involvement. The conclusions:
"People recognize the tough challenges they face and want to
deal with them. But for this to happen Tallahassee has to create
a new public conversation that engages citizens and taps the
spirit of community."
- Conducted
a poll of 828 Leon County residents, in which respondents identified
public policy concerns and discussed citizenship attitudes.
More than 80 percent of those questioned agreed with the statement,
"I would devote more time to helping solve community problems
if I thought I'd be listened to."
- Led 60
citizens through four-and-a-half hours of training on forming
and leading community discussion groups.
- Hired
a project director and a community coordinator. They developed
training for citizens and newsroom staff, made presentations
about the project to major community groups and met one-on-one
with citizens to encourage participation in the project.
In November
1994, the partners will launch the project with:
- Publication
and broadcast of survey results, beginning Sunday, Nov. 13.
In addition to news features, the paper for the first time will
publish the "Public Agenda Page," as a Comment section front,
and WCTV will devote its public affairs show to the project.
- Hold
a community forum in the state House of Representatives chambers,
with citizens discussing their hopes for the future of Tallahassee.
The paper will cover the meeting, which also will be taped for
broadcast.
- Invite
citizens to participate in smaller neighborhood discussion groups.
- Continue
stepped-up coverage of issues identified in the survey.
- Work with
journalism students at Florida A&M, where the student paper
will appoint a public journalism editor and students will conduct
one-on-one interviews in the African-American community that
comprises 29 percent of Tallahassee's population. Students also
will help with a Public Agenda newsletter, to be published several
times a year for distribution to citizens and others directly
involved in some aspect of the project.
Other
background:
- The newspaper
will pick up the monthly "Public Agenda Page" section front
that sparked the initiative. General coverage of public issues
will be increasingly refocused to place more emphasis on citizen
concerns. The newspaper also will link the Public Agenda into
the local free-access computer network, which will establish
bulletin boards devoted to public discussion of issues.
- Florida
State University will handle the training, logistics and education
materials involved with the Public Agenda, through the Center
for Professional Development. Project staff developed develop
and distribute background kits on issues, as well as information
about conducting meaningful public discussions. The center also
will collect and disseminate results of such discussions, publish
a Public Agenda newsletter several times a year with help from
Florida A&M students.
How
many people worked on it?
At the newspaper, two reporters are assigned full time to the
track "Public Agenda" issues; the editorial-page editor is responsible
for the monthly "Public Agenda Page." The grant also covers the
cost of a project coordinator and a community outreach staffer.
At the television station, the news director and a lead anchor
are the two most actively involved staff members.
Heldman
formulated the full proposal in consultation with and assistance
from newspaper staff; David Olmsted, vice president and general
manager of WCTV; Virginia Dodge Fielder, vice president/research
of Knight-Ridder; and several FSU and FAMU social science, public
policy, and journalism professors. Heldman also met with FSU President
Sandy D'Alemberte and Provost Robert Glidden to enlist university
involvement.
Response
to the Initiative
In
the newsroom:
Aside from the elections and voter initiative, newsroom journalists
were not broadly familiar with the ideas of citizen deliberation;
general bewilderment met Heldman's initial presentation of the
"Public Agenda Page" concept in late 1993. Now that other coverage
is reflecting more citizen voices, newsroom reaction varies drastically.
At one extreme, the editors who organized elections coverage and
the voter project are highly energized about the new approaches.
At the other, negative reaction falls into two broad categories,
Heldman said. First, "If you put too much faith in people, you're
going to get seriously wounded by it," and second, "Quoting the
public in a serious way is not very interesting because people
are yahoos."
The newsroom
does seem united around the idea that the public should play a
larger, more effective role in processing policy questions that
affect Florida's future. Moreover, most understand the newspaper's
place as a leader. "If we are going to do anything that will save
this state, we must do it. It's our duty," said Associate Editorial
Page Editor Dave Bruns. "...I think it's the responsibility of
the newspaper to provide a community with a reflection of itself
and to provide not only a voice but a forum for all the people
who live here."
Elements
incorporated into regular newsroom routines and/or culture:
On the heels of Tallahassee's successful 1992 election coverage
and voter project, public journalism techniques are taking hold
in the newsroom. Already, stories are developed and coverage is
planned around the concepts of citizen's voices and news pieces
that help citizens through the deliberative process. For examples,
reporters are more frequently assigned to public hearings; stories
may not develop directly from the meetings, but reporters are
advised to listen for the currents of public opinion. Less emphasis
is being given to writing stories after all meetings of public
bodies; reporters are increasingly expected to be more sensitive
to the development of an issues, rather than reporting every notch
of new activity.
In
the community:
Partners from all quarters are enthusiastic about the Public Agenda
project. There is a common understanding about the difficulty
of achieving effective deliberation in a state capital town where
consensus is regularly blocked. Heldman describes it as "a town
of snarling advocates, with more lawyers, lobbyists and college
professors per capita than anywhere in Florida."
Overall
lessons - successes and failures:
Three crucial elements distinguish this experiment and its potential:
deliberation, cooperation and long-term commitment. The goal is
not simply to spotlight public issues, to create a closer link
between the media and the community it serves, or to teach civics.
It is to provoke effective deliberation on issues of importance
to the future of the city and the state; to do so, careful attention
to the way citizens understand and process issues is essential.
The character of town forums and community roundtables is a crucial
component. Their development, like most other elements of the
initiative, require close cooperation among the participants.
"We wonder about keeping such a massive project on track, given
the large number of players we have enlisted, most of whom haven't
worked together on anything of this magnitude," Heldman's memo
states. Finally, the long-term success of the project will depend
on its becoming more than a one-time project, with concepts of
citizen involvement incorporated not only into news routines,
but also into the fabric of Tallahassee's community life. This
raises an interesting question: How does a newspaper best play
the role of catalyst in re-energizing democratic institutions?
Case study
written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public
Life and the Press, March, July & November 1994. Sources: Democrat
interviews, interim reports by Lou Heldman to the Pew Center for
Civic Journalism. 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
Index
Public
Agenda
Your Vote, Your Future
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