Don’t Stop There! Five Adventures in Civic Journalism
Introduction
Most reporters and editors have, in their mental story file, an idea they can’t seem to get down on paper. It’s too sweeping, too amorphous, and yet for that very reason, it may be the very story readers need to read. A story that engages not only readers’ time and interest but also their priorities, their values, their conscience.
The stories in this book started out that way — as big, complex, uncharted. Difficult to render as journalism.
That’s why we call them adventures.They were risky and unpredictable. This was not soft or boosterish journalism. Often it faced opponents in the community and even in the newsroom.
Sometimes it didn’t work out the way the journalists thought it would. Often it took turns that no one expected. Always, it made a difference in the community. People read it, they got involved and they helped make their world a better place. And the journalists felt like… good journalists.
What made these adventures “civic” journalism? There is no simple formula for answering that question. Civic journalism is practiced differently in every community it serves.
What these projects have in common is that they did not stop at simply unloading a lot of information on their readers and considering the job done. That was only the start.
They moved on to build some roles for their intended audience as active participants in solving the problem. They gave readers entry points for having a voice and for taking responsibility — and the readers came aboard and shouldered some stake in the outcome.
In Portland, Maine, it meant giving ordinary citizens direct access to question candidates in a presidential election year only to see that blossom into a desire by those citizens to stick together and to do more.
In Binghamton, New York, it meant inviting teams of citizens to figure out ways to resuscitate a severely depressed local economy.
In Springfield, Missouri, civic journalism took to the streets to chronicle a rising tide of juvenile crime and found the community rallying at a “Good Community Fair.”
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the journalists built on their coverage of safety and intergenerational issues to help citizens grapple with the issues of poverty in the context of welfare reform.
And in Peoria, Illinois, a new generation of leaders rose from the community after journalists examined the societal changes that led to a leadership decline.
Taken together, the experiences shared in these case studies amount to a blueprint for journalists interested in energizing their coverage and bringing about change in their community.
The stories engaged the community in the journalism and, in the process, engaged journalists in the community.
–Jan Schaffer
Executive Director
Pew Center for Civic Journalism