Winter 1997
Impact Civic Journalism
Wisconsin: Beating the World Series . . .
Good civic journalism can compete with major-league sports, sit-coms and movies.
The first program in the “We the People/Wisconsin’s” sesquicentennial series, “Family,” aired from 7 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21 — the same time as Game 3 of the World Series.
“Family” aired live on WISC-TV (CBS) and Wisconsin Public Television. It received a 7 rating and a 15 share, beating everything in that time slot except for ABC’s “Soul Man” and “Over the Top” at 8 and 17.
NBC’s baseball had a 6 rating and 13 share. Fox’s “Addams Family Values” had a 3 rating and 6 share.
“Our show on real families beat Hollywood’s show about a fake family,” crowed Tom Still, Associate Editor, Wisconsin State Journal.
New York: When voters are informed…
When New York voters faced a referendum proposing to convene the state’s first constitutional convention in 30 years, they found themselves assaulted by an aggressive, last-minute advertising campaign to defeat the measure, waged by the state teachers’ union and other opponents. But they didn’t find a lot of journalism on the subject.
One exception was in the Rochester area, where the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, WXXI-TV, and WOKR-TV,the ABC affiliate, for months had been engaging Monroe County citizens in lively discussions, forums, and stories on whether the constitution should be amended.
The final Election Day tallies suggested that informed voters do vote differently. Statewide, voters overwhelmingly defeated the referendum. But in the Rochester area, the balloting ended with opponents and supporters in a virtual dead heat. “Clearly, there was something happening in Monroe County that wasn’t happening anywhere else,” said Blair Claflin, the paper’s Public Affairs Editor. “I assume our coverage had something to do with that.”