1997 Batten Award Winner
The Peoria Journal Star, IL
“The Leadership Challenge”
“For an innovative, solutions-oriented approach to a subtle, but pervasive problem: the decline of civic leadership…”With the biggest exodus from the U.S. Senate since the Civil War, the lowest number of contested races in the Illinois primary in three decades, and the failure of neighborhood associations, school boards and other local groups to find broad members and volunteers, the idea of a civic journalism project on local leadership made perfect sense.But from the first story, the project was seen as a challenge to Peoria’s established power structure. Using community surveys, polls, focus groups, and traditional journalism, the newspaper and its media partners framed the problems in depth in various sectors of the community, edified readers with excellent explanatory journalism, and invited their ideas at a brainstorming town meeting. The year-long process ultimately overcame newsroom skepticism, resistance from entrenched local interests, and the gibes of competitors in the press to help the community come not only to a better understanding of the reasons for the decline in civic leadership but also its costs to society.
It also led to a few promising steps. Illinois Central College created the Center for Non-Profit Excellence to help civic organizations. And graduates of the Community Leadership School created an alumni group to help fill the need for hands-on community service.
In July 1997, 424 people attended a Neighborhood Conference, a spin-off of the series, to tackle neighborhood issues.”This clear-eyed vision of the key role the news media could play had a measurable effect on the resolution of the issue,” said the Batten Advisory Board.
Contact:
Jack Brimeyer
Managing Editor
Journal Star
1 News Plaza
Peoria, IL 61643
Phone: (309) 686-3121
Fax: (309) 686-3296
E-Mail: jbrimeye@pjstar.com
Terry Bibo
Columnist/Special Projects Director
Journal Star
1 News Plaza
Peoria, IL 61643
Phone: (309) 686-3000
Fax: (309) 686-3296