The Scene: The summer of 1996 in Bradenton, Florida. A strong mayor and his city council are about to sign a contract to build a new city hall-fire-police complex on prime waterfront land. Wayne Poston of the Bradenton Herald shares how the paper empowered citizens to take ownership of this issue and start public discussion.
Three new videos from a civic journalism retreat at the Poynter Institute in November are available for newsroom or classroom discussion. Presentations by Dennis Hartig of the Virginian-Pilot, Jody Calendar fo the Asbury Park press and Glenn Ritt of the Bergen Record address civic journalism from several perspectives.
Had KRON-TV gone crazy? The San Francisco station launches a week-long series about race relations during sweeps week, including a 13-minute first piece. Their gamble paid of; Pat Ford reports that the response from the Bay Area was enormous.