Summer 1995
Civic Journalism…What’s Happening
In the state budget project, three mock-budget drafting sessions held in Eau Claire, Racine and Madison primed citizens in the difficulties of budget construction and helped them frame their concerns for legislators. An hour-long live presentation that included responses from members of the state’s Joint Finance Committee was broadcast after the Madison session; the project partners agreed to present the results of all three sessions to the state legislature. WXXI’s Gary Walker
Charlotte, N.C.
Partners: The Charlotte Observer, WSOC-TV (ABC) WPEG-FM and WBAV-FM.
Charlotte’s successful “Taking Back our Neighborhoods/Carolina Crime Solutions” project just completed the “media blitz” reporting on the seventh in a series about 10 neighborhoods beset by crime. Then on June 1, Gov. Jim Hunt attended the town meeting that helped launch reporting on the eighth neighborhood, Druid Hills. Stories on that community will appear July 9. So far, about 700 citizens have volunteered to do various things in the communities profiled.
Dayton, Ohio.
Partners: Dayton Daily News, WHIO-TV (CBS), WYSO-FM, WPTD Television Station and the Miami Valley National Issues Forums.
As a continuation of its “Kids in Chaos” project, the Daily News and WHIO held the second Dayton conference on youth violence, “Creating Community Solutions,” on April 26. In another community-rebuilding effort, the Daily News and WPTD in early June launched “A Matter of Race,” an examination of affirmative action issues that are to include special newspaper articles, a WPTD documentary, eight community forums and radio call-ins. The initiative is part of a two-year partnership, “Shaping the Next Century,” that kicked off in April.
Detroit, Mich.
Partners: The Detroit Free Press, WXYZ-TV (ABC).
As part of its year-long “Listening to the Children” effort, the Free Press on May 24 published the results of its poll of 1,600 children, ages 9 to 12. Questions about safety were at the heart of the poll: nearly one in five children said they had actually witnessed a shooting. Almost half said they knew someone other than a police officer who carried a gun or a knife. Of children living in the urban core, 41 percent worried about being the victim of crime. Thirty-eight percent said they probably would not be successful when they grew up. A special section profiled the lives of five local children. WXYZ summarized the poll on its news and ran an interview with Free Press publisher Neil Shine. The station also aired a one-hour special about the fears and stresses in lives of four young people. Two more hour-long specials will air this fall, one on successful programs around the country that deal with at-risk children; the other a town meeting to invite the community to discuss the problems. “We feel we’ve produced an absolutely groundbreaking piece of work,” said reporter Phil Linsalata, ” and now we have to share it with our readers.”
Grand Forks, N.D.
Partners: The Grand Forks Herald, WDAZ-TV (ABC); Northern Lights Public Radio.
The partners launched the “Community Conversation” on April 18 by driving a van around town, hoping to snare interviews with residents. After sitting at a table, ignored, at the center of the town’s busiest mall, they realized they would have to get up and buttonhole people. Once they figured that out, said Tim Fought, the paper’s Opinion Team Leader, “they found that people were eager to talk.
The partners interviewed 120 people at coffee shops, the bowling alley, the mall and the Air Force base. Then they polled 400 residents. One measure of impact: people were so eager to talk they kept the pollsters on the phone line for 12 to 14 minutes instead of the estimated 8 to 9 minutes, Fought said.
Poll results were released June 2. How do we make Grand Forks better? “Fix the streets,” the citizens declared as their top priority for the future. In early June, the partners gathered 25 people for a discussion group. Their mandate was to reach a consensus on a public question or a resolution. They came to agreement on an economic development issue: That public money should go only towards the kinds of jobs that pay a “living wage” of at least $14 an hour. They also delivered to the media partners a list of story ideas. “Our pledge to them was to do journalism on those stories,” Fought said. The partners will re-convene the group in late summer and plan a community wide forum in the fall.
Madison, Wis.
Partners: The Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, WISC-TV (NBC), Wood Communications Group.
“We the People/Wisconsin” continued its “learn as you go” approach to generating community discussion of civic issues by spotlighting the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in March and state budget deliberations in April.
The partners drew attention to the low profile supreme court contest by inviting citizen participation. A seven-citizen panel sat behind the bench and questioned candidates Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley during a live, one-hour television broadcast, “You Be the Judge.” The effort opened some discussion with the court about how to deal with the current policy that forbids candidates from discussing issues.
Manhattan, Kan.
Partners: The Manhattan Mercury, KQLA-FM.
The Mercury launched its project last month with a month-long look at teen-age binge drinking, highlighted by a May 22 town meeting. The paper first did a status report on the issue, the second week it gave the experts’ perspectives, the third week it reported case studies of individuals who had suffered from binge drinking and the fourth week it invited residents to discuss the issue. “We learned that the most difficult task may be steering the process away from interest groups and toward the general public,” said Executive Editor Bill Felber. Next, the partners will address investing more local power in a growing number of neighborhood organizations, and student housing.
Rochester, N.Y.
Partners: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and Times-Union and WXXI Public Television.
Rochester’s “Grading Our Schools” initiative kicked off in early May with a series of stories on school spending, salaries, consolidation, and effectiveness. On May 13 the paper released its poll of 768 city and suburban residents. Results: Rochester’s highly recognized eight-year-old school reform efforts got a low C; respondents thought teachers were doing a good job but parents were falling down on theirs; and a merger of city with suburban schools was soundly rejected. About 89 percent of the respondents said students graduated without the skills they need. 
invites Howard Eagle
to ask a question
at a town meeting.
About 190 residents showed up to discuss the issues at two town meetings, on May 14 and 16; another 730 responded to telephone surveys on those nights, and about 65 logged into an America OnLine chat room to discuss the issues.
St. Paul, Minn.
Partners: St. Paul Pioneer Press and KARE-TV (NBC)
The Pioneer Press has entered into a partnership with market leader KARE-TV to do a “Safer Cities” project. In June the Wilder Research Foundation polled about 2,700 people in nine different samples: 500 from the seven-county Twin Cities area, 500 from Minneapolis, 500 from St. Paul, and 200 from each of six different neighborhoods.
Throughout the summer, the paper will dispatch two reporters to various cities to examine innovative crime-fighting efforts. They will report on the street patrols of “Mad Dads” in Omaha, Neb., and the beat cops on Jet Skis, dune buggies and horses in Virginia Beach; on the victim-witness program in Milwaukee, and the community policing effort in Louisville, Ky. They will also examine a grassroots effort in St. Paul to involve ordinary citizens in protecting their neighborhoods. The partners plan to invite the public to forums in the fall and issue safety tool kits to individuals and organizations early next year.
San Jose, Calif.
Partners: San Jose Mercury News, KNTV (ABC), California Voter Foundation.
The Mercury News has brought in KNTV as a partner in “Your Voices Count,” a legislative education project that was an outgrowth of its five-part “Legislature for Sale” series published in January. About 75 people have volunteered to work on the project, which aims to make the California state legislature more responsive to the public. They are focusing on four areas: legislative accountability, civic involvement, campaign finance reform, and structural governmental reform.
The project kicked off June 18 with Page One stories in the newspaper and a three-part series on KNTV. Plans include an Internet home page, a question & answer message board on Mercury Center, and a voice mailbox at the Mercury News.
Already StateNet, a supplier of California campaign finance records, has agreed to allow the project to run on its Web page campaign contributions for San Jose area lawmakers.
This summer the participants will have a lobbying training seminar, then caravan in July to the state Capitol to watch the legislature at work during key policy committee hearings. A campaign finance reform debate is planned for September. The project’s e-mail address is: YourVoices@aol.com.
Tallahassee, Fla.
Partners: The Tallahassee Democrat, WCTV (CBS).
“The Public Agenda” project now has about 10 small groups engaged in discussions about such issues as crime, growth and the environment, jobs and the economy, community and race relations, and teen concerns.
WCTV has been running regular stories about people and ideas that have surfaced in the project. The Democrat has run a “Comment” page with updates on the community dialogue. Two chat sessions on the Tallahassee Free-Net have engaged people on-line in a discussion of community issues. More polling is underway to get feedback on how the project is perceived in the community and participants are being surveyed to gather information on their level of involvement and expectations.