Winter 1996
Pew Center’s New Projects
The Pew Center received 40 civic journalism proposals for this year and funding will go to 17 media partnerships. These civic journalism efforts range from reporting on the community effects of corporate downsizing in Binghamton, N.Y., to soliciting community input on the white separatists and militant militia influx around Spokane, Wash., to quelling domestic and other violence in Duluth, Minn., and dealing with intergenerational conflict in St. Paul. The Charlotte Observer, a long-time civic journalism practitioner, has proposed developing demonstration projects on using civic journalism techniques in daily journalism. “I was completely blown away by this meeting,” she said. “If I didn’t know I was in a country that had a democracy, I would have thought I wasn’t,” she said, commenting on the sense of loss the participants expressed. “They’re really in a lot of pain.” Binghamton has become “the unwitting poster child of corporate and government downsizing.” Cutbacks at IBM, and such local defense contractors as General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and GM Hughes Training have contributed to the loss of 14,300 skilled manufacturing jobs since 1988, about 38% of the jobs that once paid at least $35,000 a year. As these cuts rippled through the community, service businesses have been struggling and house prices have plummeted. The second annual survey of citizens concerns has been released and more people are joining discussion groups. The project is also taking part in the “Voices of Florida” civic journalism presidential election effort.
The Pew Center’s advisory board, in selecting the projects, focused on funding efforts that combined good shoe-leather information gathering with opportunities for input from citizens and enterprising plans to publish and air stories on the findings.
Portland, ME.
PARTNERS: PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM, MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING NETWORK, WGME-TV (CBS)
Maine’s largest town, Sanford, an old mill community, will be the focus of “Maine Citizens Campaign ’96.” The partners are trying to develop a model that will allow people to come together and grapple with local and national issues. They also seek to track the long-term effects of a deliberative experience and will use periodic surveys to see how individuals’ opinions might shift as they deliberate issues in a group setting.
The partners have conducted a random telephone survey of 300 residents and invited 70 to participate in the year-long project. At their inaugural meeting Nov. 28, participants were asked to complete a survey and they brainstormed the top issues facing the county. They overwhelmingly ranked education first, followed by a decline in values and morality, the budget deficit and health care. Future plans call for a statewide poll and community forums.
To the surprise of managing editor Jeannine Guttman, the participants thanked the media partners for asking what they thought of the issues.
Spokane, WA.
PARTNERS: THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW, TALK RADIO KXLY AND KGA, COX CABLE
In “The Ragged Edge” project, the partners plan to focus on citizen frustration and disaffection in two local communities: Coleville, a town where timber jobs have disappeared and the Militia Movement has taken hold of local government; and Bonners Ferry, hometown of white separatist Randy Weaver, whose wife and child were killed in the controversial FBI shootout at Ruby Ridge.
The project will try to identify why the region has nurtured such strong anti-government, anti-social movements and help citizens more constructively engage in their communities.
The newspaper plans to train civic journalism interns who will report in the two towns, help set up community forums and encourage citizens to write commentary in the paper. The project will involve talk-radio audiences in the discussion and use Cox Cable to broadcast community forums. The newspaper also will try to use its home page to reach citizens, including many militia groups who communicate via the World Wide Web, and publish highlights of on-line chats.
Duluth, MN.
PARTNERS: DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE, WDSE-TV PUBLIC TELEVISION, VIOLENCE FREE DULUTH COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION
Men cause 90 percent of violent acts in the United States yet long have been on the sidelines of community efforts to deal with violence. In “Men as Peacemakers,” the partners are trying to involve men in solutions. Forty-six men showed up for a retreat in September and more than 100 participated at another public meeting. The partners plan to publish and air enterprise news stories about violence and how men can prevent it and produce a 45-minute documentary on the problem, condense it for distribution to schools and libraries, and hold a televised town forum that will coincide with a national PBS special “Act Against Violence” next year.
Binghamton, NY.
PARTNERS: THE PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN, WSKG PUBLIC TELEVISION AND PUBLIC RADIO, WBNG-TV (CBS), SUNY-BINGHAMTON
In “Facing our Future: Helping the Southern Tier Re-Invent Itself,” the partners hope to get the community talking and moving toward solutions to alleviate the economic crisis through deliberative focus groups and on-line discussions. The kickoff is planned for early January.
Rochester, NY.
PARTNERS: THE DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE AND TIMES-UNION, WXXI PUBLIC TELEVISION AND WXXI-AM
As a follow to their successful “Grading our Schools” and “Upgrading our Schools” efforts, the partners this year plan to spotlight children’s attitudes toward education and violence. As part of their research, they will interview more than 300 youths from seventh grade through high school, expand the use of computer chat rooms that could overcome possible barriers for young people such as bashfulness or lack of transportation. And they plan to hold a two-session Monroe County Youth Summit, one involving young people and one including adults, that would be taped and edited for later broadcast. One focus would be how much responsibility young people take for their own lives.
They also plan to give 20 young people disposable 35 mm cameras to make photo essays of their day-to-day lives that would be used in the newspaper, on television and as part of the summit.
San Jose, CA.
PARTNERS: SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, KPIX (CBS), KIVE AND KARA RADIO, SANTA CLARA COUNTY LIBRARIES
The “Common Ground” project began as a partnership between the Mercury News Editorial Board and Santa Clara County public libraries that sought to encourage public discussion on controversial topics and create public spaces where those discussions could occur. In 1995, more than 1,000 people participated in public forums on affirmative action and on revising California’s constitution. This year the project will develop what has become a statewide consortium with similar efforts by the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union and other newspapers working with local broadcasters and area libraries to foster discussion on such issues as race and schools.
Peoria, IL.
PARTNERS: THE JOURNAL STAR, WMBD-TV (CBS) AND WMBD-AM, WTVP (PBS), WCBU-FM (NPR), ILLINOIS CENTRAL COLLEGE OF PEORIA, BRADLEY UNIVERSITY
When so few people signed up for a community leadership program that it was cancelled, Peoria knew it had a problem. Other anecdotal evidence has raised concern about the dearth of people willing to run for office or volunteer for community service work. In “The Leadership Challenge,” the partners aim to focus Peoria’s attention over the next year on the apparent decline in the quality and quantity of leaders at all levels. The project also hopes to involve the public in seeking ways to nurture more and better leaders for the future. Through mail surveys of four groups – potential leaders, community organizations, employers and retirees – and through telephone questionnaires of the public at large, the partners hope to report on the problem and possible solutions.
Cincinnati, OH.
PARTNERS: WKRC-TV (ABC), COMMUNITY PRESS’ 22 SUBURBAN WEEKLIES, Q102-FM AND WNNK-FM
“Voices of the People” kicked off on May 31 with news stories and reader and viewer call-ins. The goal is to empower citizens by making sure their voices are heard. With no research funding immediately available, news staffers each called 10 people in the phone book to discuss needs and issues that affect their lives. In July, Channel 12 took the project on the road every Thursday, doing its entire 5:30 p.m. news hour on location. Each newscast was followed by a forum that generated a number of news stories. With a research grant awarded in August from the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, the project will conduct with the University of Cincinnati a poll of 1,000 residents to identify issues most important to readers and viewers. This year, an aggressive schedule of town hall meetings to discuss the issues and such forthcoming ballot questions as public funding of two sports stadiums are planned.
St. Paul, MN.
PARTNERS: ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, KARE-TV (NBC), WILDER RESEARCH CENTER, MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO
Never has there been a time of greater change – social, technological, workplace – in the nation, and the ties that bind different generations are coming loose. In “What Do We Owe Each Other?” the partners plan to examine how the widening divide between generations is playing out in individual families, in communities and in the nation’s politics. The partners plan to explore what people in different generations want and what they are willing to fund. Then they will examine the funding issues that often set one generation against another, such as school funding, health care funding, Social Security, Medicare and deficit reduction. The research will be done through polls, forums and community-assisted reporting on the money-transfer issues.
San Francisco, CA.
PARTNERS: KQED-FM (NPR), SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, KRON-TV (NBC)
The two-year-old “Voice of the Voter” partnership will build on the momentum of its election efforts with its first non-electoral project: exploring the complex transportation issues in the Bay Area. In their fact-finding stage, the partners will explore San Francisco’s failing Municipal Railway bus system, Alameda County’s bankrupt transit system, the coordination gap among the Bay Area’s 20 separate transportation entities, the precedent set by Orange County’s diversion of transit funds to bail out its failing health care system, and the new requirement that voters approve by a two-thirds majority any sales tax increases for transportation projects. Citizen input will come through public forums to define the issues and map out how citizens can get involved.
Charlotte, NC.
PARTNER: THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
Civic journalism is more than a project; it’s a mindset. That’s the way The Observer, a long-time civic journalism practitioner, sees it. And the paper proposes to spend 1996 figuring out how to apply the values of civic journalism to the coverage of daily news.
Under the direction of Rick Thames, the paper’s new Public Editor, The Observer, proposes to conduct eight to 10 demonstrations of “daily” civic journalism. The paper envisions these demonstrations coming off daily news developments or ongoing conversations in the community and they would include such civic journalism techniques as citizen deliberation, polling, “listening posts,” focus groups and televised town forums. Ultimately, the lessons learned will be published in a “best practices” guide.
Norfolk, VA.
PARTNERS: THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, THE HARWOOD GROUP
The paper will build on the focus groups conducted by The Harwood Group last fall as part of the Pew Center’s Citizens Election Project. The goal is to develop a deliberative poll that would help citizens in such non-primary states as Virginia connect to the public discourse in states where the presidential primaries are most influential. Harwood would develop the deliberative poll. It would address the choices citizens face on important issues, their visions for the future, and their attitudes towards the presidency and governance. The deliberative poll will be designed to help citizens set the national agenda and help the next president fulfill citizens’ vision for the future. The exercise will also result in a case study paper on the differences between a deliberative and a market-based poll.
Madison, WI.
PARTNERS: WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION, WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO, WISC-TV (CBS), WOOD COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
The long-running “We the People/ Wisconsin” project is receiving funding to hire a full-time project director to help with the rapid growth and success of the project and respond to new civic journalism opportunities. The partners at least once a quarter have involved citizens in various issues – through news reports, town meetings and various civic exercises. Since late 1992, they have hosted nearly 30 town hall gatherings and produced nine statewide broadcasts. The project also has served as a catalyst for independent local media initiatives in Racine, Wausau, Eau Claire and Beloit. The project director will help with outreach, recruitment of town hall participants, customizing programs to best benefit the public, spreading the concepts to at least four other Wisconsin communities and extending the “shelf life” of the programs and reports through transcripts of broadcasts and reprints of news articles and other informational materials.
Tallahassee,FL.
PARTNERS: TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT, WCTV6 (CBS), FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Pew Center is funding Year Three of “The Public Agenda” project, which set out to help Tallahasseans discuss key issues and reach consensus on common problems. According to the partners, citizens have started taking charge of the process. For instance, the race relations discussion group in October set up an affirmative-action discussion/ call-in program on public television. Administrators of the state court system have approached the partners about helping to involve the public in planning for the future of the court system.
Seattle and Tacoma, WA.
PARTNERS: THE SEATTLE TIMES, KPLU-FM AND KUOW-FM (NPR), KCTS-TV (PBS)
The “Front Porch Forum” alliance has added a television partner and is receiving funding to hire a project coordinator to help deal with the logistics of organizing public events, citizen interaction and fund raising.
After developing a successful election project in 1994 and working together last year on a multi-billion dollar transit vote and votes on two local tax measures, the partners plan to try to give citizens input on several national and regional issues, including the campaigns for president and governor, and tax measures for schools, housing, parks and transit.
Myrtle Beach, SC.
PARTNERS: THE SUN NEWS, COX CABLE,THE PALMETTO PROJECT
The partners are receiving a planning grant to develop a project on the so-called “New Racism,” to examine discrimination by whites against not just African-Americans, but all races. The partners are trying to develop their reporting model, and their plans for a poll and focus groups to discuss the findings and work on solutions.
Tampa, FL.
PARTNERS: WTVT 13 (FOX), THE WEEKLY PLANET ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER, WNMF COMMUNITY RADIO, THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE, TAMPA BAY CHAPTER
A planning grant will help the partners set up a system of listening posts, such as forums and study circles, town meetings or roundtables, plus plan for polling and other research to help identify and report on community issues and stimulate a civic dialogue on those issues.