What’s Happening in Pew Center Projects

The paper kicked off its “Leadership Challenge” coverage in January with a series of stories about the dearth of leaders. “Before, the staff had doubts about whether this was a story,” said managing editor Jack Brimeyer. “Now they are standing in line for our projects editor” with ideas for coverage. The business news staff, for instance, is exploring any benefits that accrue to businesses that support employees who are community leaders, the religion writer is examining leadership in local churches, and the legislative writer is reporting a package of stories on the price of involvement in political leadership. “It gave shape to some of the things they were thinking about anyway,” Brimeyer said.

Mail surveys are seeking input from graduates of the local community leadership training program and are polling local businesses about practices that might encourage or discourage employees from being civic leaders. “I think it’s generating a lot of discussion on a lot of levels,” Brimeyer said. The partners have plans for two more mail surveys – of minorities and retirees – then a broader telephone survey before they invite citizens to problem-solving sessions.

Dayton, Ohio
PARTNERS: DAYTON DAILY NEWS, WPTD PUBLIC TELEVISION, WYSO-FM, THE MIAMI VALLEY ISSUES FORUM, THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Drawing on Dayton’s history as a hub of industry and invention in the early 1900’s, the partners set the stage for a community dialogue about its future. The newspaper did a series identifying the region’s past accomplishments and identifying future challenges. That was followed in January with a 90-minute television documentary and live TV panel discussion and phone-in. “The response was so great after we did the phone-in, the panel will come back again,” said Sandee Harden, director of broadcasting, Greater Dayton Public Television, adding that operators could not field all the calls. People called to share ideas, enroll for the next day’s issues forum and request copies of the program.

Madison, Wis.
PARTNERS: WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION, WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO, WISC-TV (CBS) AND WOOD COMMUNICATIONS GROUP

Once again, the partners sponsored “You be the Judge,” an opportunity for citizens to hear the two candidates for State Supreme Court present “closing arguments” to a panel of citizens sitting on the justices’ bench in the State Capitol. This time, though, they drew on past experience and added a new twist. In last year’s exercise, they learned that citizens did not always ask the kinds of questions judicial candidates could answer – especially if the questions concerned an issue that might come before the court. So this time the partners asked two sitting judges for a dozen landmark cases the court had decided in recent years. Citizens then selected which cases they’d like the candidates to discuss as if the candidates had been a member of the court at the time of the ruling. Citizens selected a freedom of speech case involving protesters at a shopping mall; a police search of curbside garbage for drugs; and a separation of church and state case involving a village nativity scene. “These are good cases where people can learn the candidates’ thinking,” said Tom Still, associate editor of the State Journal.

Coming in late April: the partners will invite citizen input on a hot-button issue – the future of the University of Wisconsin and its 26 campuses around the state.

Hackensack, N.J.
PARTNERS: THE BERGEN RECORD, CAUCUS EDUCATIONAL CORP., TCI OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY, WJUX-FM

“In A Big Jam,” The Record’s four-part, 16-page in-depth report on why traffic is so difficult in Bergen and Passaic Counties kicked off in March. “It’s really everything you wanted to know about why it doesn’t work,” said David Blomquist, the project’s director. Preceding the series, The Record conducted focus groups to gauge the public’s level of information on the traffic problem. The stories generated lots of response from readers, who were invited to call voice mail with comments and suggestions. Follow-up focus groups will try to determine what readers learned from the reports. “We know this model works,” Blomquist said. The goal is to give readers enough information so “they can make a meaningful contribution” to future discussion about the problem. The Record is planning a “visioning” conference later this year that will bring together the public and experts to discuss the issue. Traffic is the second topic tackled in newspaper’s “Quality of Life” civic journalism initiative; the first was education.

Portland, ME.
PARTNERS: PORTLAND PRESS HERALD, MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM, MAINE PUBLIC BROADCASTING NETWORK, WGME-TV (CBS)

Ethics and morality were on the discussion agenda for 40 Sanford, Maine, residents at their second Citizens Meeting prior to the March 5 primary. Yet the questions they wanted candidates to address dealt with the presidential campaign: What can we do about all the money that is spent in presidential campaigns? Why are there so many negative campaign ads on television?

“I though, oh my God, they got their assignment wrong,” said Jeannine Guttman, Press Herald managing editor. “Then I realized that’s how they see ethics and morality… Politicians think in terms of school prayer but [these citizens] were talking about this breakdown of trust between the public and their institutions.”

When Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana later took questions from the group, the citizens asked only about issues. “I thought that was very illuminating,” Guttman said. “If we had reporters there asking questions instead, it would have been focused on campaign strategy: What are your polls showing? When are you going to drop out?”

“Maine Citizens Campaign ’96” is tracking the deliberations of the group of Sanford citizens for a year. The citizens are gathering once every six weeks to discuss their issues. Between meetings, study circles of 10 citizens meet once or twice for a discussion facilitated by the Maine Roundtable Center.

Binghamton, N.Y.
PARTNERS: THE PRESS & SUN-BULLETIN, WBNG-TV (CBS), WSKG PUBLIC TELEVISION AND PUBLIC RADIO, SUNY-BINGHAMTON

With their January debut, the partners have begun examining what can be done about massive corporate downsizing in the region. The newspaper has run three-part series in January, February and March, focusing on jobs, and ideas for revitalizing the region’s economy and diversifying it. WBNG also has aired a series of stories and WSKG has broadcast two hour-long specials. So far, more than 550 citizens have responded with feedback or volunteered to participate. At a televised town meeting April 18, citizens will meet to discuss ideas for future economic development and sign up for one of 10 action teams on such topics as venture capital, government cooperation, education. The teams will work independently of the media partners through the summer to research solutions and possible actions. Their recommendations will be publicized.

At Binghamton University, 150 citizens in seven focus groups have been discussing what they consider to be the area’s economic needs. Meanwhile, in March, hundreds of schoolchildren, grades 3 through 12, began participating in NYLINK, a WSKG project to enable the students to use their school computers to talk to one another about their future. The newspaper plans to publish their responses. Meanwhile, an 18-student High School Task Force will present a report to the public in May.

Cincinnati, Ohio
PARTNERS: WKRC-TV (ABC), THE COMMUNITY PRESS 22 SUBURBAN WEEKLIES, Q102-FM AND WNNK-FM

Do Cincinnatians want to pay a higher sales tax to build two news sports stadiums: one for the Reds and one for the Bengals? The partners worked to get answers to citizens’ questions prior to a March 19 referendum on the issue. WKRC answered two to three viewers’ questions on its nightly news broadcasts and its Sunday morning public affairs programs. And every Wednesday, the weekly newspapers answered reader questions about the tax measure. The coverage led up to a televised special March 15. Preliminary results of a University of Cincinnati poll taken earlier in the year are pinpointing other issues that Cincinnatians would like the media partners to cover.

Seattle, Wash.
PARTNERS: SEATTLE TIMES, KPLU-FM AND KUOW-FM PUBLIC RADIO, KCTS PUBLIC TELEVISION

KCTS-TV has joined the media alliance, which has been underway since the 1994 elections. The partners have hired a coordinator and are developing a statewide poll that will be conducted in April. This year’s coverage, which will focus on the presidential and gubernatorial elections, will be launched in May.

Rochester, N.Y.
PARTNERS: THE DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE AND TIMES-UNION, WXXI-TV PUBLIC TELEVISION, WXXI-AM

Talks are underway with a commercial television station that might join the media alliance. Meanwhile, the partners have prepared poll questions for about 370 seventh through twelfth graders about education and violence. They plan to gather the young people in early June for a Youth Summit. The newspapers will do intensive coverage, fleshing out the issues and findings in the poll, all leading up to a televised documentary special in September.

Duluth, Minn.
PARTNERS: DULUTH NEWS-TRIBUNE, WDSE-TV PUBLIC TELEVISION, VIOLENCE FREE DULUTH COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

In March, the newspaper launched its first installment of a series examining the various ways people are affected by violence and how they learn to be violent, for example through sports, the media, peers, parents. Production also began on a video about violence that would be distributed in the schools. The partners are gathering information for a resource guide that would give the community options for getting involved in doing something about violence.

Tallahassee, Fla.
PARTNERS: TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT, WCTV6 (CBS), FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY AND FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

About 100 Tallahasseans attended “The Public Agenda’s” fourth Community Dialogue on Jan. 30 and immediately broke into discussion groups. Two new groups were formed – on culture and on traffic – as a result of a survey after the initiative’s first year. The traffic group has since merged with the growth and environment group. The initial education group has split into two groups, one meeting on education and the other on children and values. And the crime group has unveiled its new Web page, which tried to put into understandable language the various punishments for juvenile and other violations. Tallahassee teenagers, meanwhile, are actively working with the city to create a teen center or skate park.