Fall 1996
Inventing New Election Coverage
The Virginian-Pilot, for instance, is asking candidates to apply for the job they are seeking- to submit a resume and application letter outlining their qualifications.In the Los Angeles area, the Orange Country Register devoted as much as 40 percent of its news hole for the political conventions to issues coverage. Then the paper hooked up with a broad media coalition to convene a live televised conversation with citizens on California’s controversial civil rights ballot measure that surprised host station KTTV, the Fox affiliate, by doubling the normal ratings for the time period. The Record in North Jersey has also been devoting full pages six days a week to issues-based coverage and is involved in an effort to try to measure whether any of its civic journalism efforts are having any impact on readers. The Boston Globe and Seattle Times are engaged in media partnerships with NPR and public or commercial television to focus on citizen issues. Meanwhile, statewide media alliances in Wisconsin and North Carolina have teamed up to interview candidates jointly, or to do round-robin television programs on key Congressional races. In Florida, the St. Petersburg Times and the Fox TV affiliate in Tampa are working to help citizens focus on presidential debates. Here are some of the highlights: The Orange County Register devoted 30 to 40 percent of its political news hole every day of the two political conventions to issues-based coverage, concentrating on job security, education, taxes and the budget deficit — issues that its readers said were important to them. “We asked, what can we give people during the convention?” said Dennis Foley, politics editor. Each issue was presented against the backdrop of the Republican or Democratic gathering. So, during the GOP sessions, the paper reported on Bob Dole’s positions on those issues, the values that motivate him, his vision and his proposals pertaining to a specific issue. The Register also studied Dole’s record in Congress, his campaign proposals and speeches, and interviewed his aides and advisors. And it discussed his positions with independent experts and with voters. Then it did identical coverage of Clinton’s positions during the Democratic convention. Although the overall coverage was balanced, an individual story “was not balanced in the traditional sense in that we didn’t put in the traditional slam quote saying, ‘No, that wouldn’t work’,” Foley said. On Sept. 15, The Register joined its broad “Voices of the Voters” media coalition and tackled Proposition 209, the affirmative action ballot measure. The partners sponsored an hour-long “Civil Rights Conversation” televised by KTTV. About 50 citizens were recruited to question a panel of experts and elected officials, two for the ballot measure and two against. The program, which aired at 4 p.m. opposite an Oakland Raiders game, snared a 3.7 rating or about 350,000 viewers — more than double the normal rating for that time slot. And it received a 7 share, which meant 7 percent of the audience were watching vs. a 14.5 share for the football game. “I think people were interested enough to stay with it,” said KTTV’s political producer Will Robinson. “We broke through the mist.” The paper this year is framing its election coverage around a job-interview model, asking candidates for President and Senate to interview for the job and giving readers the information to decide who they would like to “hire.” The paper asked candidates to supply a public letter of application, a resume and letters of reference by Labor Day. According to regional editor Tom Warhover, who is supervising the coverage, one campaign manager said, “You’ve really got us thinking here.” Meanwhile, a deliberative poll conducted by The Harwood Group has uncovered five key concerns among Virginia voters: education, crime, economic life, leadership, and gridlock in setting priorities in Congress and among people. The paper integrated the poll findings with its job interview model by kicking off its fall coverage with a “job description” of the different political offices and the qualities of leadership that people have indicated they desire from the officeholders.Because the “deliberative” poll sought to go deeper than a typical horse-race or marketing poll, Warhover said it uncovered some “conflicting stuff.” For instance, respondents said they wanted the leaders to be consistent but have the courage to change their minds when necessary. Candidates will be asked to respond to a published chart of eight questions, such as: How do you see the problem of leadership? The “We the People/ Wisconsin” partners last month organized the “The Campaign for Control,” a forum for a team of Republican Party members and a team of Coming Oct. 18, “Talk of the House,” a look at four key congressional races by a new statewide alliance that includes media partners in La Crosse and Eau Claire. The partners will televise separate town halls live in three cities, with public television pulling together segments from all the session for a two-hour show. The Bergen Record has been running a full-page of election coverage almost daily. The “Campaign Central” pages have focused on voter issues, candidates positions on the issues and polls results. On Tuesday, the page seeks to tap into the thinking of different types of voters via one of the paper’s lead columnists who talks to voters off the beaten track – at such places as an Italian-American Social Club, a church meeting, a home decorator’s rounds. The pages are being posted on The Record’s web site: www.bergenrecord.com. For the presidential debates, The Record is assembling small groups of different types of voters to view the debates and react to them. And the paper is also working with TCI cable in organizing four town halls — one involving citizens discussing issues among themselves, then with a panel of experts; one involving young people discussing issues; and one each on two hot Congressional races. With Pew Center support, the paper has set up an evaluation project to measure what kind of impact its coverage had on readers. The results will be reported early next year in the Civic Catalyst. More than 300 citizens attended each of two gubernatorial candidate forums, televised live, prior to the Sept. 17 primary. A panel of five citizens, recruited from earlier focus groups plus audience members questioned the candidates. At another forum in mid-October, citizens questioned the primary winners. The “Front Porch Forum” partners are also covering races in the 1st and 9th Congressional “swing” districts by focusing on a “bellwether” community in each district. Citizens in focus groups in those communities are being asked to react to issues, to the candidates themselves and to campaign advertising. During the Democratic and Republication national conventions, the partners gave citizens a key role in their coverage. Three undecided voter couples watched both conventions and provided daily feedback to the news organizations on their views of the candidates, their campaign pledges and party politicking. Heading into the general election, the partners plan to do another statewide poll to explore more deeply the concern about morals, values and families identified in the partners’ baseline poll in April. The media partners are organizing several town hall forums around the fall presidential debates. For instance, citizens will convene to watch the Oct. 6 presidential debate in Hartford, Conn., then react to it in a half-hour wrap-up. The session will be aired live on WUSF. For the Oct. 9 vice presidential debate in St. Petersburg, 1,000 citizens have signed up on each side of Tampa Bay for an hour-long televised town hall prior to the debate. Then they will watch the debate and give their views in a post-debate wrap-up. The statewide media coalition has worked to bring voter issues to the 12 candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor and bring the candidates’ responses to the voters. Their efforts have met with resistance only from Jesse Helms, who has not been willing to do the three-hour issues interview with the news organizations or come to any forums. The media partners sought to give voters an idea of candidates’ positions on four issues the voters said, in a poll, were important to them: crime and drugs, taxes and government spending, health care, and education. The Charlotte Observer’s “Your Voice, Your Vote” project was trying to grab Helms at campaign events to ask for his position on these issues. The News & Observer was leaving blanks for Helms’ answers in a weekly graphic listing candidates’ positions. The coalition’s efforts were described in a page one New York Times’ article on Sept. 24.
From New England to the Pacific Northwest, news organizations all over the country are experimenting this season with new and different ways of focusing on citizens’ issues in covering the elections.
LOS ANGELES AREA
PARTNERS: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, KTTV (FOX), KCET-TV (PBS), KCRW RADIO IN SANTA MONICA, KPCC RADIO IN PASADENA, THE SANTA BARBARA NEWS PRESS, THE RIVERSIDE PRESS-ENTERPRISE, LA OPINION
VIRGINIA
PARTNERS: THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, THE HARWOOD GROUP
WISCONSIN
PARTNERS: WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION, WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO, WISC-TV (CBS) AND WOOD COMMUNICATIONS GROUP
Democrats to debate issues in front of about 75 citizens. The teams focused on welfare, taxes and spending and the role of the government – issues that arose in earlier town hall meetings. The partners ran different exercises on each issue. On welfare, a U.S. Senator from each party faced off, then answered citizens’ questions. On taxes and spending, the two teams, comprised of elected officials and top state party representatives, debated. And on the role of government, two U.S. Representatives were put on the hot seat, first fielding questions from the opposing party, then from citizens.
NEW JERSEY
PARTNERS: THE RECORD, TCI OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY, CAUCUS EDUCATIONAL CORP.
SEATTLE, WA.
PARTNERS: SEATTLE TIMES, KPLU-FM AND KUOW-FM PUBLIC RADIO, KCTS PUBLIC TELEVISION
MASSACHUSETTS
PARTNERS: THE BOSTON GLOBE, WBUR-FM, WABU-TV
The “People’s Voice” partners set up forums on Sept. 30 and Oct. 8 for citizens to hear Senate candidates John Kerry and Gov. William Weld. Plans were underway to try to use citizens to question candidates in an Oct. 15 debate, one of eight candidate debates that have been scheduled.
This year, the news organizations are meeting with focus groups of citizens, using them as listening posts rather than making them formal discussion groups with assigned topics, as they had in the past. The groups hail from diverse areas: Fitchburg, a former industrial city in central Massachusetts, emerging from recession; Beverly, a yuppie neighborhood of Boston; Quincy, a predominantly blue-collar section; and Dorchester, an economically distressed, largely minority section of Boston.
FLORIDA
PARTNERS: WTVT (FOX), ST. PETERSBURG TIMES AND WUSF PUBLIC TELEVISION, THE WEEKLY PLANET NEWSPAPER
NORTH CAROLINA
PARTNERS: SIX NEWSPAPERS, INCLUDING THE STATE’S TWO LARGEST, THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER AND THE NEWS & OBSERVER IN RALEIGH, FIVE TELEVISION AFFILIATES, THREE PUBLIC RADIO STATIONS AND STATEWIDE PUBLIC TELEVISION.