North Carolina Project Reaches One in Four Voters

Voice, Your Vote" civic journalism initiative devoted to

issues-based coverage of the North Carolina Senate and

gubernatorial races caught the attention of one in four

voters in the state, according to a statewide survey of

registered voters in North Carolina taken immediately after

the November elections.

Of those voters

who recognized the project, more than 80 percent viewed it

"favorably" or "very favorably."

The Pew Center

sponsored the poll to gauge the impact of "Your Voice,

Your Vote," an unprecedented statewide effort by 15 news

organizations to emphasize coverage of issues rather than

personalities in the statewide races.

The survey

indicates that the North Carolina voters who were aware of

the project were more likely than other voters to say they

made voting decisions based on the candidates’ positions on

the issues (56 percent vs. 46 percent).

Thirty four

percent of those who recognized the effort said they felt

better informed than in previous elections. Only 24 percent

who did not recognize "Your Voice" said they felt

better informed than in previous elections.

Of those aware of

the effort, 38% felt there was more discussion of the issues

in this campaign compared to previous campaigns; 26% of those

unaware felt there was more issue discussion.

A solid majority

(56%) of voters felt the media coverage of the U.S. Senate

race between Sen. Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt was balanced

and fair.

The survey also

found that the Helms-Gantt contest was viewed negatively by

many voters, with solid majorities feeling that the election

lacked a discussion of issues by the candidates and had more

mud-slinging than the candidates’ previous race in 1990.

Of those polled,

43% felt the media had about the right amount of influence on

the election, while 41% felt the media had "too much

influence." Another eight percent felt the media had

"too little" influence.

Several of the

North Carolina media partners said the recognition level was

rewarding since there were 4 million registered voters in the

state, whereas the combined circulation of all the newspaper

partners was only 857,000. Moreover, the last "Your

Voice" story appeared Oct. 13, weeks before the survey

was taken.

Ed Fouhy,

executive director of the Pew Center, said he was

"happily surprised at the relatively high numbers of

voters who recognized the project. The recognition and

responses to ‘Your Voice, Your Vote’ after just one election

cycle are very heartening to those of us who feel that

traditional political coverage has too often excluded the

public’s voice."

"Your

Voice" newspaper partners were The Charlotte

Observer; The News & Observer of Raleigh;

News & Record of Greensboro; Fayetteville

Observer-Times; Asheville Citizen-Times; and

the Morning Star of Wilmington. Television partners

were WBYV, Charlotte; WTVD, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill; WGHP,

Greensboro-High Point; WLOS, Asheville; WWAY, Wilmington; and

UNC’s Center for Public Television (PBS). The radio partners

were WFAE-FM, Charlotte; WUNC-FM, Chapel Hill; WFDD-FM,

Winston-Salem.

The survey was

released at the Pew Center’s workshop in Annapolis.

The 600

registered voters were polled Nov. 11-13 by Frederick

Schneiders Research, of Washington, D.C. The bipartisan

survey was designed and analyzed by Greg Schneiders, a

Democratic pollster, and Dan Casey, former Director of

Research for the Republican National Committee. The poll has

a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

At a Dec. 4

coordinate a future venture.