“Tantalizing” Hints From Other Research

research efforts are measuring the impact of issues-based

journalism in the 1996 elections.

Bergen County,

N.J

David Blomquist, Public Affairs Editor

at The Record, has been following readers and

non-readers through a hot Senate race in an intensely

competitive media environment. The Pew Center is supporting

the evaluation, which is using polls and focus groups to

measure the impact of a daily issues-based page, called "Campaign

Central," promoted on page one.

Blomquist presented his early findings at the

Pew Center’s Annapolis workshop. The "Campaign

Central" pages didn’t cut through the noise of the

negative campaign ads, he reported. But a clear

"winner," he said, was a Voters Guide published the

weekend before the election that distilled the newspaper’s

issues stories into issues grids for each candidate.

"This is what (readers) wanted in

election coverage. Concise, side by side comparisons of

issues in bullet form," he said. And the focus groups

indicated that information presented in grids had more

credibility than narrative stories.

"So far (our research) is suggesting

that the public’s disconnection from politics is more than

just changing the framework from vox politics to vox

populi… Much of the challenge for journalists is: Can

we do this without becoming McPaper and McNews?"

The research will be published in early

spring.

Orange County,

CA
The National Opinion Research Center is

conducting an evaluation of the "Voice of the

Voter" media alliance in Southern California. That

alliance consists of 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 and La Opinion, The

Los Angeles Times’ Spanish- language paper. The

research, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, should be

completed in early 1997.

Twenty Cities.

The Poynter Institute and Phil Meyer, of the University of

North Carolina, Chapel Hill, are surveying election coverage

in 20 cities–10 deemed to be high civic journalism sites and

10 low civic journalism sites–examining the media’s intent,

the content, and the media’s effects on citizens. Media

effects will be measured by citizens’ participation,

knowledge, social capital and attitude strength.

Early results are signaling some measurable

impact. "We have failed to prove that citizen-based

journalism has no effect," Meyer quipped at last month’s

Annapolis workshop. "There is a tantalizing hint that it

does have some effect."