Fall 1997
What’s Happening in Pew Projects
Bronx, NY
Partners: Bronxnet Community Cable,
The Bronx Journal, Lehman College (CUNY)
After producing a prototype of The Bronx Journal this summer, students in Lehman College’s Multi-Lingual Journalism program are editing and laying out the Oct. 6 inaugural edition. The Journal is reaching out to the many ethnic residents of the Bronx with a pull-out section that contains news in 11 languages, including Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, French and Portuguese. MLJ students are working closely with the community-access Bronxnet TV on AIDS, immigration, health and environmental programming and on news stories on the impact of the Puerto Rican and other international elections on Bronx residents. Meanwhile, Bronxnet’s “Eyes on the Bronx” project is working on its second AIDS series, “The Changing Face of AIDS in the Bronx,” which will air over its four channels. The programming will include roundtable discussions with health providers and simultaneous translations in Spanish. Bronxnet’s Spanish-language magazine show, El Dialogo En El Bronx, will air a special on immigration issues that will also include a roundtable discussion with community advocates, legal experts and U.N. professionals.
Partners: The Oregonian, Oregon
Portland, OR
Public Broadcasting
The Oregonian plans to launch its series on why people don’t vote on Oct. 19. The three-day series will be preceded by a public radio show inviting callers to suggest what needs to be addressed to get people to vote. Polling and research in the project has turned up three kinds of voters: those who vote all the time, occasional voters and infrequent or non-voters. Reporters discovered, however, that voting may no longer be the baseline indicator of good citizenship, especially among younger people. In dispelling the stereotype of the non-voter, they found many non-voters who were informed and engaged in community activities. The series will also look at citizens’ appetite for campaign reforms and examine some of the reform efforts underway.
Portland, ME
Partners: The Portland Press Herald
and Maine Sunday Telegram, WGME-TV
(CBS)
Citizens involved in the “Maine Citizens Campaign” have moved from their deliberation phase to an activity phase as they prepare to start community wide study circles this winter, focused on how to created a healthy and vital Sanford, Maine. The citizens are drafting discussion guides for the study circles, based on more than two years of meetings with city officials, educators and others. Meanwhile, a documentary on the citizens’ activities is scheduled to air on WGME in late October.
Madison, WI
Partners: Wisconsin State Journal,
WISC-TV (CBS), Wisconsin Public
Television, Wisconsin Public Radio,
Wood Communications Group
“We the People/Wisconsin” media partners will broadcast live the first in a series of programs geared to Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial celebration. The “Family” program will air on both WISC-TV and public television. Other programs planned for next year will focus on race and culture, using the land, working, and election specials on the races for governor and U.S. Senate. The goal is to develop a “citizens’ agenda” of questions for the political candidates from the individual programs. Over the next 14 months, WTP plans to take the opportunity for public participation directly to citizens by working with local media partnerships to recruit 50 people to participate in the citizen audience for one of the live broadcasts and to participate in two public opinion surveys. WPT also agreed to participate in a statewide summit on volunteerism on Oct. 6 and moderate a town hall meeting with 600 delegates from around the state.
Aberdeen, WA
Partners: The Daily World, Channel 20
TCI Cablevision
After launching its “Changing Tides” project with an overview of the changes impacting its region, The Daily World is conducting a formal survey of the community. Results will be published and followed up with community forums before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the paper has been inviting citizens to respond to current news issues through a regular question-and-answer exchange. For instance: What do they think about a proposal to relocate the airport? And where would they move it? What do they think about a proposal to put a new steel mill in their area? The responses have been plentiful, and are printed on Sundays in a feature, “It’s Your Call.” The newspaper is also working with an Aberdeen high school media class to produce “Work World,” a series of 30-minute shows on how various occupations in the region have been impacted by change.
New Hampshire
Partners: New Hampshire Public Radio, Media One,
The Telegraph of Nashua,
The Keene Sentinel, The Portsmouth
Herald, UPI of New Hampshire
The media partners are planning to sponsor the second in a series of “Citizen Exchanges” with U.S. Rep. Charles Bass at Dartmouth College in Hanover. The forum, which will enable citizens to question the congressman, will be broadcast on both New Hampshire Public Radio and Media One Cable television.
Other forums with Senators Bob Smith and Judd Gregg and U.S. Rep. John Sununu are planned for other parts of the state and the media partners plan to invite regional print media to participate.
Dallas, TX
Partners: KERA-FM, KERA-TV (PBS), The
Arlington Morning News, the
University of Texas, Arlington
KERA is continuing its coverage of efforts by the city of Arlington to create a new governing compact with its citizens by focusing on some of the issues that have surfaced: how transient apartment dwellers can affect the civic life of communities, how the city can further involve citizens in their government, what has been accomplished in the first two neighborhoods to be involved in the project. The city is already starting conversations with citizens in the third of eight sections of town to be covered over five years.
Seattle, WA
Partners: The Seattle Times, KCTS
public television, KUOW and KPLU
public radio
The “Front Porch Forum” — the partnership of The Seattle Times, public-television station KCTS and public-radio stations KUOW and KPLU — hosted citizen juries and two candidate forums in October as preludes to the general election. The juries, comprised of 100 citizens selected randomly from throughout the Puget Sound region, deliberated over two days. They began by reviewing the results of a September survey that measured citizen opinion on the issues facing the region as a result of its rapid growth. Their goal is to develop strategies that citizens and policy makers can employ to sustain quality of life into the next century. Several jurors will then ask candidates vying for King County executive and Seattle mayor to respond to the strategies during separate candidate forums. The forums will be open to the community at large and aired live by KCTS.
Tampa, FL
Partners: The Weekly Planet, WTVT
(Fox), Speak Up Tampa Bay, University
of South Florida, Study Circles
Resources Center
After holding one framing conference and working with a class at the University of South Florida to frame some of the major issues surfacing in a regional visioning project, the newspaper has come up with a new idea for reporting issues and listing civic activities. In late October, it will launch a quarterly publication that will frame one issue each quarter and provide a comprehensive listing of civic initiatives. The first issue will focus on “What is the Media’s Responsibility to the Community?” The next issue is scheduled for Jan. 1. Meanwhile, Speak Up Tampa Bay is in negotiations to take over the city’s community access cable company.
Long Beach, CA
Partners: Long Beach Press-Telegram,
Long Beach Community Partnership,
Leadership Long Beach
Reporters for The Press-Telegram have conducted 79 informal focus group meetings in which education, safety and neighborhood quality emerged as top issues. Questions of race, immigration, parenting and youth are also part of the mix. The focus group reports were used to draft a formal telephone poll that will quantify the issues and weigh support for various solutions. Survey results of 1,400 people — 350 Asian, 350 black, 350 Latino and 350 white — are due in mid-October. The series will start in November.
Myrtle Beach, SC
Partners: The Sun News,
Time-Warner Cable
After launching its “Boom Town” project with an informal survey of key community concerns, the newspaper has started a discussion forum on growth and related issues on its web site. It is now planning to conduct formal neighborhood-based focus groups to examine local issues in more depth. The paper has also been following growth and zoning issues in one neighborhood, Socastee, as a microcosm of the various issues confronting this booming resort town.