Winter 1997
Spokane’s Soapbox: A Guide To Civic Journalism
By Rebecca Nappi
On day two of the crisis, editors at The Spokesman-Review suggested that three residents keep journals of the storm days. Three volunteers were quickly located from a list of hundreds of people in the community who have written for the paper. The storm journals — written by a professional woman, a woman on public assistance and a man who ran a Red Cross shelter — ran for a week. The newspaper also published thank-you notes that people in the community wrote to neighbors, family and strangers. All of this was considered civic journalism. For four years, the paper has tried to incorporate civic journalism into the fabric of the newspaper. It’s an every-day phenomenon, not just reserved for special sections and special reports, though the paper had done those, too. Now, the many different ways The Spokesman-Review has done civic journalism are detailed in a new booklet, Soapbox: A Guide to Civic Journalism at The Spokesman-Review. The 66-page book traces the history of interactivity at the newspaper and some of the pitfalls and triumphs experienced in the past four years. It explains the big projects, such as “The Ragged Edge,” in which anti-government types talked openly at forums about their views and then wrote first-person opinion pieces about their hate of government and their love of guns. The handbook also discusses the smaller efforts, such as signing editorials and publishing reader political cartoons. The newspaper is offering a complimentary copy of the book to any interested newsroom. “Our civic journalism handbook offers practical, detailed examples of how The Spokesman-Review reinvented its editorial pages, brought other community voices into print and used civic journalism to support its enterprise reporting,” said Chris Peck, the paper’s editor. The Spokesman’s civic journalism efforts were first tried on the editorial page in February 1994. Twice a week, guest columnists fill editorial space in “Your Turn” columns. Sunday’s Perspective page is often written by community members. A “Street Level” board of contributors weighs in every Sunday on the op-ed page. Civic journalism at The Spokesman-Review also means speakers from the newsroom go out into the community and talk about various topics, including the weather and gardening. It means that a newspaper diversity committee teaches a nine-week “Writing for Your Life” class at The Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center. It also means buying pizzas for people who will sit down together and discuss topics such as community development, women’s lives and the environment. Soapbox was written by Elana Ashanti Jefferson, the newspaper’s first civic journalism intern, supported by funding from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. She is now a graduate student in journalism at Columbia University. A copy of Soapbox: A Guide to Civic Journalism is available by writing Rebecca Nappi, The Spokesman-Review Newsroom, P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA., 99210-1615. Or call (800) 789-0029, ext. 5496.
One late November day, the biggest ice storm in Spokane’s history happened. Frozen rain covered the trees, and breaking branches landed on power lines. About 100,000 homes in The Inland Northwest struggled for days without lights and electricity.