Civic Journalism: Proof It Works

If voter turnout is up, they say it is the candidates, or the issues, or the economy. If the turnout is down, the critics say civic journalism failed to make a difference.

If an issue catches fire, as in Charlotte’s “Taking Back Our Neighborhoods” or Asbury Park’s “House of Cards,” the critics respond that it’s “just good journalism.”

If the “We the People” or “Maine Citizens’ Campaign” television specials rate number one or two in their time periods, the critics say “well, it’s only anecdotal.”

Now from the Rochester, NY, partnership comes some of the clearest proof yet that civic journalism can have a substantial impact on revitalizing public life: statistical evidence that the more the public knows, the more the public participates. Nearly all the knowledge can be credited to a civic journalism reporting initiative.

The case study was prepared by Dr. James Bowers, Associate Professor of Political Science at St. John Fisher College. Blair Claflin, former Public Affairs Editor for Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle, and Gary Walker, WXXI’s Vice President for News and Public Affairs, helped Bowers present the analysis in May at the annual meeting of the New England Political Science Association.

Con-Con Coverage

The media partners targeted the 1997 referendum on whether New York State should hold a convention to re-write the state’s constitution. Proponents urged a “Yes” vote, offering the prospect of campaign reform and term limits. Opponents called for a “No” vote, claiming a constitutional convention could destroy the existing “safety net” for indigent state residents or cut environmental safeguards.

Three media partners, The Democrat and Chronicle, WOKR-TV (ABC) and WXXI-TV, the public television station, used basic tools of civic journalism to shape their coverage – meeting with readers, viewers, and listeners to determine what the citizens believed they needed to know to

cast an informed ballot. Beginning in May, the partners published and broadcast in-depth stories that addressed the questions raised by the people. They took care that the stories were balanced, neither for nor against the constitutional convention.

The Democrat and Chronicle began a weekly feature called “The Constitutional Question,” which dealt directly with questions raised by a panel of citizens who had participated in 1996 “Voice of the Voter” coverage. WXXI began programming “The Constitutional Minute,” which aired between prime-time PBS programs.

Except for a 60-minute documentary that aired on WXXI the week before the election, the partners’ effort was not seen in the rest of the state. The only factor accounting for differences in citizen response was the all-out effort by Rochster’s civic journalists to inform public thinking, Bowers concluded.

The partners produced an interactive web page that included news stories, opinion pieces from interested parties, and a place for visitors to leave questions. They staged three community forums between August and November and used one as the basis for the documentary.

The results were impressive. Voters in the six-county Rochester area reached by the participating news organizations voted on the referendum in higher percentages than the rest of upstate New York and New York City. The results also indicated that the more the local population knew about the pros and cons of the constitutional question, the more they were likely to vote for it (see table). Voting in favor of the referendum was markedly higher in the Rochester area; the rest of the state defeated the proposal by a wide margin.

The six-county area also showed a marked increase in the number of people who voted on the referendum, compared to votes cast on referenda in previous years.

Moreover, the final tally showed that voters exposed to the civic journalism project also voted in higher percentages on other referenda questions. In the six-county Rochester area, an average 79% also voted on school bonds, veterans preference in civil service hiring, and limited changes in court jurisdiction, a full 10 to 15 percentage points higher than the rest of upstate New York. The finding suggests that the constitutional convention project indirectly increased voter participation on the other ballot questions as well, according to Professor Bowers.

“The results speak for themselves,” said Walker, who helped spearhead the initiative. “The partners. . .collaborated with citizens and acted upon their suggestions. This was an abstract and complex story to tell, but our citizens were interested and engaged.”

Walker said the effort was especially gratifying because it answered a constant criticism – that civic journalists only poll to find out how to pander to what readers and viewers say they want.

“If we polled on ‘Should we do many months of outreach and coverage of the pending Constitutional Convention vote?’ the answer would have been what other polls showed: That 8 out of 10 people had no idea about, and little interest in, a vote to change the state’s constitution.”