What’s Happening in Pew Projects

Oakland, CA

KTVU-TV (Fox), KTVU.com, San Francisco Chronicle

The master narrative in the Bay Area has shifted dramatically with the bust in the dot-com world and what began as a long-term examination of growth in the Silicon Valley is now called”After the Boom.”The first installment, published April 29 in the San Francisco Chronicle, was featured in the newscast the same day on KTVU. The stories focused on the sudden and severe change in the Bay Area’s fortunes brought on by the dot-com decline, the energy shortage and a pending water shortage. www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi.

Indianapolis, IN

WTHR-TV (NBC) and The Indianapolis Star

WTHR-TV and The Indianapolis Star held its third civic initiative on April 22 with a town forum, “Ameritchieve.” Working with USA Foundation, one of the country’s largest college loan providers, the forum focused on barriers to secondary education and brought together teachers, parents and scholars in Indiana to discuss them. Forums held the past two years focused on academic standards and on the “brain drain,” which examined why many of the best students move out of the state. USA Foundation surveyed students on what they considered barriers to education and results were released at the forum. Among the findings, students view “attraction and retention of teachers” as a top priority, and 79% of students said “good teachers” were more important to quality education than “challenging courses.”

Lincoln, NE

Lincoln Journal Star, Nebraska ETV, KMTV3 (CBS)

The Lincoln Journal Star’s four-part series on the ethical implications of medical research ran each Sunday in January. It focused specifically on gene therapy, stem-cell research, xenotransplants and cloning and included a public opinion survey commissioned by the newspaper. At a Feb. 1 forum, citizen panelists discussed their views, while experts, including doctors and ethicists, seated in the front row of the audience, offered their perspectives. The forum was broadcast live on Nebraska Educational TV and rebroadcast Feb. 3 on KMTV3. About 6,000 viewers tuned in to KMTV; NETV reported record numbers of viewer calls after the broadcast. The Web site, “Medical Ethics: Tough Choices,” had more than 8,000 hits between Jan.8 and April 8. Click on medical ethics: www.journalstar.com.

Elmira, NY

Star-Gazette, WETM-TV (NBC) in Elmira, WSKG-FM, WSKG-TV (PBS) in Binghamton

The “Living With Cancer” project launched in January with a narrative story that took readers through a day with people affected by cancer. Subjects included a pathologist, cancer patients and their families and a hairdresser who styles wigs for cancer patients. The February installment acted as a primer on how to cope with cancer and reported the results of a poll commissioned by the media organizations that found, among other things, that 60% of respondents had cancer in their families. The March installment focused on how to cope with cancer. Monthly installments will run through December. All articles include source guides, helpful Web addresses and contact information for support groups. WSKG-TV has aired two talk shows on the issue and WETM has broadcast news segments. www.stargazette news.com/lwc.

Everett, WA

The Herald, KSER-FM public radio

Clickable maps are now available online at The Herald Web site, allowing people to click on an icon, drag it to a location and “vote” graphically for their vision of how to develop land along the Snohomish River and Port Gardner Bay. The newspaper convened a town hall meeting May 5 to discuss waterfront redevelopment. Also in the works is a historical video that will include ideas for site development. The video will be shown on cable TV and to schools, chambers of commerce, senior centers and interested organizations. The newspaper is also working with community groups to assure public input is considered in the final development. The newspaper published on April 22 the first of a four-part series, “Waterfront Renaissance,” explaining what is happening on the waterfront and what could happen with public input. Subsequent articles will run through May 13 and will include maps “drawn” by citizens and school children. The paper will average the input and publish the model that most closely resembles a consensus. www.heraldnet.com/waterfront.

Myrtle Beach, SC

The Sun News, Myrtlebeachonline.com, Coastal Carolina University

The newspaper kicked off its coverage of “Growth on the Grand Strand” with a March 11 package that included stories on key issues in the growth debate in Myrtle Beach, a graphic on who pays for growth and a glossary of growth terms. The newspaper has begun work with the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University to plot projected growth over the next two decades. A Web designer has begun developing an interactive game, available on www.myrtlebeachonline.com this summer, to allow readers to plot their own vision of how that growth should unfold.

Tucson, AZ

The Arizona Daily Star, The Tucson Citizen, KVOA Channel 4 (NBC), KOLD Channel 13 (CBS), KGUN9 (ABC), KUAT Channel 6 (PBS), KWBA Channel 58 (WB), KMSB Fox 11, KTTU Channel 18 (UPN), KHRR Channel 40 (Telemundo), KUVE Channel 52 (Univision)

This year’s education town hall, planned for Aug. 25, will explore why students are failing statewide tests required for graduation. In preparation, six “scoping” sessions will be held at various schools in Tucson, with media representatives meeting with parents and educators to flesh out the issues for the town hall. The six sessions will be covered live by the news organizations.

Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia Daily News, Philly.com

The Daily News kicked off its effort to improve the city schools with a March 22 front-page story that proclaimed, “Let’s Fix the Schools.” Building on its three-year-old “Rethinking Philadelphia” civic journalism initiative, the story was followed by a half-dozen articles, each one soliciting reader input on necessary improvements. The Daily News also has created a Virtual Home and School Association on its Web site – a one-stop site that allows parents and students to join Web discussion groups on such issues as homework, standardized tests and school violence. The site will include links to libraries and educational advocacy groups. http://dailynews.philly.com.

Monroe, LA

The News-Star, the newsstar.com, The News-Star Teen Council, Louisiana Tech University, Grambling State University, SPJ Lincoln Collegiate Chapter

Project partners toured five targeted inner-city neighborhoods to gather information on why so many fourth- and eighth-graders are flunking statewide tests. Civic journalism students from Louisiana Tech and Grambling State Universities were paired with mentors from The News-Star’s staff. These teams went on community walks to determine “third places” within the community and met with teachers and principals in targeted schools and with community leaders. The teams developed questions for formal research begun in late April. They also participated in a beat-development session at Grambling State, where education professors and experts in childhood development taught the teams about issues facing lower-elementary students and their families. Also in late April, the newspaper staff and the partners participated in two days of “all hands on deck” story development to capture a snapshot of the communities. The issues will be featured May 6 in a special newspaper section and online and will be discussed at a town meeting the following week.

Portland, ME

MaineToday.com, Portland Press Herald/ Maine Sunday Telegram

MaineToday.com will launch “bionic” software on June 1 that will enhance readers’ online interactivity with the news and with other readers. It will also allow greater interactions among online readers. Highlights include several self-publishing features, a message board system, press release system and image uploader. MaineToday.com is the portal for the Portland Press Herald, the Morning Sentinel, the Kennebec Journal and WMTW Broadcasting. The ultimate goal is a much fuller use of e-mail as a news-delivery device.

Lawrence, KS

Lawrence Journal-World, 6News, J-W Web Works

The converged staff – newspaper, television news and Web – kicked off in mid-April a three-week series on growth that looked specifically at the history of growth in Lawrence, the challenges facing the community, what has and has not worked and how to get citizens more involved. Research for the series included a handful of roundtables and focus groups and a poll on growth issues. Community feedback has been strong. Many people expressed a desire to be involved in growth-related decisions and an uncertainty about how to do so. The series inspired the local chamber of commerce and a local mental health center to convene committees focused on listening to diverse community views on growth.

San Antonio, TX

KVDA-TV (Telemundo), Channel 60

The station has completed all software technical tests in preparation for installing Webcams, computers and DSL lines in 10 Hispanic households to collect live feeds and family-level reaction to news stories. The tentative name for the project is “Vea Me Sesenta” or “See Me Sixty.” The station is currently working on lining up the 10 test homes with plans for an early May launch. The goal is to expand to 40 homes where the residents will be able to ask live questions of reporters, comment on coverage and share neighborhood concerns.