Tech Tools Strengthen Civic Reporting

As need spawns innovation, civic journalists are seeking out more tech tools to help them connect with broader, more diverse cross-sections of their communities.

In some cases these tech tools are replacing old civic journalism tools such as town hall meetings or polls. In other cases, they are supplementing these tools.

Here are some examples:

Diversifying Community Sources -Electronic Rolodexes. E-mail databases allow reporters to expand their contacts and search for them by topic or location. For example, Ken Sands, Interactive Editor for The Spokesman Review in Spokane, developed his own Idaho Reader Advisory Network in which he sends out e-mail queries for opinions on topics coming up in the paper’s coverage. Mark Douglas, a reporter for WFLA-TV in Tampa, uses an electronic Rolodex like a Palm Pilot to create a source database.

Computer Polling-Portable Survey Kiosks. Reporter Rob Chaney of The Missoulian in Montana has developed computer survey kiosks using out-of-date computers gathering dust around the newsroom. Stationed near a news site, these kiosks have proven to be efficient collectors of feedback and even eyewitness accounts of police skirmishes.

Visioning-Community Mapping Programs. Clickable maps are interactive online exercises that give community residents a way to have direct input on public decisions. “Waterfront Renaissance” Web maps provided by The Herald’s HeraldNet.com allowed Everett, WA, residents to click on icons, drag them to a location and “vote” graphically for their vision of how to develop waterfront sites. A similar tool will soon appear on myrtlebeachonline.com for The Sun News’ project “Growth on the Grand Strand.”

Tax Impact – Online calculators. Online calculators, like the one used in New Hampshire Public Radio’s 1999 award-winning series “Tax Challenge,” allow users to enter personal information and compare the impact of proposed tax plans on their wallets.

Relevant Campaign Coverage – Online Election Guides. America Online’s “Election Guide 2000” featured an interactive matching game that allowed users to fill out a questionnaire and matched their responses to the presidential candidates who might be the best fit for them. Users could also access local campaigns by punching in their ZIP code.

Real-Time Citizen Feedback – In-Home Web cams. KVDA-TV, San Antonio’s Telemundo station, has installed Web cams, computers and DSL lines in Hispanic households to collect live feeds and family-level reaction to news stories.

Statewide Interactive Forums – VBricks. VBricks turn cameras and microphones into computers allowing interactive discussion from distant locations without the expense of buying satellite time. They were used this year by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington to hold town hall meetings on the state’s economic future without coal.

VBricks must be hooked into a fiber optic network. They provide real-time video and audio.

Portable Video Boxes. Started by City TV’s “Speaker’s Corner” boxes, this technology involves putting small, portable video cameras that require no crew at various venues and inviting the public to respond to a question on the screen. Called “a soapbox for the common person,” they’ve been used to elicit comments on public issues and to get ordinary people on television. In 1999, KCTS-TV in Seattle took its own version of the video box to nine U.S. cities to gather material for documentaries on diversity.