Project Topic: Project Topic

Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars, Denver, CO

 in Engagement

Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars, Denver, CO 1999

Partners:

The Harwood Institute
Pew Center for Civic Journalism

This series of three two-day seminars taught reporters and editors from six newsrooms how to improve their capacity to understand and interpret their communities, using the tools and techniques of civic mapping. Mapping helps journalists go beyond official and quasi-official sources of news by identifying and exploring other, less formal layers of civic life. The approach was first outlined by The Harwood Institute (formerly The Harwood Group) in “Tapping Civic Life: How to Report First and Best What’s Happening in Your Community,” a workbook based on 1994 research at The Wichita Eagle supported and published by the Pew Center. Read more

Neighborhood News Network, Tampa, FL

 in Engagement


Neighborhood News Network, Tampa, FL 1999

Partners:

Tampa Bay Weekly Planet

Using a database of more than 300 community groups and media organizations, the Weekly Planet created an email “wire service” for community news to compliment the “Public Life” newsletter launched earlier with Pew support. Grass roots organizations would send the Planet staff news about what they were doing and, about once a week, the Planet would package those stories and send them out via email to some 650 subscribers. The hope was that the community groups would find out where they had projects in common and how they could work together, while at the same time their stories would receive attention from more mainstream media organizations. Read more

Aging Matters, Savannah, GA

 in Quality of Life


Aging Matters, Savannah, GA 1999

Partners:

The Savannah Morning News

The paper published an 11-part series on the issues faced by the region’s growing elderly population, beginning in September of 1999 and continuing through the summer of 2000. The coverage became a prime example of unraveling a community’s “master narrative.”

A Pew-supported survey of 740 Savannah-area residents helped frame the topics for “Aging Matters,” along with a series of small focus groups, each with about eight participants. The series explored how and why people age, health and long-term care, legal issues that arise as people age, the political impact of a growing senior population and the financial impact of aging. Read more

Inside Oakland, Oakland, CA

 in Race Relations

Inside Oakland, Oakland, CA 1999

Partners:

UC Berekley Journalism School
The Oakland Post

This project not only provided hands-on training in civic journalism, but it also improved coverage of a community usually overlooked by mainstream media. Eight graduate journalism students, enrolled in Berkeley’s “Covering a Community” course in the spring 1999 semester, produced five editions of a supplement to the black-owned weekly, The Oakland Post, called “Inside Oakland.” They also produced ten 30-minute radio shows (also called “Inside Oakland”) for KALX-FM. Read more

Care & Consequences, Binghamton, NY

 in Quality of Life

Care & Consequences, Binghamton, NY 1999

Partners:

Press & Sun-Bulletin
WSKG Public Broadcasting

The Pew Center supported a series of public forums, newspaper stories and radio and television broadcasts, which began in May 1998 and ran periodically through 1999, to educate the aging population in and around Binghamton, NY, on issues related to the end of life. The partners also launched a Web site, www.careproject.net, dedicated to helping people plan in advance – rather than at a time of crisis – for the ethical, financial, legal, spiritual and medical decisions associated with dying. The Web site received about 1,330 hits per month in 1999. Read more

Millenium Leadership Project, WA

 in Quality of Life

Millenium Leadership Project, WA 1999 

Partners:

The Front Porch Forum
The Seattle Times
KUOW-FM

The partners sought input from some 40 Seattle area citizens for a project exploring local leadership and what the consensus-loving region seeks in those who lead its public institutions. The partners hosted informal discussions with one group of people who head up leadership development programs and a second group of recognized leaders from Seattle’s communities of color. They also held two focus groups with residents to explore the topic.  Read more

Target Transportation, Springfield, VA

 in Economy


Target Transportation, Springfield, VA 1999

Partners:

Newschannel 8

The 24-hour, all-news station conducted a phone survey of 1,000 Washington, DC, area residents and found that traffic congestion is the most-often cited problem that impacts daily life. The survey also showed residents preferred developing more mass transit to building new roads as a way to deal with congestion but were generally pro-growth and optimistic about finding solutions.

The Pew-funded poll was mailed to 600 government and community leaders and became the focus for coverage of the issue throughout the year. Special programming included, in February 1999, a 2 1/2-hour live prime-time broadcast bringing together almost 100 citizens in three Washington area jurisdictions (Northern Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia) with elected officials and transit leaders including three congressmen, two state Secretaries of Transportation, two County Executives and executives of the Metro system. Read more

TeenGo Web Site and On the Verge, Portland, ME

 in Youth/Children

TeenGo Web Site and On the Verge, Portland, ME 1999

Partners:

The Portland Press Herald

After the shootings at Columbine High School, the newspaper invited teenagers from around Maine to write about what high school life is like today. In April of 1999, 20 essays were published in the newspaper and more than 150 were posted on the “teengo” page of the Press Herald’s Web site. The page also launched an interactive forum so teens from all over Maine could chat online and created 20below.com, a Web site for teens. The site attracted visits from about half the teenagers in the state. Read more