Civic Journalism Is… About looking through different lenses.


Civic Journalism Is… True Stories from America’s Newsrooms

Civic Journalism Is…

About looking through different lenses.

Rick Scheuerman

Editor

Tampa Bay Online

When I went into sportswriting, I had an interesting revelation. I’d sit on the bench to cover a game and ask the coach, “Why’d you do this? What’s your strategy here?”

Then I went just to watch. I’d sit in the stands and people would start talking to me — about what the game meant to them, how they felt watching it. I found out it was a major part of people’s lives. I found they needed a different kind of coverage than I was providing. So I started writing columns from their perspective. It’s just amazing the things you can come up with just by listening.

I wound up winning an Associated Press award and the guy who gave it to me said, “You really have a different view on things, don’t you?”

Civic journalism, to me, is a way to see things from that different view. It lets us get to know the people of our community and — perhaps better than any other method we use — it lets us deal with people’s ambiguity over issues and processes.

I can apply those principles even better online. Now I have the ability to do more than listen. I can put a soapbox out there and let people respond, supplement and give their opinion on stories. I can give more people a voice.

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