Written by Pat Ford
Edited by Jan Schaffer
Contents
“When you start with citizens, they guide your journalism wisely. The stories are simply better.”
— Jennie Buckner, Editor
The Charlotte Observer
1998 Batten Symposium Keynote Address
The Good Community
Springfield, Missouri was a good community. But a sharp increase in juvenile crime presented a challenge. The News-Leader, working with other local media, helped residents rise to the challenge.
The Leadership Challenge
Congressmen were leaving office in record numbers; school board elections were uncontested; even Boy Scout troops were going begging for leaders. At every level, it seemed, leadership was declining. The Peoria Journal Star set out not just to document the decline but to turn it around.
Facing our Future
The Binghamton, New York, economy was in a tailspin but, used to big, paternalistic employers, local residents couldn’t seem to take control of their own destiny. Then along came a newspaper editor with a plan. Could she get citizens working on solutions themselves, using civic journalism?
Poverty Among Us
In the past three years, the St. Paul Pioneer Press has mounted three ambitious civic journalism projects: “Safer Cities,” “Across Generations” and “Poverty Among Us.” Now, the paper is finding ways to reflect civic values in the daily paper.
The Maine Citizens’ Campaign
When the Portland, Maine, media gathered together a group of 40 citizens from the small town of Sanford for an election project, everyone was in for some surprises: The news organizations, the candidates–but most of all, the citizens themselves. They became so interested in public life they decided to stay together after the election was over. They disbanded after two and a half years, disappointed that they hadn’t accomplished more as a group, but declaring many personal victories.