Mapping Your Beat
By Pat Ford Pew Center Before she got her electronic database, Dianne Whitacre used to hang out in a lot of gas stations. They were one place she could find commuters to comment on stories about the region’s highways. Now, she hits a few keys on her computer and sources come tumbling out– without those […]
New resources from the Pew Center
For newsrooms and classrooms — for a free copy of the newest Pew Center resources, call 202-331-3200 or e-mail news@pccj.org New book: “Tapping Civic Life” Second Edition The updated workbook, “Tapping Civic Life: How to Report First, and Best, What’s Happening in Your Community,” offers journalists tools and techniques they can use to supplement everyday Rolodex […]
Whose Choice?
By Pat Ford Pew Center LEFT: Children arrive for school at Eagle Heights Academy in Youngstown, one of dozens of charter schools opened after the Ohio legislature paved the way for diverting state education dollars to privately operated schools. The language sounded so innocuous, it was easy to overlook. Slipped into a 1998 bill that […]
“A Journalist’s Toolbox” Building Better Journalism
New Pew Center Videos Sharpen Core Routines and Reflexes Practical tools to help journalists learn about what’s happening in their communities and do a better job of reporting the news are spotlighted in a new set of four training videos from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Each 13-minute video describes deliberate strategies that reporters, […]
2001 Batten Awards Honor Civic Turnaround Efforts Deep Community Work Sparks Results
Washington, DC, March 26, 2001 — – The Huntington Herald-Dispatch and West Virginia Public Broadcasting swept the 2001 Batten Awards for Excellence in Civic Journalism for ambitious and interactive coverage of the single biggest issue in the state – its future without coal – and the creation of a groundbreaking database of how coal severance taxes are used. […]
Residents Laud Mapping Project
Residents Laud Mapping Project; Seek Even More Choices By Catherine Lee Pew Center Dean Nichols was surprised when he clicked on The Herald’s state-of-the-art Internet map and found no specific icon for a soccer field. Susan Adams found no fish icon reflecting the plight of endangered salmon around Everett, WA. But that didn’t stop Nichols, Adams […]
Journalism Interactive
Embargoed for Release Thursday, July 26, 2001, 1 p.m. Journalism Interactive New Attitudes, Tools and Techniques Change Journalism’s Landscape A Study Conducted for: Associated Press Managing Editors Pew Center for Civic Journalism National Conference of Editorial Writers Conducted by: Campaign Study Group Springfield, Virginia TABLE OF CONTENTS Highlights >>> Detailed Findings Part One >>> Reader Interaction […]
Savannah’s “Vision 2010” Wins Batten Award Civic Legacy and Innovations Cited
Washington, DC, March 21, 2002 — The Savannah Morning News won the 2002 Batten Awards for Excellence in Civic Journalism, a $10,000 honor for a robust, community-driven project that targeted failing schools and triggered the creation of a civic group to raise venture capital for education innovations. The runner-up was The Cincinnati Enquirer, awarded $5,000 for wide-ranging initiatives […]
Study Measures Civic Journalism’s Impact
Community Impact, Journalism Shifts Cited in New Civic Journalism Study Washington, DC, November 4, 2002 — At least one fifth of all U.S. daily newspapers — 322 of the nation’s 1,500 dailies — practiced some form of civic journalism between 1994 and 2001, and nearly all credit it with a positive impact on the community, reports […]
ABOUT THE HARWOOD GROUP/ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A number of people played key roles in making Tapping Civic Life. Davis “Buzz” Merritt, editor of The Wichita Eagle, felt that journalists needed to understand better their communities and to learn to tap into them. He believed that the work done in Wichita could become a practical tool for journalists in covering their communities.Ed […]