Call for Entries

The deadline for entries for the 1999 James K. Batten Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism will be Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999. Next year’s competition, for a $25,000 cash prize, is limited to news reports aired or published during the 1998 calendar year. Eligible are team reports, broadcasts, series or accumulated bodies of work that […]

Don’t Stop There!

“I ain’t got no family at all, except for my little brother. My mom don’t give a damn. My father don’t give a damn. My grandmother don’t give a damn. I’ve been living on my own since I was 13.” To “Sin,” a graffiti-scrawling teenager featured in a project on juvenile crime mounted by the […]

Learn How to Tap into Your Community

The Harwood Institute is inviting news organizations around the country to apply to participate in the first Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars, being launched in 1999 with funding from the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. By early spring, five news organizations will be chosen for the Seminars, a series of three, two-day workshops that will improve […]

Pew Center’s New Projects

Pew Center’s New Projects The Pew Center’s Advisory Board has selected 15 initiatives in civic journalism to receive funding in 1999. At the forefront are more sophisticated merging of new technologies and traditional journalism techniques with civic journalism practices. Twelve states are represented. The initiatives reveal three underlying aspirations in the nation’s newsrooms: Providing readers, […]

Five Newspapers, One TV Station Inaugurate Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars

Six news organizations have been selected to take part in the first Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars, a series of three two-day workshops designed to improve reporters’ and editors’ capacities to understand and interpret their communities. They are co-sponsored by The Harwood Institute and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Participating will be The San Diego Union-Tribune, […]

What’s Happening in Pew Center Projects

Anniston, AL The Anniston Star The first fruits of The Anniston Star’s Civic Mapping Project became visible to readers March 2, the day the Alabama Legislature began its annual session. Instead of devoting its front page to the same old lobbyists and lawmakers, The Star featured ideas gathered from a forum of community opinion leaders who met with the […]

Pew/IRE Workshop, Baltimore

From April 9-11, about 70 journalists met in Baltimore for “Journalists: Custodians or Catalysts for the Community?” – a workshop co-sponsored by the Pew Center and IRE. Some highlights: Bill Marimow, Managing Editor, Baltimore Sun, and evening keynoter: “Good journalists need to do both: Be a watchdog and become catalysts for change.” Frank Denton, Editor, Wisconsin State […]

Community Journalism Summit, San Francisco

Community Journalism Summit, San Francisco   A diverse group of about 80 journalists met in San Francisco, May 21-23, for a “Community Journalism Summit,” co-sponsored by the Pew Center, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the San Francisco Examiner. Some highlights: Erna Smith, Chair, San Francisco State Journalism Department, Dinner Keynoter: “It’s through journalism […]

Pew Center is Renewed

The Pew Center for Civic Journalism has been granted $4.65 million for the next three years by the Board of The Pew Charitable Trusts to continue its work as an incubator for innovative ideas that help journalists better engage people in public life. The funding will enable the six-year-old center to continue supporting newsroom experiments, […]

What’s Happening in Pew Projects

Anniston, AL The Anniston Star The Star has compiled a database of more than 100 informal community leaders as part of its Civic Mapping Project. The paper’s mapping project coordinator has recruited sources from civic clubs, church groups, leadership training programs, civil rights groups and Parent-Teacher Organizations, among others. The database can be accessed easily by […]