Web Cams: A New Take on Getting Fresh Voices
By Jeanne Jakle San Antonio Express-News TV Writer San Antonio’s Spanish-language television station, KVDA, made international TV history in May by integrating viewers into its newscasts through Web cameras in their homes. “It’s not new to say I watch a channel; it’s new to say that channel’s watching me,” said KVDA vice president and general […]
Race Documentary Kindles Norfolk Dialogue
By Pat Ford Pew Center It is difficult and painful for people to contemplate deeply the suffering experienced by victims of slavery. Thus, Norfolk public television station WHRO took on a tough challenge when it launched a project designed to help the community come to terms with that legacy. The project revolved around “Noble Desire,” […]
TV Stations Tap Viewers for Story Ideas
By Deborah Potter NewsLab Executive Director Fresh out of story ideas? Slow news week? That’s how it was at WIXT-TV in Syracuse, NY, when then-assistant news director Jim Tortora made a suggestion. Let’s set up a phone line and ask viewers to call us. People snickered but they tried it. The result: “Your Stories,” a […]
Civic TV Seeks Citizen Input
By Deb Halpern Wenger Special to the Pew Center The signs are good. The economy is rebounding, and the high old times for television news are coming back, right? Well, let’s not go that far. TV newsrooms around the country are still struggling with hiring freezes, budget cutbacks and a “do more with less” mentality. […]
Civic TV: Diversifying Race, Gender
By David Kurpius Assistant Professor of Journalism Louisiana State University Looking for different faces on your nightly newscasts? Consider some civic journalism. A review of 184 television entries to the James K. Batten Awards found not only more ethnic and nontraditional faces and voices on the air – but significantly more. Moreover, citizens were just as likely […]
N.H. Residents Compute Tax Plans
By Walter C. Dean Pew Center More than a year ago, the New Hampshire Supreme Court threw out the state’s method of using local property taxes to pay for public education. Now, the inevitable is beginning to sink in: Residents of the “Live Free or Die” state are going to have to pay a statewide […]
Calculating a Colorado Give Back
While the New Hampshire legislature is exploring ways to collect new taxes, Colorado lawmakers are looking for ways to give back a $3.1 billion surplus expected to fill state coffers over the next five years. Emboldened by New Hampshire’s Tax Calculator, The Gazette in Colorado Springs has created its own on-line tax calculator to empower voters with […]
On-Line Ventures
New Hampshire More than 20,000 residents, about 2.5 percent of the state’s registered voters, used their computers this spring to access New Hampshire Public Radio’s On-Line Tax Calculator to see how tax bills being debated by the legislature would affect them. Once a new tax measure was passed in May, 3,000 citizens a week have […]
Using the Web to Build Citizens – and Audience
By Jon Greenberg Senior Producer New Hampshire Public Radio When I talk about the web at broadcast workshops I like to ask: “Who has a web site?” The hands go up. Then I ask: “Who feels they’re getting much out of their web site?” The hands go down. For the most part, broadcasters establish a […]
Community Publishing: Faster, Easier, Cheaper, Better
By Ken Doctor VP/ Strategy KnightRidder.com Back in the early ’80s, when voicemail was considered exotic, I happened upon a business card. I know I saved it, probably in one of the boxes of carefully packed clutter that have accompanied our moves from Portland to Boulder to Saint Paul to San Jose. The card had […]