E-Mail Extends Reporters’ Reach
By Ken Sands Interactive Editor The Spokesman-Review Idaho, known for its potatoes, neo-Nazis and outspoken politicians, was about to get another black eye. On a Monday morning in February, a state legislative committee killed a proposal to study whether to remove the word squaw from 93 place names in Idaho. Once again, Idaho would be the focus […]
NYcitizens.org: Redistricting 2002 Game
By Elissa Marra WXXI Director of National Programming Question: What will it take to get citizens involved in a process that is very important to them but over which they have almost no control? Trying to find the answer can be a great opportunity for journalists, especially those who see the value of bringing arcane […]
Blogs: Sports Fans Play Web Journalists
By Ken Sands Interactive Editor The Spokesman-Review Ryan Green was in his Air Force Academy dorm room in Colorado Springs but he longed to be in Spokane watching Washington’s best small-school basketball teams play in the State B tournament. Greg Sharpes was at work 400 miles away in Longview, WA. Ed Wagnild took work time […]
Gaming the News: Building New Entry Points
By Pat Ford Staff Writer Pew Center At KQED.org, visitors can “plan” their own small city. At NYcitizens.org, they can “redraw” New York’s congressional districts. While at TBO.com, they can click on a Tampa map and call up the major crimes in a selected neighborhood. These are just a few of the innovative ways that […]
The NPR Election Project
During 1994, National Public Radio teamed with The Poynter Institute for Media Studies to coach public radio affiliates and their newspaper and television partners in making voter concerns the focus of their election coverage. The project was spearheaded by NPR Editorial Director John Dinges and Edward D. Miller of Poynter. The project was funded by […]
America’s Struggle Within
The Pew Center commissioned “America’s Struggle Within” at the outset of the 1996 presidential cycle to establish a reference point for journalists covering the campaign. The report is an effort to learn what is on people’s minds, what their hopes are, what problems they face and what they think of the political process and of […]
Tapping Civic Life: Reporting First, and Best, What’s Happening in Your Community
“The public concerns that drive issues in a community normally don’t arise at city hall or the courthouse,” said Wichita Eagle editor, Davis “Buzz” Merritt. “They bubble up from the rich and, to most journalists, dark and trackless swamp of civic life. “They attract journalistic notice only when they near the point of getting on an […]
“Tantalizing” Hints From Other Research
At least three other civic journalism research efforts are measuring the impact of issues-based journalism in the 1996 elections. Bergen County, N.J David Blomquist, Public Affairs Editor at The Record, has been following readers and non-readers through a hot Senate race in an intensely competitive media environment. The Pew Center is supporting the evaluation, which is […]
North Carolina Project Reaches One in Four Voters
The “Your Voice, Your Vote” civic journalism initiative devoted to issues-based coverage of the North Carolina Senate and gubernatorial races caught the attention of one in four voters in the state, according to a statewide survey of registered voters in North Carolina taken immediately after the November elections. Of those voters who recognized the project, […]
New Civic Journalism Research
Civic journalism initiatives in four cities around the country were widely and positively recognized in their communities and prompted increased civic activity, according to one of the first academic studies of projects supported by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. Newsroom buy-in, however, tended to be either top heavy or lukewarm in the news organizations […]