A Citizens’ Eye View: Civic Journalism. Civic Engagement.
By Zack Stalberg Editor and Executive Vice President The Philadelphia Daily News Highlights from Batten Awards Dinner keynote speech by Zack Stalberg, editor and executive vice president of The Philadelphia Daily News, a tabloid with a circulation of 200,000 – 90 percent of it from street sales. So, it has to speak the people’s language. […]
Why “the Informed Citizen” is Too Much to Ask – and Not Enough
By Michael Schudson Professor University of California-San Diego Excerpts from the keynote address of journalism scholar and author Michael Schudson, Professor of Communication and Sociology, at the University of California-San Diego, at the Batten Symposium, May 3, in Minneapolis. Schudson is a former Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. His most […]
The Batten Winners: Journalism that Took Risks
By Jan Schaffer Executive Director Pew Center Taking Risks. This year’s Batten Award winners all took them. Quite a few. Unlike other journalism contests, the Batten Awards are distinguished for heralding work that not only moves the needle in the community-but also moves the journalism to some new places. Unbidden, this year’s winners all talked […]
Civic Journalism: Savior of Newspapers in the 21st Century?
By Chris Peck Editor The Spokesman-Review Excerpts of remarks by Chris Peck, Editor, The Spokesman-Review, Aug. 6, 1999, at the Pew Center Luncheon during the AEJMC Convention, New Orleans: This year, newspapers of 20,000 circulation and up will earn a profit of at least 20%, and often much more. … Indeed, this is one of […]
Civic Journalist Turns Civic Mayor
By Pat Ford Pew Center As editor of the Bradenton Herald, Wayne Poston launched a community-wide debate over the need to build a new municipal building on prime waterfront real estate. Now, as mayor of the city of Bradenton, Poston sits in that spanking new municipal building overlooking the waterfront. The irony is not lost […]
10 Tips on Award-Winning Civic Journalism
By Leonard Witt Executive Director, Civic Journalism Initiative Minnesota Public Radio, St. Paul These lessons were inspired by “The Guinea Pig Kids,” an MPR series that won an honorable mention in the 2001 Batten Awards for Excellence in Civic Journalism and a first-place award from the Society of Professional Journalists for public service. Require total […]
Covering a New America: How Multicultural Communities are Shaping the Future of Journalism
Editor Martin Baron spoke to AEJMC conventioneers on Aug. 7, just a week after taking the helm of The Boston Globe. At the Pew Center luncheon, the former Miami Herald editor urged educators to prepare future journalists to cover such stories as Elian Gonzalez for which The Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Some […]
The New York Times: A Civic Nomination
By James Fallows Slate, Dec. 3, 2001 Reprinted with permission The New York Times has been tremendous since Sept. 11. More war-related stories each day than you can actually read. Analytical and investigative pieces that anticipate what you’d want to know. Even the color in the photos … has had a weird neon intensity that seems […]
We Know What They Want
San Jose Mercury News Editor David Yarnold addressed more than 100 participants in San Francisco on Jan. 11 at the Pew/Maynard workshop, “Community Media Connections.” Some highlights: Happy New Year and welcome to the second largest city in the Bay Area. I’d like to show you how the Mercury News began the new year. It’s […]
Public Journalism Primer
Dave Iverson Executive Producer WHA-TV Madison, Wisc. “Roger Mudd once asked: Why is it that politicians don’t give speeches any more? How come we just see them in hard hats, walking around and looking at lathes? “The answer, of course, is that a politician in a hard hat is more likely to show […]