Investing in Risk: Re-engaging the Public
Rebecca W. Rimel President The Pew Charitable Trusts The Pew Center was an experiment when we got involved. It was, if you will, a risky investment, particularly for an institution like ours, which comes out of an anonymous grant-making history. And by our measure, and obviously by yours in giving of your time today, […]
Charlotte: Doing it Daily
To the Manhattan Mercury, Manhattan, Kan., which received the Inland Innovation Award for public journalism experiments, presented in February by the Inland Press Association, for one of the paper’s first civic journalism efforts on Binge Drinking. The award recognizes innovation and forward thinking in newspaper content. And it recognizes newspaper public journalism initiatives that serve as catalysts […]
Teaching Civic Journalism
All the chairs in the hotel meeting room were taken long before Professors Jay Rosen and Jim Carey, editors Buzz Merritt and Rem Reider, and reporter Colette Jenkins moved toward their seats for the panel on civic journalism. As journalism educators continued streaming in, a couple of people trudged steadily back and forth to other […]
“With the People”
The Pew Center has just published a new 40-page booklet showcasing ideas from newspapers around the country for making news stories more interactive. The ideas came from entries in the 1996 Batten Awards for Excellence in Civic Journalism as well as from other civic journalism initiatives. They all demonstrate that as civic journalism is evolving, […]
Knight-Ridder to Fund Civic Journalism Projects
The Knight-Ridder newspaper chain has announced that it has completed a three-year partnership with the Pew Center for Civic Journalism by deciding to set aside a “significant” sum of money for public journalism projects in 1997. It set a March 14 deadline for newspapers to have submitted proposals for that funding. “The Pew Center has […]
New Newsroom Role: Community Coordinator
On March 1 The Portland Press Herald took its commitment to civic journalism to a new level. It became one of the first newspapers in the country to hire a full-time Community Coordinator. Her job is to help citizens connect to public life and to help the newspaper connect with the community. It was a […]
Covering Charlotte’s Culture War An Opportunity for Civic Journalism
By Chuck Clark Government Editor The Charlotte Observer When a local county commissioner proposed a resolution this spring to eliminate public funding for the local Arts & Science Council, the Culture War broke out in Charlotte — again. For years, the arts council has successfully acted as local government’s right arm in deciding which […]
The Old vs. A New Model of Journalism
By Chris Gates President National Civic League Many communities around the country are dramatically changing their culture and their behavior — yet most of the reporters covering them are stuck in an old style of journalism that is failing to capture their stories. That old style of journalism reflects how our communities did business […]
Changing the Personality of Local News Pages
By Dennis Hartig Managing Editor, The Virginian-Pilot Approximately 400,000 people open The Virginian-Pilot regularly for news about crime, city government and schools. About one in three express dissatisfaction with the coverage they find. So, every day we leave tens of thousands of people disappointed with reports basic to community life and essential to our success as a […]
Where’s Grandma?
By Mike Jacobs Two things can be said for a flood. One is that it creates opportunities for service. The Grand Forks Herald learned that while flood water was still lapping at the embers of our burned-out building. Grand Forks, N.D., and its sister city, East Grand Forks, Minn., were empty. More than 50,000 people had […]