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 […]
“Civic Lessons:” New Research on Civic Journalism
The research has been completed and the first academic study of projects supported by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism is off the presses. As reported in the January Civic Catalyst, the researchers found that the four civic journalism initiatives studied were widely and positively recognized in their communities and prompted increased civic activity. But […]
Pew Center Helps Support Project Reconnect
By Dr. Judy Vanslyke Turk Dean, College of Journalism and Mass Communications University of South Carolina Six daily newspapers and six college journalism programs have teamed up for an unprecedented experiment in newspaper change called Project Reconnect. Unlike most change efforts in the newspaper industry, which have been undertaken by the newspapers themselves, this effort […]
Sustaining Civic Journalism Efforts
The Pew Partnership for Civic Change is awarding grants to three communities — Binghamton, NY, Peoria, IL, and Portland, ME — to help citizens energized by civic journalism efforts move on to the next step and take action on complex issues. The grants are being awarded as part of The Community Change Project, created to […]