Scouting Out Third Places: Framing for Depth
By George KennedyProfessor, Managing EditorThe Columbia Missourian The Missourian profiled various third places. Here at the Missouri School of Journalism, we’ve long believed in learning by doing. We’ve been doing civic journalism experiments for five years now, and we’ve learned a few things that might interest other pioneers. We began with Big Deal projects, usually multi-media. […]
In It Together: A Conversation about Race
By Pat Ford The Pew Center The Spokesman-Review didn’t shy away from reporting the community’s “dark side” in its series. Richard Butler announced the plans for his annual Aryan Nations Youth Congress with a lot of swagger last spring. The leader of the white supremacist group said a hundred of his members would march through Coeur […]
Reaching New Readers at the L.A. Times
Mark Willes takes questions. On Oct. 15, the Pew Center and The Atlantic Monthly hosted “Journalism into the Next Century: Mark Willes on the L.A. Times” before a high-level gathering of media representatives in New York City. The publisher of the Times answered a wide range of questions about his stewardship in Los Angeles and […]
Linking Community Groups Via the Web
By Pat Ford Pew Center for Civic Journalism Peaks Island, in the Casco Bay off Portland, Maine, is accessible only by ferry. It’s a lovely community of about 1,000 year-round residents but you wouldn’t read a lot about it in the local paper, the Portland Press Herald. There’s just not a whole lot of news […]
“Rethinking Philadelphia” Draws City into a Dialogue
By Pat Ford The Pew Center The Philadelphia Daily News is a paper with personality. Like many big city tabloids, it has fun zagging when its broadsheet competitor, The Philadelphia Inquirer, is zigging. Often, this takes the form of funny headlines or off-the-wall stories – or both. A recent story about rub-on treatments for impotence ran under […]
The L.A. Times Crusades to Make a Difference in Reading
By Pat Ford The Pew Center The Los Angeles Times “Reading by 9” project includes all the elements a newspaper can bring to bear on an issue: Front page stories, editorials, a special daily feature called “The Kids Reading Room” and a weekly page on Sunday devoted to reading. But it doesn’t stop there. The Times has a […]
Mapping Seminars Peel Back Layers of Civic Life
Mapping Seminars Peel Back Layers of Civic Life After only three months, journalists taking part in The Harwood Civic Mapping Seminars are making some discoveries. For one, they are finding that their initial views of the communities they’ve targeted are often far different than how these communities see themselves. And within the communities, journalists are […]
Shining a Light in Dark Corners
By Pat Ford Pew Center Imagine the St. Louis Post-Dispatch inviting readers to join in serious conversations about important public issues in a section every Sunday. The section would have to include background on the issue and opportunities to join the discussion. There you have the basic ingredients of “Imagine St. Louis,” the Post-Dispatch’s redesign of its Sunday […]
Unconventional New Tool: Dialogue Connects Readers with Suffering Children
By Pat Ford Pew Center “I’m hungry. When does the bread people come?” — Bobby, age 3 “Don’t you know a lot of people die here?” — Jimmy, age 10 “They’re taking our daddy away.” — Lovon, age 4 “Didn’t anybody ever tell you life isn’t fair?” — Angelica, age 4 These are the voices of the “Motel Children,” […]
Philadelphia Inquirer Gives Voters a Voice and WPVI-TV Gets a Debate Ratings Hit
By Pat Ford Pew Center Sidney Toombs had been preparing for this moment for months. It was May 8, the final televised debate of the hotly contested Democratic Mayoral Primary in Philadelphia. All five candidates were there. Toombs and other voters taking part in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Citizen Voices” project would be asking the questions – […]