About paying attention.
John McCaa Anchor, Host of “Metro” WFAA-TV, Dallas Here’s what civic journalism is NOT. It is NOT parachuting into the community as if it’s a special forces operation and getting the loudest voices and then walking away. You may touch the veneer that way but civic journalism gets underneath to the woodwork, where the […]
About meeting the needs of citizens.
Joan Cartan-Hansen Reporter, Producer Idaho Public Television Going into the 1998 elections, we were hearing the same old thing from politicians. They knew what was important. They decided what to talk about and voters had to make a choice based on the candidates’ agenda. We decided there was a way to make our election […]
About helping people take action.
Sue Deans Assistant Managing Editor/Sunday Denver Rocky Mountain News There was a neighborhood near the Myrtle Beach Sun News called Racepath, where drug dealers would shoot out the street lights and people were afraid to go outside. When I was the editor there, we wrote a series of stories about Racepath. But we also […]
About being part of the community.
Jan Leach Vice President and Editor Akron Beacon Journal As civic journalists, we think about the places we live in and what journalism can do for those places. An example is the Akron Beacon Journal’s reporting on school funding. Now, when you say “school funding,” people’s eyes blur because nobody understands it. But our […]
About really listening in the community.
Lucy Himstedt VP and General Manager WFIE-TV, NBC-14, Evansville, IN To me, civic journalism is going out to people to get stories rather than sitting in your newsroom opening press releases and listening to the scanner. We do a series called “14 Listens.” We don’t try to convene meetings ourselves but we go to […]
About getting people involved.
Jerry Ceppos Knight Ridder Vice President for News Former Executive Editor The Mercury News, San Jose, CA When I think of civic journalism, I think of ideas that help citizens get involved. It sounds corny, but it’s a pretty high calling. If you can figure out a way to help people get involved in […]
About listening through new technology.
Bill Hanley Executive VP, Content KTCA, Minnesota Public Television Civic journalism is a process by which citizens and reporters work together to understand issues and work on solutions. When it comes to public television, that’s never been very far from our mission. We’ve always had town meetings. But we’re becoming more sophisticated about it. […]
About stories that set you apart.
Deb Halpern Assistant News Director WFLA-TV, Tampa, FL We do our journalism from the bottom up, so to speak. That is, we listen to the people we’re trying to serve about what matters most to them and we are trying to penetrate the deepest layers of the community to find the stories. I was […]
About looking through different lenses.
Rick Scheuerman Editor Tampa Bay Online When I went into sportswriting, I had an interesting revelation. I’d sit on the bench to cover a game and ask the coach, “Why’d you do this? What’s your strategy here?” Then I went just to watch. I’d sit in the stands and people would start talking to […]
About delving deeper into the community.
Dave Zeeck Executive Editor News Tribune, Tacoma, WA Several years ago, the News Tribune re-established its mission statement and it is this: “Our mission is to be the pre-eminent source of news in the South Puget Sound and to be regarded as a great newspaper by our readers and by our peers, in that […]