Civic Journalism: Six Case Studies
BOSTON, MASS.
The People's Voice

That was a red-letter moment for city editor Hanafin. "That's honesty. That's coming right from that guy's heart."

The candidates may have brushed off the Globe but they got the message from Work, the citizen. After several days of speaking through his manager, Weld eventually started to answer questions himself - another sign "The People's Voice" was working.

At WBUR, Fleming's staff followed the Globe's Sunday package with a number of segments. Instead of relying solely on the focus groups, executive producer David Wright wanted WBUR to go into the community and conduct more interviews. This approach increased the journalists' participation and avoided a sterile series of reports.

In addition, WBUR held regular in-studio roundtables with three or four citizens. The roundtables began as a chance to discuss the candidates' responses to the issues raised in the poll. As the campaign progressed, Fleming used the format to talk about the campaign itself and to critique campaign ads. The station also added a Friday segment on Morning Edition for listeners' responses.

Politician-turned-talk-show-host Christopher Lydon added another facet to WBUR's coverage, first by hosting call-in shows with themes matching the issue of the week, and then by continuing to invite participation in campaign discussions.

Eve Epstein thought the cumulative effort was effective. "It's our job to try and understand what the public is thinking and it's a truly impossible task. Particularly in this year, a process that listens to people in thoughtful discussion is really valuable."

Overall, the partners were pleased with the first phase of the project. But the project's timing may have hurt it.

"When we started our series of stories nobody else was doing anything and we could set the agenda. The down side is nobody was paying attention," Fleming said, keenly aware the series coincided with summer vacations. When it ended, the Massachusetts primary was still two months away.

Mohl agreed. "My idea the first five weeks was to sort of set an agenda, here's what the people want to talk about in this campaign, here's what their concerns are, here's what the issues should be in the campaign, according to them. After that, I think the whole project became how can we use people to fit in our election coverage in some way?"

The partners found more ways to raise the profile of the voters and call attention to their concerns during the campaign: citizen critiques of political ads, citizen-candidate panels held in the weeks leading to the September 13 primary, and citizen involvement in the general election debates.

Two five-member panels were chosen from the focus group participants for the four panels that would be taped and later televised. One panel met with Gov. Weld and the Democratic candidates for governor; the other questioned Sen. Kennedy and the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate.