News & Observer, Raleigh, NC The Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO Fredericksburg Freelance Star, Fredericksburg, VA The State, Columbia, SC “Project Reconnect” teamed four daily newspapers with four journalism schools to close the distance that had grown between the papers and certain groups of readers (or ex-readers). In Raleigh, The News and Observer wanted to reconnect […]

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle WXXI-TV (PBS) WXXI-FM WOKR-TV (ABC) The partners sought to shake up “business as usual” election coverage by engaging citizens in producing a set of grassroots legislative proposals for candidates that would rival the agenda set by special interest lobbyists. “The Citizens’ Agenda” was crafted through a statewide poll, eight forums […]

California Voter Foundation In the fall of 1998, the California Voter Foundation (CVF) produced the state’s first online database of campaign contributions received by candidates for state office and by ballot measure campaigns. CVF also produced its first annual Online Voter Guide, which received 50,000 visits and 450,000 page views over a six-week period around […]

KLVX-TV (PBS-Las Vegas) KNBP-TV (PBS-Reno) The stations joined to broadcast their first live, interactive, statewide town hall meeting in February 2000 on the issue of electric utility deregulation. With deregulation scheduled to take place in March, the stations wanted to help consumers get answers to questions about this complex public policy issue. Viewers emailed, faxed […]

Wisconsin Public Television The project experimented with ways to use Interactive Television (ITV) to enhance election coverage. ITV combines television viewing and Internet browsing on a standard TV screen through the use of a set-top WebTV unit and remote. Though the technology was still very new and not widely used, Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) believed […]

WHYY-TV 12 (PBS) WHYY-FM The station held two focus groups, one with labor union members and one with victims of catastrophic illness, in an effort to redefine the concept of community – away from geography and demography, toward areas of shared concerns. Participants included men and women from different neighborhoods as well as different racial […]

KUT-FM (Public Broadcasting) University of Texas The Austin American Statesman When KUT decided to develop a local news program, its director saw an opportunity to create a “civic” newsroom, building his operation from the ground up with the principless of civic journalism in mind. Pew funding allowed the station to research the community-its make-up and […]

KTVU-TV (Fox), KTVU.com SFGate.com, San Francisco Chronicle The partners received funding for a project about the hidden costs of the affluence that accompanied the Bay Area’s high-tech boom only to have the boom implode before the project ever got started. The result was a series charting and explaining the region’s master narrative as it was happening. “After […]

Community Newspaper Co. Funds were returned when the company was acquired by Herald Media and the editors who proposed the project departed.

WTVJ-TV (NBC) The Miami Herald Ocean Drive Magazine The WTVJ news department made coverage of the environment a top priority, launching EcoWatch on Earth Day in March 2001. Pew funding allowed the station to partner with The Miami Herald and its Sunday magazine to reach out and engage the community in its effort. In addition […]

San Jose Mercury News KNTV (ABC) KPIX-TV (CBS) KIVE and KARA Radio Santa Clara Public Libraries Solid investigative journalism documented the problem of special-interest money corrupting the California State Assembly,but the Mercury News turned to civic journalism to ensure that its investigation had impact. At the end of its hard-hitting “Legislature for Sale” project, the […]

The Muncie Star-Press WLBC-FM When Indiana legislators met in 1999 to begin restructuring the state tax system, they had a good understanding of what their constituents thought about the issue, thanks to a booklet called “Hoosiers Talk Taxes,” the culmination of a yearlong project to inject citizen voices into the debate over tax reform. The […]

The News Tribune KCTS-TV (PBS) KPLU-FM The Washington state legislature was poised in January 2002 to limit lawsuits that could be brought by victims of crimes committed by prisoners on parole until a poll commissioned by the partners showed 90 percent of the state supported the victims’ right to sue. The measure was tabled, a […]

New Hampshire Public Radio An estimated 30,000 residents, or more than 4% of the state’s registered voters, used their computers to access the radio station’s online calculator to see how proposed new tax bills would affect them. In addition, NHPR used the site as a reporting tool, monitoring a Feedback Zone and interviewing some of […]

The Arlington Morning News The Dallas Morning News KERA-FM KERA-TV The University of Texas, Arlington The partners seized on an initiative by the city of Arlington to increase citizen participation with “We the City,” a civic approach to covering the city’s move toward a deliberative model of government. The first stories, Feb. 7, 1997, explained […]

WTHR-TV (NBC) The Indianapolis Star WFYI-TV While lobbyists roam state legislatures, tracking bills and wining and dining lawmakers, ordinary citizens are left out of the process by the simple business of living their lives. “The People’s Agenda” was an effort to restore balance to the process by making sure legislators knew what people wanted and […]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette KDKA-TV KDKA-AM Pennsylvania Newspapers Association The Pennsylvania legislature passed a new, more liberal open-records law in the summer of 2002 after a 10-month effort by the partners to encourage citizens to use public records to make government accountable and accomplish community goals. Post-Gazette editor Jane Elizabeth did not give the project full credit […]

Nycitizens.org and public television stations WXXI, WPBS, WCNY, WNET, WLIW, WMHT, WCFE, WSKG, WNEDWNED Nine public television stations collaborated on NYcitizens.org, a Web site dedicated to helping New Yorkers understand and become engaged in the process of redrawing congressional districts through an online game and other interactive features. The partners launched the Web site in the fall of 2001 as the state […]

Rochester Democrat andChronicle WXXI Public Television WOKR-TV (ABC) Eight years after a highly touted school reform effort began, Rochester area residents still had concerns about education. “Grading our Schools” got hundreds of them participating – through polls, televised town meetings, focus groups and chat rooms – in appraising and redirecting the effort. The project also […]

San Jose Mercury News KNTV (ABC) KPIX-TV (CBS) KIVE and KARA Radio Santa Clara Public Libraries “Common Ground” was an editorial page project designed to encourage public discussion on controversial topics and create public spaces where those discussions could occur. On its editorial and commentary pages, the Mercury News editorial board would publish lists of […]

WGBH radio and television (PBS) The Boston Globe El Mundo Newspaper WRCA-AM The “Eye on Education” initiative addressed such issues as character education, vouchers, charter schools and high-stakes testing. In addition to regular reports, the project featured a special week of TV programming, March 28-April 4, 2002, culminating with “A Day in the Life,” a […]

The News-Star, newsstar.com Louisiana Tech University Grambling State University SPJ Lincoln Collegiate Chapter The paper used civic mapping to explore why more than a quarter of Monroe’s fourth- and eighth-grade public school students had failed high-stakes state math and reading tests. The project generated an outpouring of community help for local schools. The News Star focused […]

Savannah Morning News WSOK-AM The paper brought together 60 citizens in August 2000 as the first step in its project on Savannah’s failing public schools. The 39,000-student district was among the worst in the nation. It had gone through three superintendents in five years, the school board was fighting with the governor over school reform, […]

Detroit Free Press WXYZ-TV (ABC) Children and violence was the focus of a joint project that grew out of the paper’s “Children First” editorial and community campaign. The effort began with a poll of 1,600 children, aged 9 to 12, in the Detroit area. Nearly one in five said they had witnessed a shooting; almost […]

Rochester Democrat andChronicle WXXI Public Television WOKR-TV (ABC) The partners focused on young people – their experiences, their views, their voices – for “Make Us Safe: Teens Talk about Violence.” First, they surveyed nearly 1,800 seventh through 12th graders in the Rochester area. They found that one-third thought their life would be shortened by violence, […]

The Chicago Reporter The newspaper revisited the 1998 slaying of 11-year-old Ryan Harris and its aftermath, finding it a critical point in police-community relations in Chicago’s crime-ridden Englewood neighborhood. Reporters reconstructed the police investigation of the crime, which led to the brief and controversial arrest of two young, neighborhood boys. (An adult was later charged […]

The Arizona Daily Star Tucson Citizen KVOA-TV (NBC) KOLD-TV (CBS) KGUN-TV (ABC) KUAT-TV (PBS) KWBA-TV (WB) KMSB-TV (Fox) KTTU-TV (UPN) KHRR-TV (Telemundo) KUVE-TV (Univision) This unusually comprehensive partnership – involving all of Tucson’s major media – joined forces for “Teaching Tucson’s Children,” a project on improving local public schools that culminated in a town hall […]

Philadelphia Daily News, philly.com At the height of a crisis in Philadelphia public schools, the paper launched a rich, online source of information to encourage parent involvement and public problem-solving. SchoolNet included a wide range of features. There was contact information for district offices to help parents navigate a sometimes-convoluted bureaucracy. There was a grade-by-grade breakdown […]

: The Spokesman-Review A team of reporters and editors used (and helped refine) civic journalism “mapping” tools to chart the key moments in the lives of children that can make the difference between success and failure in adulthood. Building on its “City of Second Chances” project, which told the story of Spokane’s expanding ex-felon population […]

Herald & Review WILL-TV (PBS) WILL-AM “Dropping Out: Why students leave Decatur schools” was a civic journalism project that involved citizens, including those who’d never finished high school, in developing ideas to help keep students in school through graduation. In November 2001, the partners commissioned a survey of 102 adults who had dropped out of […]

Elmira Star-Gazette The Sabre Radio Group The Star-Gazette’s focus on teaching values to children turned out to be eerily prescient. Just weeks after its series on the subject ran, two teenagers opened fire on classmates and teachers at Columbine High School in Colorado. The event gave the Star-Gazette’s project an added intensity, prompting more area […]

The Portland Press Herald After the shootings at Columbine High School, the newspaper invited teenagers from around Maine to write about what high school life is like today. In April of 1999, 20 essays were published in the newspaper and more than 150 were posted on the “teengo” page of the Press Herald’s Web site. […]

Dayton Daily News WPTD public television WYSO-FM The Miami Valley Issues Forum TheMontgomery County Historical Museum Marking Dayton’s 1996 bicentennial, the partners launched “Shaping the Next Century” to encourage public conversations about directing the city into the future. The Daily News ran a series of stories in late 1995 that looked at Dayton’s history as […]

The Sun News The partners proposed a project on race relations but found during the planning phase that racial division was just one of the problems facing the community as a result of extremely rapid growth. Broadening the focus of the project to “reconnecting,” the paper decided to seek reader input in determining what issues […]

Press & Sun-Bulletin WSKG Public TV and Radio WBNG-TV (CBS) SUNY-Binghamton With the Binghamton economy severely depressed and public spirits virtually crushed by the loss of jobs and services, the partners in 1996 launched “Facing Our Future,” a solutions-oriented journalism project with a built-in action component. Two years later, citizen action teams were still meeting […]

The Sun News Cox Broadcasting After the results of an informal Sun News survey showed serious community concern about rapid growth, the paper launched an 11-month project, “Living in a Boom Town.” The paper had asked readers to respond to six open-ended questions about the Myrtle Beach area. Some 300 responses showed five main areas […]

The Daily World of Aberdeen Channel 20 TCI Cablevision Political, economic and environmental forces were changing life on the Southern Olympic Peninsula and its paper decided to help citizens join together to meet the resulting challenges. Partnering with cable channel 20 – the only station in the county – the Daily World launched “Changing Tides” […]

The Daily World Channel 20 TCI Cablevision In year two of their “Changing Tides” project, the partners attempted to bring together citizens and community leaders to craft solutions to the political, economic and environmental challenges the region faced. A March 1998 mail survey of 130 traditional community leaders – elected officials, educators, union leaders and others […]

New Hampshire Public Radio NHPR used the interactive Web technology it pioneered with its Tax Calculator to give the state’s citizens an idea of how electricity deregulation would affect their utility bills. The special “Shock Value” Web site, linking off the NHPR home page, served as both a primer on deregulation and a tool for […]

Newschannel 8 The 24-hour, all-news station conducted a phone survey of 1,000 Washington, DC, area residents and found that traffic congestion is the most-often cited problem that impacts daily life. The survey also showed residents preferred developing more mass transit to building new roads as a way to deal with congestion but were generally pro-growth […]

KGW-TV (NBC), KGW.com Portland Tribune Beaverton Valley Times Tigard Times Gresham Outloo Clackamas Review As elected planning officials in the Portland area began seeking public input on a long-term growth plan, the media partners launched a project to inform citizens and engage their interest in the process. “Your Neighborhood, Your Future” included dozens of TV and […]

The Sun News Myrtlebeachonline.com Coastal Carolina University With Myrtle Beach becoming the fastest-growing relocation destination in the nation, the paper gave residents a chance to try their hand at managing growth in the region with an interactive Web-based game, similar to the model pioneered by The Herald in Everett. “Chart the Strand’s Future,” a feature […]

La Crosse Tribune This project examined the hazards of stray voltage – electrical current that leaks from power lines – for farms and livestock through a series of newspaper stories and a dedicated Web site that drew comments and questions from around the world. The stories, looking at causes, effects and possible solutions of stray […]

The Idaho Statesman Idaho Spokesman-Review Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho Falls) Post Register KTVB-TV (NBC in Boise) Idaho Public Television The news organizations gave a statewide scope to the problems of rural Idaho with their collaboration on “Rural Idaho: Challenged to Change,” a five-part series that ran simultaneously in all four papers, and as a three-part […]

The Savannah Morning News, Savannahnow.com Georgia Public Radio With the Georgia legislature expected to set statewide water policy in its 2003 session, the partners launched “Water: The Power. The Profit,” a year-long series on the Savannah River, to encourage citizen participation in the debate. A poll of 724 people in the seven counties around the river […]

The Herald-Dispatch West Virginia Public Broadcasting WMUL-FM The out-migration of young people from West Virginia was as accepted as the export of its coal until the partners explored the consequences in “Home for Good,” a project that included a six-part newspaper series, radio reports, a televised public forum and an interactive Web site. One of […]

The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch West Virginia Public Broadcasting The partners made economic revitalization the dominant issue in West Virginia legislative and political debate with “West Virginia After Coal,” a far-reaching exploration of the state’s prospects if it continues to rely solely on coal for its economic well-being. The project provided a number of features to educate […]

The Herald KSER-FM Public Radio The paper’s “Waterfront Renaissance” project marked a new development in interactive journalism, marrying the credibility of the news organization with Web-based game technology that had previously been used mainly on advertising and entertainment sites. When the Herald set out not simply to inform but also to engage residents in the […]

St. Paul Pioneer Press KARE-TV (NBC) Wilder Research Center Breaking out of the daily police blotter routine, the paper commissioned a poll of 2,853 Twin City residents that explored public attitudes toward crime and safety and assigned a team of four reporters to look at crime in the context of race, age, gender and geography. […]

Idaho Falls Post Register Lewiston Morning Tribune Idaho Spokesman-Review Idaho Public Television KTVB (NBC, Boise) This unique partnership sparked a statewide conversation on Idaho’s runaway prison spending with “Collision Course,” a five-part series that revealed the hidden cost of building more jails and engaged hundreds of people in the search for alternatives. As a point […]

The Charlotte Observer WSOC-TV (ABC) WPEG-AM WBTV (CBS) Pew funds supported the hiring of a community coordinator, Charlene Price-Patterson, who was instrumental in organizing town meetings and focus groups and coordinating reader response. Reporting started with a computer-assisted analysis of two years of crime statistics that helped the partners select which neighborhoods to focus on. […]

The Bronx Journal BronxNet Community Cable Lehman College The City University of New York BronxNet community access cable TV joined forces with the unique Multilingual Journalism program at Lehman College (CUNY) to expand its coverage of this underserved New York borough that, by itself, would have been one of the 10 largest U.S. cities. Pew […]

The Chicago Reporter WGN-TV WNUA-FM The partners drew a subtle and nuanced portrait of Wrightwood, a previously white neighborhood that had become 50 percent African-American fairly quickly in the early ’90’s, as a case study in racial change in a community. The Reporter, a monthly paper that uses investigative techniques to cover race and poverty, […]

Long Beach Press-Telegram Cablevision Industries, Inc. Long Beach Community Partnership Leadership Long Beach First, 25 reporters and columnists each hosted three focus group of about 10 people each. They asked open-ended questions about what issues most concerned people, what solutions they’d propose and how government and other institutions could help. From the approximately 750 people participating […]

Pacific News Service/New California Media Pacific News Service seized the 2000 presidential and local California elections to demonstrate the growing political clout of ethnic voters and, in the process, created new outlets for diverse voices in the mainstream media. Pooling the resources of 100 ethnic newspapers and broadcast stations in the Bay Area, Pacific News […]

Pacific News Service New California Media/a> KALW-FM San Francisco Chronicle The partnership gave wider circulation, through the Chronicle’s Sunday edition and through KALW programs, to the diverse ethnic and youth voices gathered by two of the Pacific News Service’s major projects: New California Media and YO! Youth Outlook. The New California Media (NCM) project distilled […]

  Yakima Herald-Republic Immigration has boosted the Hispanic presence in Yakima to 37 percent of the total population. The paper explored the resulting tensions and benefits in a seven-day series, “Race in the Yakima Valley,” Dec. 10-16, 2000. Reporters and editors worked with an ethnically diverse advisory committee to develop questions for a survey of […]

The Chicago Reporter WBEZ-FM WNUA-FM The Pew Center provided additional funding to allow the investigative monthly to complete its portrait of racial change in the Chicago neighborhood of Wrightwood. The story appeared in the April 1998 issue. For more details, please see Year Four (1997) projects. Contact: Laura S. Washington 3750 Lake Shore Dr., Apt. […]

San Francisco Examiner Maynard Institute for Journalism After months of ground level reporting, the paper published the first story in the series on April 26, 1998. It was a 175-inch, front page centerpiece that jumped into four inside pages. That first installment also launched a feature called “First Person” that gave people a chance to […]

KVIA-TV (ABC) In this largely Hispanic town on the Mexican border, the media partners opened a conversation on race, immigration and language with a series built around a poll of 1,008 residents in English and Spanish. The first step the partners took was to convene a panel of academic and civic leaders, who met almost […]

UC Berekley Journalism School The Oakland Post This project not only provided hands-on training in civic journalism, but it also improved coverage of a community usually overlooked by mainstream media. Eight graduate journalism students, enrolled in Berkeley’s “Covering a Community” course in the spring 1999 semester, produced five editions of a supplement to the black-owned […]

South Florida Sun-Sentinel CBS 4 and Newsradio 610 The partners documented the way massive social changes have swept aside the traditional definition of “community” and replaced it with a patchwork of affiliations, raising serious issues for civic institutions. Though focused on the suburbs of South Florida, “Invisible Boundaries: Communities of Choice” was a story of […]

The Orange County Register, OCRegister.com Excelsior Myoc.com Reporters developed a deep understanding of the Latino population in the Santa Ana readership area with a community mapping project that included a phone survey, an academic cultural study and a dynamic database of sources structured to stay useful even as reporters move on and off the beat. The […]

Black Entertainment Television (BET), BET.com After decades of reporting about the African-American family by white news organizations or think tanks, BET – Black Entertainment Television – tackled the subject in a civic journalism project that combined the forces of the popular cable service’s new newscast and its online division, BET.com. “Under One Roof” was a […]

The Cincinnati Enquirer, WCET-TV (PBS), WCPO-TV (CBS), WKRC-TV (ABC), WLWT-TV (NBC), Kettering Foundation, National Issues Forum A year of extraordinary racial tension in Cincinnati in 2001 prompted an extraordinary response by the city’s media, led by the Enquirer, which collaborated on a project that involved 2,000 local residents in solutions-oriented conversations about race. The paper […]

Wisconsin StateJournal Wisconsin Public TV Wisconsin Public Radio WISC-TV (CBS) Wood Communication Group Pew support helped “We the People/Wisconsin,” one of American journalism’s first and most enduring civic journalism coalitions, use innovative techniques to engage citizens in election coverage. The Pew support helped the partners measure whether the effort had an impact on public participation […]

The Seattle Times KUOW-FM Radio KCTS Public TV KPLU-FM, Tacoma, WA Energized by their work together for the 1994 NPR election project, the partners used their newly formed “Front Porch Forum” alliance to tackle a number of issues facing the Seattle area. They held a joint forum on a new, multi-million dollar transit system and […]

The Virginian-Pilot The Harwood Group For the 1996 elections, the paper completely re-imagined and refashioned campaign coverage, moving from traditional horse race coverage to the innovative (and, later, much-copied) concept of candidate as job applicant. Pew helped fund a new kind of poll that aided this coverage. Rather than a market-driven poll, the Harwood Group […]

WKRC-TV (CBS) The Community Press Chain of Suburban Weeklies Q102 and WNNK Radio An unusual partnership, with TV taking the lead and enlisting suburban weeklies rather than one large daily, “Voices of the People” sought, according to its mission statement, “to empower citizens by making sure their voices are heard and by showing their involvement […]

The Seattle Times KUOW-FM Radio KCTS Public TV KPLU-FM, Tacoma, WA The “Front Porch Forum” partners solidified their initiative in their third year, hiring a project coordinator and engaging more than 2,000 citizens in forums, focus groups and polling. The project focused on the gubernatorial and congressional elections. An initial poll of 570 Washington residents, […]

Portland Newspapers Inc. Maine Public Broadcasting Network WGME-TV (CBS) The “Maine Citizens Campaign” followed a group of about 40 residents of Sanford, ME, a neglected mill town as they deliberated the issues and interviewed candidates in the 1996 campaign. Conceived as a way for the partners to get more citizen voices into their election coverage, […]

New Hampshire Public Radio The Keene Sentinel The Portsmouth Herald UPI of New Hampshire Inspired by the success of its election year project, “Voter’s Voice,” New Hampshire Public Radio sought citizen participation in coverage of non-election issues through a series of “Citizens Exchange” meetings in different communities, in association with local newspapers. The network began […]

The Oregonian Oregon Public Broadcasting That most fundamental of civic activities, voting, was the subject of a three-part series in the Oregonian and a special call-in show on public radio. Though Oregon had one of the highest voter turn-out records in the nation, there were still nearly a million eligible Oregonians who did not vote. […]

The Portland Newspapers WGME-TV Maine Public TV Maine Public Radio What started as an election year effort to get citizen voices in campaign coverage entered a new phase in 1997, as some 40 residents of Sanford, Maine, who’d been empaneled for the “Maine Citizens Campaign” refused to disband when the journalism project was over. The […]

Orange County Register Riverside Press Enterprise KCET-TV (PBS) KCRW-FM in Santa Monica KPCC-FM in Pasadena Orange County News Channel The partners, who’d been working together since the 1996 “Voice of the Voter” project, called their third joint effort “The Election Connection” to emphasize the goal of helping voters feel connectedto the electoral process. The project […]

Portland Newspapers Central Maine Newspapers WGME-TV (CBS) Maine Public Television “Beyond the Ballot” not only dramatically changed the way major media in coastal Maine covered the statewide 1998 elections, it set the course for their coverage of politics and government for the four years that followed. Beginning with a poll of 1,106 Maine residents in […]

The Record TCI, Northern New Jersey Caucus Educational Corp. “The Quality of Life Project” comprised a number of ambitious efforts to stimulate informed public dialogue about how to preserve Bergen County’s best qualities in an era of increasing congestion, rising crime and a changing economy. The first step was to find the consensus on what […]

St. Paul Pioneer Press KARE-TV (NBC) Wilder Research Center Following up on the success of its “Safer Cities” project, the paper focused on intergenerational conflict with the eight-week, 14-part series “Across Generations: What Do We Owe Each Other?” First, a poll of 1,528 adults in the Twin Cities area showed some of the differences between […]

San Francisco Chronicle KQED-FM (NPR) KRON-TV (NBC) The partners in the two-year-old “Voice of the Voter” project decided to join forces for a non-electoral effort in 1996 and took on the issue of traffic congestion in “Unlock the Gridlock.” Some 1,500 people participated in five public forums held between May 1996 and April 1997, exploring […]

The Working Group KQED-TV Public Radio’s “Marketplace” The critically acclaimed “Livelyhood” project, a four-part, public television series on the changing nature of work in the United States, used a national poll, town hall-style discussions, the Internet and a specially devised “tool kit” to encourage working Americans to confront and discuss emerging challenges and issues in […]

Star-Gazette WETM-TV (NBC) WSKG-FM, WSKG-TV A year-long project looked at the impact of the region’s higher-than-average cancer rate and the steps citizens can take to prevent the disease. Monthly installments in the paper, each focusing on a different aspect of the disease, were complemented by radio and television news segments and special TV programs as […]

Press & Sun-Bulletin WSKG Public Broadcasting The Pew Center supported a series of public forums, newspaper stories and radio and television broadcasts, which began in May 1998 and ran periodically through 1999, to educate the aging population in and around Binghamton, NY, on issues related to the end of life. The partners also launched a […]

Lawrence Journal-World 6News J-W Web Works With “Lawrence is Growing,” the partners helped citizens of the university town, long polarized on the issue of growth, find common ground and make concrete proposals to public officials on how to manage growth. The six-month project began April 15, 2001, with a three-week series about the history of […]

The Savannah Morning News The paper published an 11-part series on the issues faced by the region’s growing elderly population, beginning in September of 1999 and continuing through the summer of 2000. The coverage became a prime example of unraveling a community’s “master narrative.” A Pew-supported survey of 740 Savannah-area residents helped frame the topics […]

NPR Election Project National Public Radio, known for the extraordinary depth and seriousness of its public issues coverage, made changes in its approach to political reporting to improve its coverage of the 1994 election campaign. The Washington, DC-based network worked with member stations in five cities and two statewide networks to provide high quality, issue-directed […]

The Wichita Eagle The Harwood Group This groundbreaking project created what might be called the infrastructure of civic journalism – a set of tools for uncovering the civic life of a community and tapping into it. The Eagle set out with no less a goal than improving the quality of civic life in Wichita by […]

University of Illinois League of Women Voters The partners teamed up for the Illinois Voter Project (IVP), an effort to make election coverage more issues-focused and responsive to voters rather than candidates. The university conducted a statewide opinion survey before the March 1994 primary to determine citizens’ major concerns. In June, the partners began a […]

The Daytona Beach News Journal WCEU-TV (PBS) WESH-TV (NBC) Stetson University At the Pew Center’s request, the partners returned their funding when the project became stalled because of newsroom changes.

Bangor Daily News The Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy University of Maine A six-part series on leadership identified the most active behind-the-scenes community leaders in the Bangor area, what traits they held in common and the importance of their work to the life of the community. The paper began the project by compiling […]

Tallahassee Democrat WCTV6 (CBS) Florida State University Florida A&M; Universities A three-year project, “The Public Agenda” involved thousands of Tallahassee citizens in discussing and seeking solutions to a wide range of issues facing the city. Project leaders at the Democrat and WCTV used a host of tools – small group discussions, frequent polls, large forums […]

The Manhattan Mercury KQLA-FM The partners in “The Public Mind” project took a civic approach to exploring one local issue a month in depth and inviting citizens to discuss possible solutions. The series began, May 7, 1995, with an exploration of teenage binge drinking. In June, the topic was neighborhood associations; July, the student rental […]

Tallahassee Democrat WCTV6 (CBS) Florida State University Florida A&M; Universities The second year of the three-year “Public Agenda” project trained more citizens to lead and participate in small group discussions and continued polling to be sure the concerns of all members of the diverse community were surfacing. For more details, please see Year One (1994) […]

Grand Forks Herald WDAZ-TV (ABC) Northern LightsPublic Radio The partners held a series of “Community Conversations” via coffee klatches, focus groups and polls, assessing quality-of-life issues and forging a vision for the future of Grand Forks, a city of 60,000. The partners kicked the project off by driving a van to various public places around […]

WTVT-TV (Fox) Weekly Planet Alternative Paper WMNF Community Radio Tampa Chapter of National Conference The partners sought to bring civic journalism to the Tampa Bay area through a series of four jointly sponsored town hall forums and the encouragement of smaller “kitchen table” discussions in citizens’ homes. The forums were aided by “Speak Up, Tampa […]

Tallahassee Democrat WCTV6 (CBS) Florida State University Florida A&M; Universities The third year of the “Public Agenda” project ended with a hand-off to the community. Over its three-year span, the project involved more than 1,000 people in 15 discussion groups. A final poll of 353 adults in the Tallahassee area showed the project appeared to […]

Spokesman-Review One of the early innovators in developing and using civic journalism tools, the Spokesman-Review embarked on a project to foster their growth in other newsrooms. With Pew support, the paper hired an intern specifically to advance civic journalism outreach. During her year in Spokane, the intern worked with community groups, helped organize a forum […]

Wisconsin StateJournal Wisconsin Public TV Wisconsin Public Radio WISC-TV (CBS) Wood Communication Group In the spring, a forum allowed citizens to question candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court in “You Be the Judge,” broadcast from the high court’s chambers. Citizens got the chance to assess the performance, structure and financing of the state’s public university […]

The Charlotte Observer WSOC-TV (ABC) WPEG-AM WBTV (CBS) After the success of their major crime project, “Taking Back our Neighborhoods,” the media partners spent a year trying to incorporate the civic journalism principles they had learned into daily reporting. Applying such tools as polling, public forums, listening posts and community partnerships on a quick-turn-around time […]

Journal-Star WMBD-TV (CBS), WMBD-AM WCBU-TV (PBS), WCBU-FM (NPR) Illinois Central College Bradley University Noting a decline in civic leadership and community involvement, the partners embarked on “Leadership Challenge,” a project that met its ambitious goal of inspiring citizens to take leadership roles in the community. Designed from the beginning to become a community effort, the […]

The Weekly Planet Speak Up Tampa Bay University of South Florida Study Circles Resources Center The partners continued their quest to bring civic journalism to the Tampa Bay with the convening of a “framing” conference in the spring of 1997. About 350 citizens attended three days of town hall meetings with experts and journalists and […]

The Portland Newspapers WGME-TV Maine Public TV Maine Public Radio What started as an election year effort to get citizen voices in campaign coverage entered a new phase in 1997, as some 40 residents of Sanford, Maine, who’d been empaneled for the “Maine Citizens Campaign” refused to disband when the journalism project was over. The […]

The Seattle Times KCTS KPLU-FM KUOW-FM With all the Seattle area had going for it in the mid-90’s, there was a sense that the region could not sustain its enviable quality of life into the 21st Century. The “Front Porch Forum” partners saw this as an opportunity to expand their civic journalism effort beyond politics […]

Wisconsin StateJournal Wisconsin Public TV WISC-TV Wisconsin Public Radio Wood Communications The oldest, continuously operating civic journalism partnership tackled issues of race and culture in 1997 both with programming and outreach activities. With its “We the People500” effort, the partners diversified and broadened the base of citizens who attended their town hall meetings, coffee shop […]

The Seattle Times KCTS KPLU-FM KUOW-FM Following up on the 1997 mock trial on growth in the Puget Sound, the partners confronted longstanding assumptions about the issue with a series called, “Growth: Enough already?” The mock jury in the 1997 “Puget Sound 2020” project had startled the partners by ignoring the common wisdom about growth […]

BRONXNET The Bronx Journal BronxNet extended its efforts to link the borough’s multi-ethnic communities with the creation of several new broadcasts, utilizing its four public-access cable channels and its Web site. The broadcasts took advantage of the newly built Bronx Journalism Center at Lehman College, opened in 1999 and featuring both audio and video production […]

Internews Interactive KTCA-TV Pew Center funds supported the use of videoconferencing technology that allowed KTCA to originate broadcasts from new and unconventional locations and to connect citizens from far-flung parts of the large, rural state. The result was innovative programming with groundbreaking levels of interactivity. The first broadcast to use the new technology, in January […]

The Anniston Star The paper sought to become more interactive by creating new opportunities for reader exchanges through its online service, and it made some strides in that direction, but technical difficulties kept reporters from taking full advantage of the project’s potential. The paper gathered about 800 e-mail addresses for a “cyber-map” to complement its […]

Anniston Star The Star used civic mapping techniques to generate a database of more than 600 informal community leaders from churches, parent-teacher groups, civil rights organizations and other sources. The database could be searched by organization, community and area of interest and it was centrally located in the newsroom so any reporter could use it […]

The Harwood Institute Pew Center for Civic Journalism This series of three two-day seminars taught reporters and editors from six newsrooms how to improve their capacity to understand and interpret their communities, using the tools and techniques of civic mapping. Mapping helps journalists go beyond official and quasi-official sources of news by identifying and exploring […]

The Spokesman-Review, spokesmanreview.com Pew support allowed the paper to experiment with interactive on-line journalism tools that improved connections between reporters and readers and users. One of the most successful tools was an automated email system that was being widely used by reporters and editors within months of being created in early 2002. The system allows reporters […]

Tampa Bay Weekly Planet Using a database of more than 300 community groups and media organizations, the Weekly Planet created an email “wire service” for community news to compliment the “Public Life” newsletter launched earlier with Pew support. Grass roots organizations would send the Planet staff news about what they were doing and, about once […]

Oregon Public Broadcasting Albany Democrat-Herald The (La Grande) Observer Newport News-Times Geneforum.org Because Oregon is the only state in the nation that treats an individual’s DNA as private property, its genetic privacy law is frequently under discussion and review. The project increased public knowledge of this unique law and created opportunities for public input into […]

(Richmond) Palladium-Item Dayton Daily News Earlham College The partners developed strategies to make wire stories – the main source of national and international news for most small papers – more engaging and relevant to readers. Earlham professor Cheryl Gibbs and her students created special pages of international news for the Palladium-Item, using wire stories and […]

MaineToday.com The online service, the portal for the Portland Press Herald, the Morning Sentinel, the Kennebec Journal and WMTW Broadcasting, built and customized an innovative software system that allows community groups to generate content. MaineToday originally received funding to use existing KOZ software to improve opportunities for citizens to contribute news, responses and questions to […]

Missoulian Using modest Pew funding, Missoulian reporter Rob Chaney refitted three government surplus computers to become portable polling kiosks, suitable for gathering instant reaction to news events or for determining which issues voters are most interested in. Software installed in the computers allowed Chaney to program in survey questions on any topic and choose the […]

Lincoln Journal Star Nebraska Public Television KMTV (CBS) The partners launched a project on the ethical questions surrounding research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center after the surprise disclosure that the facility was using fetal tissue in its labs. A statewide poll of 323 adults found most generally supported the kinds of research the […]

San Antonio’s Spanish-language television station made history in May 2001 by integrating viewers into its newscasts through Web cameras in their homes. The feature, “Teledirecto TV,” was incorporated into regular newscasts at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to add the voice of ordinary citizens to those of experts and politicians on stories that impact the […]