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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 (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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]