Whither the Civic Bandwagon?

by Charlotte Grimes

The Joan Shorenstein Center Discussion Paper D-36 PRESS ■ POLITICS February 1999

PUBLIC POLICY Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government Copyright© 1999, President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University 79 John F. Kennedy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Telephone (617) 495-8269 • Fax: (617) 495-8696 Web Site Address: http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/~presspol/home.htm INTRODUCTION

American journalism at the end of the titioners (such as Buzz Merritt) and scholars (such twentieth century finds itself in something of a as Jay Rosen), or of either uncritical celebrations crisis. Even though the population continues to (Arthur Charity’s book, Doing Public Journalism, grow, circulation is flat. The audi- the first on the subject) or intemperate condem- ences for the nightly broadcasts have nations of how civic journalism deviates from the shrunk dramatically, while the burgeoning num- longstanding norms and practices of reporters (as bers of all-news television channels seem to be Michael Gartner and others have provided). To be able to have an audience statistically distin- sure, there is much to be skeptical about with guishable from zero only by scandal-mongering civic journalism. The aggressive use of focus and crisis coverage. And while as recently as the groups and surveys of readers and viewers is not 1980s, the public seemed to rate the perfor- so different from what has happened in many mance of the more positively than news outlets when the bottom line of huge prof- most other political institutions, poll after poll its displaced a concern with the quality of infor- show disaffection with journalism and journalis- mation. Whether civic journalism can and should tic practice. The place of the news in American work beyond the relatively modest-sized and life, in short, seems to be more precarious than homogeneous cities where it first took hold is at any other moment in recent memory. also an open question, given that it may end up At the same time, there is much hand- favoring the perspectives of an uninformed major- wringing and teeth-gnashing over the condition ity and undercut the prospects for the unpre- of American politics itself, with the public voic- dictable and accidental news that occasionally ing increasing distrust and disaffection and par- allows new voices and concerns to enter into the ticipating less and less in even the simplest and process. And of course, civic journalism may easiest of political acts, namely voting. Many miss the point: reporters are but one contributor political onlookers, most notably Harvard’s own to the seeming shrinkage of American political Robert Putnam, have depicted stark scenarios of life. By giving the the authority to declining social involvement and an increasingly decide what the political agenda will be for a empty public sphere. campaign or for a community seems in some Many would find both American journalism ways a curious response to a problem that strikes and American politics to be badly in need of fix- many as one of journalistic presumptuousness if ing. It would, of course, be handy to find some- not arrogance. thing that could address all these ills at once. Yet the status quo of mainstream journalis- And that is precisely what a new approach to tic practices cannot be easily let off the hook. In journalism in the 1990s—called variously “public particular, most reporters are not much inter- journalism,” “civic journalism,” and “communi- ested, let alone aware, in the needs and concerns tarian journalism”—has promised. Civic journal- of their readers and viewers, compared to the ism, in various ways, tries to place the readers individuals they have to negotiate with for the and viewers of the news as not simply the final content of the news, such as their superiors and beneficiaries of the information that journalists their sources. In an era where profit margins are provide to them, but as crucial participants in increasingly important to news divisions, those the designation and creation of news itself. Most needs may become further diminished in the centrally, civic journalism would want newspeo- chase for stories that meet of imme- ple to visualize their readers and viewers not diacy, timeliness, color, drama, good visuals and simply as consumers of a product but citizens of the like—none of which have very much to do a polity. Journalists should then, the argument with the demands of good public policy. And the goes, try to push the news to reflect what the demands of objectivity under deadline make for people would need in order to pursue their own a “first draft of history” that not only empha- concerns and participate effectively. sizes official action about which the public Although there have been many initiatives should be informed (usually after the fact) but grouped under the broad rubric of “civic journal- gives few opportunities for citizens to be acti- ism,” the discussion of these efforts has gener- vated to intervene in ongoing political processes, ated more heat than light. Almost all of what has debates and deliberations. been written about civic journalism has consisted Fortunately, we are seeing the beginnings of of justifications in theory by its most noted prac- scholarly efforts to examine whether or not civic

Charlotte Grimes 1 journalism does, in fact, live up to its advance journalism may be precisely due to how billing. And also fortunately for us, Charlotte ambiguous, sometimes all-inclusive a term it is. Grimes, a Fellow at the Shorenstein Center in When its theories are brought down to earth, the Spring of 1998 and a veteran reporter for the she shows, the record of civic journalism in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has provided us with practice is decidedly mixed. this discussion paper. This is the first time, to I doubt that Grimes or anyone else believes my knowledge, that a working with they have said the last word on the subject. But a strong record in using the traditional tools of this is a “discussion paper” in the best sense of the trade has stepped back and dispassionately the word: that it will further rather than finish examined the evidence, pro and con, about sup- discussion. It deserves your close attention. plementing if not supplanting those tools with the new ones proposed by civic journalism. Timothy E. Cook Grimes’s examination not only gives us a Adjunct Professor of Public Policy compelling history of the rise of civic journal- John F. Kennedy School of Government ism that raises many questions about both its Harvard University aims and its successes. It is indispensable for setting standards by which the civic journalism Fairleigh Dickinson, Jr. Professor of movement should be judged. She adroitly notes Political Science how much of the popularity of the idea of civic Williams College

2 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? by Charlotte Grimes

“A journalist is the lookout on the bridge of state. He notes the Our map will include the writings of passing sail, the little things of interest that dot the horizon in the movement’s leading philosophers. It will fine weather. He reports the drifting castaways whom the ship include a survey of major published studies can save. He peers through fog and storm to give warning of of civic journalism’s effects so far. It will dangers ahead. He is not thinking of his wages, or of the profits put civic journalism in the larger context of of his owners. He is there to watch over the safety of the people other social, economic and technological forces who trust him.” also reshaping journalism. And it will include —Joseph Pulitzer, 1904 some reflections on what this means for an ordinary journalist working in an extraordinary For nearly eight years now, a controversial time. movement called “civic journalism” has been Right about here, I should give a concise, trying to remake American journalists and their specific definition of civic journalism. I can’t. work. The movement is intentionally amorphous. Its Sometimes it’s known as “public journal- leading advocates decline to define it, for fear ism” or “citizen-based journalism.” It is both a that would limit its evolution. “Public journal- philosophy and a set of practices that rest on a ism is what you find out when you try to do it,” fundamental premise: American public life and says Rosen.3 American journalism are badly broken—and But in general, its advocates hold that journalists must mend both. Its leading theoreti- journalism should be done in a way that invites cian, New York University professor Jay Rosen, citizen participation in shaping news coverage, spells out the new journalists’ mandate this encourages civic engagement—especially in way: “Public journalism calls on the press to elections—and supports communities in solv- help revive civic life and improve civic dia- ing problems. logue—and to fashion a coherent response to the They envision a journalism that would be deepening troubles in our civic climate, most of less conflict-oriented. In politics, it would con- which implicates journalists.”1 centrate more on issues and minimize the Davis “Buzz” Merritt, former editor of the horse-race, particularly from polls. It would Wichita Eagle and its leading advocate inside focus less on extremes in public policy and the profession, says, “It requires a philosophical political debates, and more on middle or com- journey because it is a fundamental change in mon ground. It would get away from a “winners how we conceive our role in life.”2 and losers” framework. It would have more For this paper, we will continue with diverse “voices” in the news. In all of that, civic Merritt’s metaphor of a journey, for which jour- journalism borrows from—but doesn’t acknowl- nalists from Boston to Miami to Peoria to San edge—many women and minorities who have Francisco have boarded the movement’s band- long agitated for similar changes. wagon for a bumpy ride. We will look at where In the last five years, the movement has civic journalism started—and why. We will look gained impressive ground. Civic journalism has at where it has brought us today. And we will become a staple of panel discussions and confer- look at where it seems to be taking us. ences among professors and journalists. It is the Charlotte Grimes was a Fellow at the Shorenstein fastest growing interest group for the Associa- Center in the spring of 1998. For 20 years, she was with tion for Education in Journalism and Mass the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as a reporter and as a Communication, the professional organization national correspondent and in its Washing- for journalism educators. Public broadcasters— ton bureau. She has been a Ferris Professor of Journal- both PBS television and National Public ism at Princeton University and a visiting assistant Radio—have embraced civic journalism’s princi- professor at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Com- ples. Scores of news organizations have adopted munications, Syracuse University. She is now Director many of its techniques. Through 1998, 62 civic of the Semester in Washington Program for the Scripps journalism projects,4 each involving several Howard Foundation. Grimes can be reached at news organizations, have been funded by the [email protected]. Pew Center for Civic Journalism, which serves

Charlotte Grimes 3 as something of a bank for part of the move- time of profound dismay among many journal- ment and as what director Jan Schaffer calls a ists who see their profession beset by lost credi- “megaphone” for civic journalists’ work.5 Schaf- bility, adrift from its core values and battered fer says she sees “a whole civic gang of by ever-changing demands of a volatile industry. reporters” exchanging views on the and It expresses the frustration of many—some hears others bemoan a lost opportunity to pur- journalists, citizens, civic and political leaders, sue civic journalism when they move to tradi- social philosophers—with the public and the tional .6 political system’s apparent inability to resolve But the movement also appalls many in society’s intractable problems. journalism. Editors of the Washington Post and And at its heart, civic journalism is part of the New York Times have blasted civic journal- the ancient American argument about the press’ ism as a threat to news organizations’ indepen- role, mission and purpose in our . dence and impartiality. Many reporters remain In 1904, Joseph Pulitzer, who helped create deeply suspicious and resentful of what they journalism schools to professionalize the craft, see as restraints on their autonomy, more described what’s become a basic tenet of tradi- infringements in the by marketers, tional journalism by calling for “an able, disin- and misguided management attempts to replace terested, public-spirited press.” For many of substance with gimmicks. today’s traditionalists, the tenet underlies the And many managers even doubt civic journal- familiar visions of the journalists’ biggest jobs: ism’s worth. Watchdog of government and others with In a survey of 554 media executives in power. Witness to significant events. Record- 1997, partly sponsored by the Associated Press keeper of public life. Gatherer and conveyor of Managing Editors, civic journalism did not fare information on which the public could base well as a helpful tool: Only 7.4 percent of decisions—from choosing a restaurant to elect- respondents strongly agreed that civic journal- ing a president to going to war. In a recent book ism had become “an important way for many called “News Is a Verb,” New York Post colum- news organizations to ‘reconnect’ with their nist, editor and novelist Pete Hamill likened the alienated communities” and 34.4 percent journalist to a tribe’s scouts who “carry the strongly disagreed. Only 14.1 percent strongly torch to the back of the cave and tell the others agreed that better reporting and coverage came what is there in the darkness.”8 from having newspapers sponsor “citizens’ In the traditionalist view, journalism per- juries” or “citizens’ forums”—trademark civic forms those functions best when it sticks to journalism techniques—for the community to Pulitzer’s concept of a “disinterested” press. discuss important issues, while 33 percent The traditional concepts of objectivity, neutral- strongly disagreed. The executives were almost ity, impartiality stem from that ideal. From it equally divided—34.8 percent strongly agreeing; too comes the deep concern with conflicts of 33.9 percent strongly disagreeing—on the idea interest. Judges recuse themselves from cases in that civic journalists “cross the line between which they have a personal stake so that their reporting and advocacy—putting journalism’s rulings will not be suspect. Elected officials ebbing credibility in further peril.” And 41 often put their personal finances in blind trusts percent strongly agreed—compared to 32.7 per- so that their public policy decisions are distinct cent who strongly disagreed—that “‘public jour- from private gain. And journalists traditionally nalism’ is little more than boosterism . . . a try to separate their personal relationships from gimmick to make publishers feel better about what they cover so their reporting can be more themselves.”7 independent. Why has civic journalism resonated so Traditional journalists often hope their strongly with some? Why are many other jour- work has some effect, usually on behalf of the nalists so fiercely opposed? public. The submission letters for journalism Some key points about its appeal and its awards would be incomplete without the obliga- controversy: Civic journalism reflects a broader tory passage that begins, “As a result of our social movement aimed at “civic renewal” reporting . . .” and continues with a laundry list throughout American politics and public life. It of achievements. Often we try to assess our flowed directly out of what’s been called “con- effects by looking at government, public policy, sumer-driven” journalism inspired by news politicians, corporations. Were any laws executives’ fears about declining news audi- changed? Were any corrupt officials indicted or ences, especially for newspapers. It arrived at a fired? Did we catch any crooks? Was anybody—

4 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? rape victims, the elderly in nursing homes, percent of eligible voters in the 1996 presiden- neighbors of a toxic waste dump—helped? tial election, the lowest turnout since 1924. Sometimes we judge our results by reac- In that grim world view, America is tion from our audiences. Did we get letters to evolving into a nation of couch potatoes, Nin- the editor, phone calls, requests for reprints? tendo nerds, anonymous talk-show callers and Did viewers offer their homes to the abandoned self-absorbed individualists who would rather— baby featured on the 6 o’clock news? When the in Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam’s work draws no response from institutions or the vivid phrase—go “bowling alone.” public, reporters and editors sometimes feel like For civic journalists, editor Merritt paints voices shouting in the wilderness. Is anyone the picture this way: “Our formal politics, paying attention? Does that matter? which is only one part of public life, is sodden Not necessarily, suggests press scholar and largely ineffective. Many Americans view it Michael Schudson. “The news serves a vital as being a world apart from their realities, democratic function whether in a given instance already subjected to a hostile takeover by spe- anyone out there is listening or not,” writes cial interests and professional politicians. The Schudson. “The news constructs a symbolic other part of public life—our civic ethic—is world that has a kind of priority, a certification largely inward-looking, as Americans isolate of legitimate importance. And that symbolic themselves in their own narrow concerns and world, putatively and practically, in its easy seek safety and solace in insular communities availability, in its cheap, quotidien, throw-away and activities.”12 material becomes the property of us all. That is To many, including civic journalists, the a lesson in democracy itself. It makes the news press gets much of the blame. An often cited a resource when people are ready to take politi- statistic from a 1994 Times Mirror poll puts 71 cal action. . . .”9 percent of Americans agreeing that the news In 1956, in a speech called “A Tradition of media “stand in the way of society solving its Conscience,” the third Joseph Pulitzer put the problems.” Many scholars, civic journalism traditional role of the press and its relationship advocates, and critics inside and outside the to the public even more simply: “Affected with press accuse journalists of nurturing citizens’ the public interest and protected by the First disengagement, alienation and cynicism by the Amendment,” said Pulitzer, “the press performs way we do our jobs. Horse-race coverage of a solemn duty when it undertakes to inform a political campaigns, say critics, treats citizens free people.” as spectators to sport. For journalists, the Wrong, say civic journalists. The tradi- median income is about $31,000 a year.13 But tional view of the public and the press, they say, increasingly they are seen as arrogant, elitist, is outdated and incomplete. Rosen, the theoreti- and disconnected from other Americans.14 cian, frames the issue this way: “‘The public,’ in Civic journalists forge links among those whose name all journalists ply their trade, is social ills, performance of the press and the long best understood as an achievement of good jour- steady decline in newspaper circulation and net- nalism—its intended outcome rather than its work viewership. Merritt of the Wichita Eagle assumed audience.”10 puts the case bluntly: “It is no coincidence that In that shape, the civic journalism philoso- the decline in journalism and the decline in phy calls on journalists to form—rather than public life have happened at the same time. In merely inform—the public. modern society, they are codependent: Public For their part in the argument on the press’ life needs the information and perspective that purpose, civic journalism advocates draw on journalism can provide, and journalism needs a contemporary scholarship suggesting the public viable public life because without one, there is sphere is disappearing and on a widespread no need for journalism.”15 sense that our social fabric is badly frayed. Pub- Advocates like Merritt and Rosen argue lic opinion polls show that Americans distrust that the purpose of journalism is to “help public government, our neighbors and certainly the life go well.”16 Others put the goal this way: press. Membership in many civic organizations “Civic Journalism is intended to involve citi- is shrinking. Voting—once the privilege of the zens in their communities, and to promote in landed gentry, the great prize of suffragists and them normative attitudes that are supportive of civil rights activists—seems less attractive to civic participation,” write scholars Steven many citizens than a sale at their favorite Chaffee, Michael McDevitt and Esther Thorson. department store.11 It appealed to only 49 They add, “The idealized citizen that Civic

Charlotte Grimes 5 Journalism hopes to create is a thinking person, in which editors were “processors” and actively engaged in community issues, and hold- reporters were “content providers.”20 ing socially functional attitudes that are consis- Despite all of that, news executives still face tent with participation rather than cynical views a grim reality: The frenetic changes have failed. of local political processes.”17 The audience for news is as elusive than ever. That presumes considerable power for the Enter the civic journalists. press, charging journalists with the rather mind- boggling responsibility of determining just what Staking a Claim to the High Road: Where, makes a “thinking person” and “socially func- When, How and Why the Journey Began tional attitudes.” To achieve the goal, civic jour- The defining event for civic journalism is nalism sets reporters and editors whole new usually pinned to the 1988 presidential cam- tasks. It is no longer enough, say civic journal- paign, with its fixation on horse-race polls and ism advocates, to gather, report and explain the focus on Gary Hart’s adultery, George Bush’s vis- news. Now journalists may need to “convene” its to flag factories and Willie Horton ads, and their communities in public discussions of trou- Michael Dukakis’ ride in a tank. The campaign blesome issues, perhaps in town-hall meetings was a triumph of trivia, sleaze and manipulation. or in citizens’ views in the news media. And it provoked an outburst of soul-searching by Merritt urges journalists to become “fair- many journalists on their role in it. minded participants in public life rather than David Broder—a Pulitzer Prize winner, detached observers.”18 He and Rosen maintain dean of political reporters, an admired, thought- that journalists need not give up their indepen- ful man—summed up the feelings of many by dence, nor become partisans. But they call for a calling for a change in political reporting away new kind of press activism. “Public journalism from the “game” it had largely become. proposes a more dramatic change: a new com- “We have to try to distance ourselves from pact between journalists and the publics they the people that we write about—the politicians serve, in which both parties recognize the duty and their political consultants—and move our- of the press occasionally to intervene (sic) in selves closer to the people that we write for— public life in the interest of strengthening civic the voters and the potential voters,” Broder said culture,” says Rosen.19 in a 1991 speech in Riverside, California. For many in journalism, several things now But by 1991, in fact, the groundwork for give all of that, as the social scientists say, the civic journalism was largely laid. Its philoso- salience: Fear—panic, even—about the shrinking phy was taking firm shape. And most of the audience for news. Anxiety about the meltdown major figures who would be its driving force—as in the press’ credibility with the public. The 24- well as account for much of the controversy— hour news cycle that demands something—any- were well into their roles. Among them: thing!—to fill it. Fierce competition from the • Rosen, the theoretician, who began presenting Internet, specialty publications and cable televi- his ideas to gatherings of journalists in 1989.21 sion. The shift in the 1970s toward widespread • The Kettering Foundation, which worked with use of market surveys, polls and focus groups in Rosen and nurtured the growing idea of con- what’s called “customer-driven” or “market-dri- nections among civic renewal, healthier poli- ven” journalism. Media mergers and Wall Street tics and a civic-minded press. pressure for continuing double-digit profits. Civic journalists often call their efforts • The late James K. Batten, a respected news- “an experiment.” But, in fact, under market-dri- man who became the CEO of the Knight Rid- ven journalism, news organizations have been der chain in 1988. experimenting madly for 20 years. Through the For its first few years, civic journalism 1980s and into the ’90s, we have furiously and remained largely on the periphery of journal- often reinvented ourselves with more color, ism’s soul-searching. By and large, it was still graphics, polished packages of visuals. Follow- the intellectual property of academics and social ing market surveys, we have offered shorter philosophers who discussed its concepts at sem- stories, explanatory stories, local stories, “news inars. And it lacked a catalyst to spread its mes- you can use” and “.” Only a sage throughout . A brief chronology few years ago, managers of corporations that of civic journalism’s evolution: stretched across technologies—print, television 1988: Quite apart from the dismal presiden- and on-line—redefined themselves out of news tial campaign reporting, Knight Ridder’s Batten altogether and into the “information business” confronts an increasingly familiar journalism fear:

6 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? bleak prospects in circulation and readership. Bat- brought energy, commitment and focus to the ten responds by launching an intense campaign for amorphous academic discussion. On a practical what he called “customer obsession.”22 level, they also gave the movement two key Far from both national politics and the ingredients: Muscle and money. Both Batten and Knight Ridder home office, editor Jack Swift of Pew’s roles also colored some of the controversy the chain’s paper, the Ledger-Enquirer, in around civic journalism. Columbus, Georgia, independently undertakes For his part, Batten opened the Knight Rid- what would become known as civic journalism’s der chain as civic journalism laboratories. One first project. analysis of the movement’s projects followed by 1989: Batten parses market surveys that the Project on Public Life and the Press—a pro- show a link between people feeling connected to gram at New York University headed by Rosen their communities and their propensity to read and funded partly by the Knight Foundation— newspapers. He begins to talk less about “con- found that of 35 news organizations doing civic sumer obsession” and more about “ projects by the end of 1994, 42 per- connectedness.” He is evidently intrigued by the cent of them were at Knight Ridder papers.24 views of New York University professor Rosen, In its role as “megaphone,” as director who this year gives his first talk to journalists— Schaffer calls it, the Pew Center has run 25 at an Associated Press Managing Editors confer- workshops since 1993. It distributes videos on ence—in which he urges editors to take to heart civic journalism philosophy and practice. It has ’s advice in the 1920s that newspa- a state-of-the-art web site that makes easily pers needed to be embedded in their communi- available its formidable collection of publica- ties’ social networks. tions, examples and how-to guides on civic jour- 1990: The Kettering Foundation begins nalism. It awards the $25,000 James K. Batten sponsoring a series of discussions on citizenship, Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism, one of democracy and the press. These would provide a the profession’s richest prizes. core of the movement’s philosophy. The semi- And it funds projects by news organiza- nars also brought together Rosen and Merritt, tions. Money from Pew, for example, has paid who would become a team in promoting civic for polls by news organizations to find out citi- journalism’s themes. Batten, pursuing the idea zens’ concerns, salaries for “community coordi- of community connections for newspapers, nators” who work in newsrooms and with urges Knight Ridder corporate executives to look neighborhoods, rent on an apartment for a for new ways to cover elections based on the reporter temporarily living in and reporting on a emerging tenets of civic journalism. Merritt vol- poor neighborhood, and the logistics for a vari- unteers the Wichita Eagle. ety of public forums. For example, the local pub- 1991–92: A handful of other newspapers— lic radio station, KERA-90, in Arlington, Texas, among them the Wisconsin State Journal in has $20,000 from Pew to follow a city planning Madison and the Charlotte Observer in North effort. The station is sponsoring neighborhood Carolina—begin reshaping their coverage of elec- forums and doing a survey of residents’ attitudes tions and local issues with the emerging civic and civic participation. The station “was trying journalism techniques. to bring citizens into their government and the 1993: Civic journalism gets its “Big Mo,” planning process,” said Schaffer in an interview. as political reporters describe the burst of She declined in an interview to say how momentum when a candidate’s campaign takes much money the Pew Center has given to news off. Batten triggers the interest of the Pew Chari- organizations. “A lot of our funding goes to con- table Trusts, a -based foundation vening of citizens in some civic space,” Schaffer which had been looking for ways to invest in said. She objects to describing the funding as an civic renewal.23 The foundation sets up the Pew investment in a style of coverage as making Center for Civic Journalism, with $3.6 million. Pew’s involvement sound “sinister.” Said Schaf- Through 1999, the Center will have a total of fer, “It suggests or can be construed that Pew is $7.9 million to operate and to promote civic telling people what to cover.” The Center, she journalism. said, “won’t pay for a reporter’s time.” 1994: Civic journalism has become a band- But the funding may shape how a reporter wagon, with projects in Charlotte, Madison, San spends her or his time. Reporters frequently are Francisco, Boston, Seattle, to name a few. detailed to cover the town hall meetings their The roles of Batten and the Pew Center news organizations sponsor with Pew money. were crucial for the movement’s growth. Both They develop the stories based on the polls paid

Charlotte Grimes 7 for by Pew. They file the reports to the alliances lashed out at “journalistic transients.” Said of news organizations—print and broadcast— Batten, “Their eyes are on the next and bigger that share the projects funded by Pew. town, the next rung up the ladder. . . . There is The Pew Center’s success is a sharp depar- always the temptation to make their byline files ture from journalistic traditions. Most reputable a little more glittering at the expense of people news organizations usually refuse to take out- and institutions they will never see again.”26 side money. Many have policies against accept- The theme lingers. In a 1997 report on civic ing even airfare or other support. Exceptions are journalism projects, Gil Thelen, then-editor of rare and usually require extraordinary circum- The State in Columbia, South Carolina, stances and lengthy in-house soul-searching acknowledged the newsroom resistance and over whether the news organization’s indepen- blamed it on ambitious regional journalists aping dence is compromised. Some journalists, the New York Times and Washington Post. pinched by budget cuts and profit margins, see “What’s really hurting this is the way the elite the non-profit Pew Center as an acceptable press is smashing around anything that smacks of money to pursue worthwhile coverage. of experimentation,” said Thelen. “And a lot of Others adamantly object. the people in my newsroom want to work for “Would newspapers who take Pew money them.” He added, “Everybody defers to them. be willing to take money or put in their Maybe that’s the source of the resistance.”27 newsrooms ‘coordinators’ paid by General Elec- That’s the grand-scale, big-picture view of tric, say, or the United States Information where the civic journalism journey started. But Agency?” as Michael Gartner, former president it also has a more mundane beginning with two of NBC News and now editor of the Ames, editors at Knight Ridder papers wrestling with Iowa, Daily Tribune, poses the concern. “What’s more parochial concerns and with a familiar the difference? Why is Pew money somehow frustration. not tainted?”25 One was Buzz Merritt, who in 1990 found As it moved into newsrooms, civic journal- himself facing the “dreary enough prospect” of ism sometimes stirred tension between man- guiding the Wichita Eagle through covering yet agers and reporters. Many reporters balked at another issueless campaign for the Kansas gov- civic journalism’s heavy reliance on polls, focus ernor’s office. He decided he couldn’t do it. In a groups and surveys to shape coverage according column for the Eagle, he spelled out what has to citizens’ concerns. To many, it smacked of the since become a key part of movement’s ratio- “consumer-driven” journalism promoted early nale: “I announce,” he wrote, “that the Eagle on by Batten and other executives who had has a strong bias. The bias is that we believe the argued that news was no different from any voters are entitled to have the candidates talk other product and must be tailored to what cus- about the issues in depth. . . . I am perfectly tomers said they wanted. Some reporters fear comfortable defending the notion that you as a that civic journalism’s commitment to encourag- voter have the right to know what the candi- ing civic engagement pushes them into uneasy dates intend to do once in office.”28 alliances with a community’s powerbrokers. The column harked back to an age-old Others resent its tendency toward tightly pack- journalistic tradition that a newspaper is, in aged stories that often adopt a formulaic effect, acting on behalf of citizens. What would template. set apart the Eagle and later civic journalism The rank-and-file resistance has drawn projects is their method. sharp retorts from some managers, who dismiss The other editor was Jack Swift of the the critical reporters’ concerns as mere personal Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia, who, it ambition. Some of the management criticism turned out, was ahead of his time. In 1988, the has been ironic. Knight Ridder and other chains, year of the turning-point Bush-Dukakis cam- for example, often shift executives among their paign, Swift’s paper published the fruits of an different papers, moving editors in and out of exhaustive 13-month reporting effort on an communities. Merritt, for example, was a corpo- “Agenda for Progress” for Columbus. It was a rate transplant to the Wichita Eagle in a Knight detailed examination of community concerns— Ridder career that included stints in North Car- from transportation to race relations—and fea- olina, Florida and Washington, D.C. tured recommendations for a better future. It But, in pitching civic journalism as an drew little reaction. Until Jack Swift decided antidote to newsrooms “disconnected” from he’d had enough. As he saw it, the issues were their communities, Knight Ridder CEO Batten too important to sink quietly in evident public

8 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? apathy. His response became civic journalism’s From one of those colleagues, Billy Winn, first project. comes a view that is more ambivalent, one that In what would become a pattern for much of captures much of where the movement stands civic journalism, Swift set about creating a com- today. In “Mixed News,” a 1997 book of essays munity task force of which he was a member. He and reflections on the civic journalism debate, hosted backyard barbecues for community leaders Winn, who worked closely with Swift on the and his paper’s journalists. He deployed the paper’s project, describes himself as a supporter of much resources into a campaign of town hall meetings, of what civic journalism tries to accomplish— civic networking and relentless coverage. Repor- the diversity of voices, public-spirited reporting. ters wrote about the project for nearly two years. He just doesn’t see it as very new. “We did a lot Swift’s activism also echoed a old tradi- more when I first came into journalism in the tion—the turn-of-the-century newspaper crusades ’60s,” he says. He is not wild about the fascina- of the press barons when Pulitzer and Hearst tion from academics who “have all analyzed it happily threw their weight around with abandon to death.” And in what’s become a frequent cri- and no one cared a tinker’s damn about conflicts tique among many reporters, he adds: “Public of interest or abuse of press power. But this is a journalism projects have become a crutch for different era. Swift drew sharp criticism from people who don’t know their community. It’s an other journalists, many of whom saw his action excuse to do structured projects that are heavy as a dangerous foray into politics, an ethical on planning and teamwork, but short on knowl- minefield and collusion with local authorities. edge, talent and genuine concern for the com- Staff morale sank. Some of his reporters tried to munity. They are corporate buzz words.” flee to other newspapers. An in-house Knight “Sometimes,” said Winn, “I think public Ridder staff survey was scalding about Swift. journalism is just an attempt to replace talent.” For the two pioneers—Merritt and Swift— of civic journalism, the outcomes could not Taking Steps On the Journey: What Makes have been more different. Merritt, of course, a Civic Journalism Project? became the movement’s emblematic editor, Without a definition from its leading fig- author of a book about the journey, frequent ures, civic journalism largely has been identified partner with Rosen the theoretician as accom- with a set of practices. Among them: plished spokesmen for the movement. • Sponsoring and covering town-hall style meet- For Swift’s part, Columbus eventually ings, public forums, candidate debates and developed a long-range plan for its future. Some “civic exercises” such as panels of citizens to of his colleagues thought the effort had brought try their hand at balancing state or local bud- new voices—the middle class and women gets or mock juries to weigh decisions in local among them—into the newspages. But many economic or development controversies. readers had wearied of the drumbeat. Staff morale remained low and the journalistic con- • Using “community coordinators,” often paid troversy high. Swift was under many pressures. for by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, to His friend and colleague, Billy Winn, says the organize the events. stress from work was not Swift’s only problem. • Shaping coverage around what’s often called a But on November 19, 1990, Jack Swift put a bul- “citizens’ agenda” of concerns derived from let through his head.29 polls, surveys and focus groups. From the perspective of the movement’s • Featuring real people—dubbed “RPs” by irrev- advocates, the two editors had staked a claim erent reporters—and their views throughout on the high road for civic journalism: Merritt the news, from quoting them in stories rather by pledging a pursuit of answers from politi- than “experts” to posing their questions to cians on behalf of citizens, Swift by leading his candidates and using them as questioners in community into action. “What Jack Swift and political debates. his colleagues also did was reconstrue the posi- tion of the journalist within politics,” Rosen • Forming “media alliances” of print, television wrote in Quill in 1992. “Instead of and broadcast to share stories and sometimes standing outside the political community, and even reporters, to promote each organization’s reporting on its pathologies, they took up resi- contribution and to saturate a market or dence within its borders. This was a coura- region with coverage. geous move that made a difference to the • “Convening” community groups, leaders or citizens of Columbus.” ordinary citizens to solve problems.

Charlotte Grimes 9 Some newspapers turn over space for citi- But the Observer was scorched by critics zens to tell their own stories. Some train staff in and out of the press for its coverage of the members in conflict resolution techniques and 1996 election as part of a state-wide project send them out as “facilitators” in resolving called “Your Voice, Your Vote.” In classic civic community disputes. Some sponsor summits journalism style, the Observer joined a media among rival gangs to hammer out truces. alliance of 14 other news organizations—six Two vivid examples of civic journalism newspapers and nine broadcasters altogether— projects—and some of their controversy—come to draw up a “citizens’ agenda” by polling citi- from Charlotte, North Carolina, and Madison, zens about their concerns, create packages of Wisconsin. stories on issues that each partner could edit In North Carolina, the Charlotte and supplement, and share in-depth interviews Observer’s “Taking Back Our Neighborhoods” with the major candidates. The election project has become Exhibit A for civic journal- included a rematch between Senator Jesse ism success. The city was shocked by the shoot- Helms, a conservative Republican, and Democ- ing deaths of two police officers in 1993. News ratic challenger Harvey Gantt, an African- editor Jennie Buckner was looking for ways to American. Their first contest was notorious for follow-up on violent crime “that wouldn’t just a Helms ad that played to racial and economic feed fear” when a Knight Ridder executive called fears by featuring a black hand seeming to take soliciting ideas to put forward to the just-created a job offer out of a white hand. Pew Center for Civic Journalism. The paper had The coalition—and the Observer in partic- already adopted civic journalism techniques for ular—came under heavy attack in stories by the elections in its “Your Vote in ’92” coverage. Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Wall Buckner decided to try the method with crime.30 Street Journal, the Washington Post and New With financial help from the Pew Center, Yorker magazine.31 Gantt’s campaign manager the Observer launched what would become an charged that the reporting glossed over racial 18-month long, in-depth look at 10 central city issues and seldom covered Gantt campaign neighborhoods that were home to many African- events. Helms refused to undergo the coalition’s Americans plagued by crime, slum landlords and lengthy interviews and beat Gantt easily. The poor city services. The paper used computers to coverage, critics said, stuck so firmly to its pinpoint crime patterns. It built a partnership chart of pre-planned issues that it ignored the with local broadcasters, including a commercial ebb and tide of the campaigns. television station and two radio stations with For example, the Washington Post broke large audiences among African-Americans. It front-page revelations that foreign countries hired a community coordinator—herself an were big donors to a foundation set up to honor African-American—who orchestrated the early Helms, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations meetings between reporters and groups of resi- Committee. Taiwan had pitched in $225,000; dents, chivvied along residents to keep them Kuwait gave $100,000. But the story got short involved, networked with local groups, and shrift in North Carolina, where the usually com- remains something of the paper’s “goodwill” petitive Charlotte Observer and the News & ambassador to the neighborhoods. Observer of Raleigh both chose to run versions The paper sponsored meetings in each of the Post story inside rather than immediately neighborhood for residents to talk about their assigning their own reporters to pursue it. problems, meet with experts and agencies. It Observer editors have defended their elec- drew up a “needs” list for each neighborhood. It tion coverage, denying that the lapse with for- enlisted the local United Way to help coordinate eign contributions had anything to do with civic public response, including the 700 individuals or journalism. The project “improved our cover- groups who greeted the series with offers of help. age,” Rick Thames, public editor and project It focused on solutions as well as the problems. coordinator at the Observer, told the Boston Criticism of “Taking Back Our Neighbor- Globe. “We were able to draw candidates out on hoods” has been mild, focused mostly on the every issue our polling told us people cared propriety of Pew funding and doubt about about, and we wrote about it.”32 whether the community coordinator was neces- In civic journalism efforts in Wisconsin, sary. The project was a finalist for a Pulitzer The State Journal of Madison is the print part- Prize in public service and it is generally seen as ner in an ongoing enterprise called “We The a strong example of good enterprise reporting, People/Wisconsin.” Its media alliance also with or without civic journalism techniques. includes a commercial television station, eight

10 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? public television stations, 11 public radio sta- weigh in with tons of newsprint. Says Denton, tions, and a public relations company that han- “We got action.”35 dles logistics and fundraising for “We The As civic journalists have developed their People” events. The project gets funding from coverage techniques, many of their practices the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, Miller have raised doubt, alarm and dismay. Potential Brewing Company, Wisconsin Manufacturers & conflicts of interest, which threaten already frag- Commerce, and The Wisconsin Education Asso- ile credibility, seem to blossom in much of civic ciation Council.33 journalism. Alliances with civic and business Since 1992, “We The People” has spon- groups put news organizations’ independence at sored a series of candidate debates, town-hall- risk. Sponsoring—and covering—their town-hall style meetings, and a series of civic exercises meetings, task forces and community discussion such as sessions for citizens to draft their own groups easily translate into journalists generat- versions of the state budget and a mock trial of ing their own news. Traditional journalists health care reform proposals. Its broadcasts remind that management’s pet projects become often draw large television audiences and it’s so sacred cows that too often get more, and popular among local leaders that they use the sweeter, coverage than they deserve. project name as a verb for seeking public expo- Civic journalism’s skeptics “see a front sure, as in “Let’s ‘We-The-People’ this issue.” page carrying a concertedly cheery account of One of its efforts—a televised town hall meeting the town-hall meeting the paper sponsored the on land use—won some credit for an upset vic- night before,” as Geneva Overholser, former tory by land-use control advocates in a county ombudswoman for the Washington Post, board election.34 summed up the worry.36 By and large, “We The People” is seen as The “citizens’ agenda” of concerns crafted one of civic journalism’s “deliberative” projects, from polls also raises the questions, Which citi- better at generating some community discussion zens? And which agenda? than action. But at The State Journal, editor Even some friendly observers of civic jour- Frank Denton now takes a more activist stance, nalism caution that the poll-driven approach has reminiscent of Jack Swift in Columbus, Georgia. serious flaws. It presumes that “the majority is Denton prefers the phrase “public journal- right,” says Philip E. Meyer, a Knight Professor ism”—as do movement leaders Merritt and of Journalism at the University of North Car- Rosen—because, he says, it “pulls the public olina-Chapel Hill, who says he sympathizes into solving problems identified by the report- with the movement. He warns that the typical ing.” In two of the paper’s projects—one on city citizens’ agenda techniques overlook subtleties development and another on its schools—the and contradictions in public opinion, ignores pull worked like this: minority views and forecloses public debate The paper’s reporters did their groundwork around emerging concerns. It also fails a basic to put together their stories. “But our journal- journalistic obligation to alert the public to ism did not stop at the reader’s doorstep,” as things—like looming war with Iraq—that may Denton describes it. “We used our leadership to soon affect it. Attending to only what the public convene the city’s top leaders and experts.” The already knows and cares about, says Meyer, is reporters and editors showed their unpublished akin to an attitude of “don’t disturb the sleeping work. Community leaders suggested changes, beast.”37 new approaches, other questions to explore. The pervasive presence of “media alli- Denton stresses that the paper kept control of ances” create a disturbing vision of news the reporting and that the revamped stories still monopolies. Supporters say the alliances simply showed the problems vividly: a growing gap try to maximize each medium’s strengths. They between white and minority students in the follow communications scholars’ findings that schools project, a need for long-range planning television gets the public’s attention and news- for jobs in the city development series. When papers give understanding. the reporting was done, he adds, the paper But Ben Bagdikian, who has long warned brought the leaders back together “and pushed against media monopolies, suggests that the them to agree, then and there, on steps toward alliances keep news organizations from building solutions.” The leaders complied. in-house expertise and from assuming responsi- Many school officials have praised the bility for the distinctive interests of their own project. The mayor has expressed discomfort at communities. Shared stories from a collective sitting at the table with journalists who can are by necessity generic and homogenized.

Charlotte Grimes 11 What’s important to citizens of Charlotte, for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot—three prominent example, may not be at all important in Raleigh. civic journalism newspapers—had seen “mod- Worse, the alliances eventually could erode pub- est” circulation increases. But the Wichita lic confidence. “When the organizations begin to Eagle, one of the longest-running and home of come together,” warns Bagdikian, “it comes very leading advocate Buzz Merritt, had lost circula- close to what looks like a cartel.”38 tion. And voter turnout remains dismal, with And in a contradiction to civic journal- fewer than half of Americans going to the polls ism’s interest in promoting diversity in the in 1996 in the poorest showing since 1924. news, the alliances mean fewer voices and less Among the recent major studies of civic competition. Paul McMasters, the First Amend- journalism’s other effects are published work ment ombudsman at The Freedom Forum, puts from these teams of researchers or companies: the problem this way: “Is the public interest • Philip Meyer, Knight Professor of Journalism better served by a diversity of coverage or by at the University of North Carolina-Chapel former competitors joined together for common Hill; and Deborah Potter, a faculty member of coverage? The firmly democratic concept that the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Their truth arrives in several pieces from several quar- 20-county comparisons of 1996 election cover- ters gets lost in the public journalists’ rush to age was funded by the Poynter Institute. make democracy work rather than to report on • Esther Thorson, associate dean at the Univer- its workings.”39 sity of Missouri School of Journalism, and Looking for Results: Where Are We Now Frank Denton, editor of the Wisconsin State on the Journey? Journal. Theirs is one of several So, is civic journalism making democracy assessments of the ongoing “We The Peo- The work? After nearly eight years and scores of pro- ple/Wisconsin” project that includes State Journal. jects and experiments across the country, has it—as its philosophers and advocates urged— • Thorson and Lewis A. Friedland, a professor in revived civic life? Has it—in an implicit the journalism and mass communications promise to boost newspapers’ circulation and school at the University of Wisconsin-Madi- television viewership—created new “publics” son. Both are advocates for civic for news? journalism. The short answer: The jury is still out on • Frederick Schneiders Research, an indepen- much of civic journalism’s ambitions. dent polling firm in Washington. Communication scholars caution that • David Blomquist, public affairs editor of The media effects are slow and selective. Cause and Record in Bergen County, New Jersey; and effect relationships are especially difficult to Cliff Zukin, a professor at the Eagleton Insti- untangle. But some researchers see signs that tute of Politics at Rutgers University. citizens may learn more about issues and candi- dates, think a little more highly of the news All but Meyer and Potter’s study were at media, and have more of what’s called “social least partly funded by the Pew Center for Civic capital”—a collection of civic assets ranging Journalism or the Pew Charitable Trusts. from trust in each other to ways to work Among their major findings: together—in places where civic journalism has a Public response history. At least one study challenges the move- Like top-notch traditional journalism, ment’s conventional wisdom that horse-race some civic journalism projects generate impres- polls distract and alienate citizens. Another sive public response. Some examples: study paints a portrait of one large-scale project In Charlotte, North Carolina, the Char- as a stunning failure. lotte Observer’s 1994 series, “Taking Back Our For their part, civic journalism supporters Neighborhoods,” on the problems and needs of say it’s too early to expect concrete results on central-city neighborhoods inspired 700 groups the decades-long decline of newspaper circula- and individuals to volunteer, helped a neighbor- tion and newscast viewership or on voter hood Crime Watch program quadruple its mem- turnout, the most obvious measure of civic bership, and strengthened a network of local engagement. The few clues about newspaper cir- services and community organizations. In a San culation are murky. The New York Times Francisco-based project, “Voice of the Voter,” reported in 1996, for example, that the Char- 40,000 Californians sent in voter registration lotte Observer, the Wisconsin State Journal and forms printed in newspapers. In Akron, Ohio,

12 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? the Beacon Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for a those surveyed in the strongest civic journalism project on race that, among other things, markets gave the right answers to questions prompted 22,000 people to mail in pledges “to about candidates and issues, compared to 11 work for” better race relations. percent in the others. Public awareness But Potter and Meyer say they cannot account for the difference by anything that hap- In the common problem for news these pened during the campaign. Knowledge and days, civic journalists struggle to get public learning, like trusting the news media, were not attention. Long-running projects do best, often linked to coverage content but only to the news with their audiences almost equally divided media’s intent to do civic journalism. This is among those who are aware of them and those especially mysterious since both civic and many who are not. But short-term projects—even traditional journalists have increasingly focused intensive ones, like election coverage—may their campaign coverage on issues in the elec- barely register on public consciousness. tion. But the amount of issue coverage had no In Wisconsin, for example, a broad-based effect at all on what citizens knew and learned. coalition—including the Wisconsin State Jour- “The effect is not just insignificant,” say Meyer nal in Madison, a public relations firm, and and Potter, “it is about as close to zero as it is broadcasters—has sponsored 16 projects since possible to get.” 1992 under the logo of “We The People/Wiscon- They suggest the explanation may lie in sin.” In surveys, between 40 and 53 percent of pre-election efforts by the news media or per- those polled recognized the name without haps some cultural factors in both the commu- prompting. nities and their news media. The relationship But in North Carolina, after a controver- between the two may have been friendlier sial state-wide election project called “Your even before the news media adopted civic Voice, Your Vote” in 1996, only 25 percent in journalism. one poll by Schneiders Research said they rec- In their studies, Thorson, Friedland and ognized the project even with cues from the Denton also report connections between citi- pollsters. Without the prompting, only 13 per- zens’ knowledge of issues. In one survey, large cent recognized it. But as Meyer of UNC points majorities of those aware of projects in Madison, out, that’s barely above what pollsters call the Charlotte, San Francisco and Binghamton, New “noise level,” where 10 percent of North Car- York, agreed when asked about “having a better olinians polled said they recognized the name of idea about problems” in their communities. In a fictitious political candidate. And in San Fran- the study of Dane County around Madison, cisco, only 19 percent of those surveyed recog- Thorson and Denton report that “We The Peo- nized a similar election project without cues ple” increased people’s confidence in and their from pollsters. actual knowledge of “We The People.” A singular exception in getting public Communication scholars caution that awareness is the Charlotte Observer’s “Taking phrasing of poll questions can trigger a “polite- Back Our Neighborhoods” project, an 18-month ness” response from respondents who discern exhaustive look at central city districts. In one what surveyors want to hear. But, in an inter- survey, 81 percent recognized it by name alone view, Thorson said the teams guarded against without cues from pollsters. that by, among other things, testing for actual Knowledge of issues and candidates knowledge of the project’s content.40 In a small bright spot for the movement, civic journalism seems to have a relationship Civic participation with how much citizens know and learn about Here the researchers sharply divide. Meyer issues and candidates. But how and why are a and Potter found none. Citizens in places where mystery. civic journalism was practiced were no more In a 20-county study, researchers Philip likely to talk about politics, try to persuade oth- Meyer and Deborah Potter compared results ers to vote in a certain way or to vote them- between those markets where the news organi- selves. “All of the effects found thus far have zations intended to do what they call “citizen- been inside the citizens’ heads,” they conclude. based” journalism and those that didn’t. “Citizen-based journalism has moved their atti- Citizens in places where journalists had a “high tudes but not their feet.” intent” to do civic journalism, learned more The teams of Thorson, Friedland and during the campaign. At its end, 21 percent of Denton often found what they see as strong

Charlotte Grimes 13 signs of enhanced civic participation. Survey action or being active leads people to pay atten- respondents often said the projects made them tion to civic journalism.” feel “encouraged” to vote, to work on neighbor- The researchers continue to look at the hood problems, and had them “thinking more cause-and-effect relationship and Thorson said about politics.” they see signs that civic journalism is a cause of Other findings, though, make clear how social capital. hard it is to turn the feelings into action. “We Political cynicism The People,” for example, often draws large tele- Here the verdict seems unanimous: No help. vision audiences and some town hall or other In their published work, Thorson, Friedland and meetings have had crowds of up to 400. But Denton do not look directly at whether civic another assessment—a joint report from the Pew journalism lessens cynicism. Instead, they Center and the Poynter Institute called “Civic report that citizens aware of civic journalism Journalism: Six Case Studies”—described projects “feel more strongly that they should turnout for the Wisconsin events as “often low.” vote in every election.” After four years and 12 projects, the report calcu- Meyer and Potter found what they call a lated that more than 2,000 Wisconsin citizens “trace” of lower cynicism in the month of the had participated in “We The People” events. The election, but they attribute it to the study itself. project’s partners, says the joint report “have had By asking about cynicism, researchers evidently to learn to judge success not by the numbers, triggered citizens to think more about it and but by the quality of the discussion.” that “re-interview effect” accounted for the hint Social capital of a decline in cynicism in November. Researchers define this social science And cynicism remains high among Ameri- phrase differently. For Meyer and Potter, the cans. In Meyer and Potter’s study, for example, measure was “trust” in others. And they found even after the election 66 percent of their what they describe as a “tenuous” but hopeful respondents said the government is “run by a connection where the news media did civic few big interests looking out for themselves” journalism. Again, they can’t link it to cam- and 72 percent said Washington “can never paign coverage but they call for more study. or rarely be trusted to do the right thing.” In their studies, the other teams of Thor- Whether citizens are on the winning or losing son, Friedland and Denton report some of the side in an election seems to have a relationship projects—especially Binghamton’s effort to get a to cynicism. After the election, say Meyer and community economic plan—generated “some Potter, the most cynical voters—non-whites, acrimony.” In Binghamton, the project suffered older citizens and the less educated—had been from deep divisions in the community after joined by those who considered themselves severe corporate downsizing devastated the strong Republicans. economy. Thorson and Friedland warn that Trust in the news media civic journalists need to take care when they Researchers also report some good news for address such overwhelming community prob- civic journalism in how they’re viewed by the lems. Their projects, they suggest, often raise public. Often, according to Thorson, Denton and community expectations. “We also fear that if Friedland, those aware of the projects liked them. the problems it (a project) tackles turns out to But the strongest evidence comes from be too great to resolve before citizen patience Meyer and Potter, who found a correlation wears thin, if the institutional framework to between citizen distrust and the news media’s solve those problems is too weak, and if there intent to do civic journalism. They rated media is inadequate follow-through on the part of the intent to do citizen-based journalism on a 0- to- project partners,” they write, “public cynicism 2-point scale. They found that media distrust could increase.” declined “by a tenth of a point on the 2-point Still, they maintain that in other projects— scale for each 1-point increase” in the media’s especially in Charlotte’s “Taking Back Our intent to do civic journalism. They conclude: Neighborhoods” effort—the civic journalism “Media bashing declines as citizen-based jour- approach energized what they call an “active nalism increases, even after the effects of party, civic core” of people most aware of the projects age, race, and education have been filtered out.” and most likely to take action. “What remains But, again, the link seems unrelated to unknown,” say Thorson and Friedland, “is what actually shows up in the newspaper. whether civic journalism causes community Instead, they suggest that the effect is indirect

14 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? with civic journalists “doing other things that “Any presumption that the media can fill a relate to trust” rather than the details of their void created by disengaged and non-heroic actual coverage. politicians has disappeared,” wrote Record edi- Still, the message is mixed. In the study by tor Glenn Ritt. Schneiders Research, the few who were aware of The Record’s project focused on the New the North Carolina campaign coverage were Jersey Senate election in 1996 to fill the seat of more likely to consider it biased. Of those who retiring incumbent Bill Bradley. It was a hotly thought the coverage favored one side in the contested race between Democrat Robert campaign, 38 percent were among those aware Torricelli and Republican Dick Zimmer that of the coverage, compared to 30 percent of those gained national notoriety for its $17 million unaware of the coverage. price tag and its intensely negative television ad Two other pieces of research also are strik- campaign. ing for what they show about some of the limits In a project called “Campaign Central,” of civic journalism approaches to election cover- Record journalists devoted 54 pages of exhaus- age. Take horse-race polls. They have come in tive coverage over the campaign’s nine weeks. for widespread criticism since the preoccupation They followed almost every civic journalism with them in the 1988 presidential campaign. prescription: a focus on issues, detailed exami- Many scholars and journalists maintain that nation of the candidates’ stands, many citizens’ they distract citizens from issues and turn them “voices” in the reporting. Their package was into “spectators” of a game for insiders—politi- brightly designed, with many graphics—includ- cians and the press. Civic journalism’s conven- ing a summary chart called “Voters’ Guide”— tional wisdom strongly disapproves of horse-race and heavily promoted. polls and the papers practicing it are sharply cur- But by almost every measure, Campaign tailing the use of horse-race polls. Central had no effect. Researchers found that, That’s a mistake, according to Meyer and compared to readers of other newspapers, Potter’s research. In looking at whether knowing Record readers were no more knowledgeable, about polls meant knowing less about issues, no more interested, and no more likely to vote. they found the opposite: “The more people know Few Record readers even noticed the project or about polls, the more they know about substan- any difference from earlier Record campaign tive issues,” they say. They calculate the relation- coverage. Worse, from the journalists’ and ship this way: For every one-point increase in poll researchers’ perspective, focus groups gave little knowledge in August, when the campaign began, practical insight into why—or what the newspa- they found a 0.175-point gain in issue knowledge per could do about it. at the end of the campaign in November. The Readers stubbornly maintained their con- numbers don’t seem huge, the researchers admit, viction that people are “giving up” on news but they are statistically significant. They con- because the news media are “elitist” and clude that, rather than being a distraction, polls biased—but could give no examples. And in one may be a catalyst. startling revelation with which journalists don’t “Poll results do serve a purpose,” say know how to cope, they overwhelmingly found Meyer and Potter. “They arouse and maintain the “Voters’ Guide” chart—with its snippets of interest in the campaign, and encourage, albeit information—more helpful and more believable in a small way, citizens to learn more about can- than stories. “It is one thing to ask journalists to didates’ positions on the issues.” Rather than a shift the focus of political stories from horse ban on horse-race polls, they argue for using races to issues,” as the researchers put the them more judiciously. dilemma, “and quite something else to ask they At the Bergen Record, the research high- give up sentences and paragraphs.” lights the problems journalists confront in try- While its showing in Bergen was dismal, ing to get citizens engaged in politics. From the researchers stopped short of rejecting the what’s known about media effects as slow and civic journalism approach, suggesting the pro- selective, the Record’s project may have been ject’s failures could have been influenced by the doomed to failure. It was a one-shot effort—a political campaign’s negativity and the project’s “hypodermic” that communications scholars shortness. Still, they cautioned, “It may be that say has long been discounted. Still, the failures the public is not sufficiently interested in poli- were so dramatic that they left Record journal- tics for public journalism to be of service.” They ists stunned by readers’ views of politics and add: “If citizens wanted better—or at least differ- political coverage. ent—information, it was there for them to find,

Charlotte Grimes 15 yet few availed themselves of the opportunity to ing” stories from ordinary people’s points of do so.” view, creative writers and editors worked at illu- minating the news from distinctive angles, and Looking Ahead: Where Do We Go From sometimes made it possible for their audiences Here? to see old concerns in a new light. Like generations of newspeople before me, Throughout the 1970s, for example, like so many other journalists—whether they women reporters found ways to develop stories call themselves “civic” or plain old reporters on the emerging women’s movement without and editors and photographers—working or the traditional news peg of events. And as early retired today, I care passionately about journal- as 1989, when civic journalism was still a gleam ism and what it means to a free people. And in its creators’ eyes, the Journalism and Women like so many others, I am deeply worried for my Symposium—known as JAWS—was already urg- profession. ing in its newsletter a different frame for much At the end of the twentieth century, news- news: “The media must stop, for example, cov- papers, where I have spent most of my career, ering the black community only when there are are an endangered species. Not everyone is con- gang slayings or drug busts,” as JAWS put it. vinced they will survive into the next century. “Write about solutions as well as problems.”41 And across all the news-delivery technologies— Civic journalism has brought many man- print, broadcast and cable television, radio, Inter- agers—most of whom are white and male—to net—journalism and journalists wrestle with the embrace that suggestion. Those managers, and depressingly familiar list of woes: the movement, will earn credibility by acknowl- Our audiences are fragmented, elusive and edging that others also have worked long and shrinking. Our credibility is in tatters. Media hard to widen the lens through which we define mergers and Wall Street put pressure on news the news. And one thing to watch is whether organizations to pursue short-term profits at the the civic journalism movement makes it easier expense of long-term quality in coverage and for women and minority journalists to enrich conscientious public service. The 24-hour news coverage and break through glass ceilings for cycle and frantic competition generate a seem- promotions and top assignments. ingly endless stream of trivia, breathless sensa- Advocates say the movement is—in a tionalism, speculation and chatter. Old demands phrase that doubles as the title of a video pro- for accuracy, verification, context, and fact are duced by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism— increasingly seen as expendable, afterthoughts “a work in progress.” And there are signs that it or merely quaint. is changing some directions. The Pew Center, In the face of all that, what are civic jour- said its director, Jan Schaffer, has been shifting nalism’s successes and failures? What lessons away from funding projects by news organiza- can we learn from its attempts to mend both tions “as we spend more on workshops.”42 American journalism and American civic life? And some news organizations are rethink- To its credit, the movement has helped to ing how far they experiment with civic journal- keep alive the soul-searching sparked by the ism principles or techniques. In North Carolina, poor coverage in the 1988 presidential cam- for example, the News & Observer of Raleigh is paign. Even news organizations who reject civic scaling down its participation in the controver- journalism’s mandate to “convene” communi- sial media alliance. Her paper, said Managing ties and “form publics” now attend more care- Editor Melanie Sill, “was not really on board fully to explaining how politics and public with civic journalism” and had been part of the policy relate to citizens’ lives. In that sense, alliance in 1996 as a way of trying new ideas civic journalism has helped revive discussion and getting broadcasters more interested in about journalism’s core values at a time when election coverage. The paper is still sharing those values are under assault from the indus- costs of polling with other news organizations, try’s profit motives. but not the packaged stories. “We felt it would It has helped to validate the views of many be better to write a story especially for our read- women and minority journalists who’ve long ers,” said Sill.43 advocated a broader range of voices in the news, Some other conclusions, observations and different perspectives on stories and issues, a suggestions: less relentless focus on conflict and more innov- ative approaches to explaining complex issues. • Civic journalists must re-examine some of Long before civic journalists called for “fram- the movement’s basic assumptions.

16 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? Civic journalism, for example, takes for journalists also must cover. Ultimately, that granted that horse-race polls distract citizens offers a serious threat to news organizations’ from learning about issues, that nonvoters are credibility if their motives become suspect. alienated from politics, and that civic life is News organizations can strengthen their disappearing. Yet none of those premises are connections to their communities in many ways proven. In fact, they are much in dispute among that offer considerably less potential for con- researchers and scholars. flicts of interest. They can make it easier, as Horse-race polls, as Meyer and Potter civic journalists and others suggest, for ordinary found, deserve more respect as a potential cata- citizens to contact reporters and editors by pub- lyst for voters’ interest in campaigns and issues. lishing phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Rather than abandoning them, journalists might They can hire more ombudsmen to bring citi- do better to use them judiciously and in a zens’ complaints, interests and concerns into broader context of reporting on issues. the newsroom. They can encourage “shoe- Alienation may be a smaller obstacle to leather” reporting that allows reporters out into voting than other factors. The simple truth is communities—its coffee shops, bars, churches, that we don’t really know why many nonvoters schools—rather than setting up artificial gather- decide not to go to the polls. And a survey for ings, sometimes called “listening posts,” in the League of Women Voters concludes that which civic journalists strain to sort sensible nonvoters are no more alienated than voters. story ideas from forced or rambling discussions Instead, nonvoters tend to see voting as a cum- among strangers. They can make reporters and bersome process. They have less understanding editors available—for free and during work of how elections affect their interests and less hours—as speakers on journalism and the work- faith that their vote counts. And they are less ings of the press to civic groups, schools, likely to have been targets of mobilization churches. They can sponsor journalism-related efforts by candidates or political parties.44 activities. They could, for example, offer their And several studies of Americans’ civic own summer programs where students could engagement suggest that it may be merely learn journalism from the news organizations’ evolving rather than evaporating.45 Now, Ameri- editors and reporters. Journalists quite simply cans donate money if not their time to political can do much more to explain what their com- activities. They volunteer at high rates for such munity can expect from them—and what the social needs as answering hotlines, working in community cannot expect. hospices and domestic abuse shelters. Universi- • Civic journalists and traditionalists alike ties and traditional civic groups, like the League must begin to confront the larger trends—the of Women Voters, offer a rich array of political demands of the 24-hour news cycle, the pres- and civics education programs, serve as facilita- sure for double-digit profits, the feeding fren- tors in community disputes and sponsor oppor- zies triggered by brutish competition—that tunities for citizens to get involved in solving deeply erode journalism’s credibility, quality local problems. In undertaking similar roles, and place in a democratic society. news organizations may be duplicating activities in which other groups have more expertise or The business practices of the news industry merely trying to step into a vacuum that doesn’t increasingly undermine journalism, civic or oth- exist. erwise. Take, for example, the alarm over news- papers’ anemic circulation and readership that • Civic journalists need to attend more care- triggered the “consumer-driven” journalism out fully to the potential for conflicts of interest of which civic journalism has grown. Knight in the new roles they undertake. Ridder CEO Batten proposed “customer obses- In dismissing the traditional separations sion” and “community connectedness” to pro- between journalists and what they cover, civic mote circulation. Editor Merritt and theoretician journalism theoretician Rosen urges journalists Rosen draw the circle of newspapers encouraging to worry more about “getting the connections civic engagement, which encourages citizens’ right” between journalists and their communi- needs for news, which encourages circulation. ties. But it’s equally important to make the right But despite the alarm, some circulation connections—with people, not power structures. decline is self-inflicted. At many news organiza- Too often, civic journalism projects seem to ally tions, executives deliberately cut back on circu- themselves with a community’s power players— lation to lower distribution costs and boost politicians, civic and business leaders—whom short-term profits.46 And in their own version of

Charlotte Grimes 17 “redlining,” news organizations often ignore have shared his Pulitzer Prize for civil rights cov- poorer or inner city neighborhoods to target resi- erage in Selma. The Walker Commission cited dents of affluent suburbs who are more attrac- Millstone’s reporting in its investigation into the tive to advertisers. Chicago police’s behavior at the 1968 Democra- “They want the right circulation, for tic National Convention. At the St. Louis Post- whom advertisers will pay a premium,” says Bill Dispatch, he was nearly God to many of the Kovach, curator of the Nieman Foundation, a reporters who worked for him. former reporter and editor of the New York At its heart, civic journalism renews the Times who as editor led the Atlanta Journal & ancient question of what should be the press’ Constitution to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of role in a democratic society. To my mind, redlining against African-Americans by home- Millstone had the best response. He saw being a mortgage lenders. journalist as a privilege and an awesome respon- But perhaps the overarching lesson from sibility. Once, when I was writing a grimly and for civic journalism should be this: Humil- depressing investigative series on the poor care ity. The movement tends to overestimate the in boarding homes for the elderly, he demanded, power of the press to remake civic life and poli- “Doesn’t anybody do this right? People need to tics. And sometimes it carries a whiff of conde- see that this can be done right.” And off I went scension toward the public, which some civic to find someone doing it right. Millstone had journalism advocates seem to see as so helpless great respect for the people for whom he and atomized that journalists, like magicians, worked—and they weren’t corporate executives must conjure it into existence. who signed his paycheck but the readers who “It will not do to blame the victim, the depended on his newspaper. He thought they underinformed citizen, for the failures of Ameri- were owed journalism that was accurate, fair, can democracy,” says press scholar Michael honest, enlightening, engaging, that held Schudson. “Nor will it suffice to blame the mes- accountable those with power and offered hope senger, the media burdened with greater expec- and help to those without. In what were effec- tations than they could ever meet. The structure tively his standing orders to his reporters, Jim of our polity and our parties is implicated. The Millstone conveyed all of that—and answered fabric of our everyday lives at home, work, the philosophical question, resolved the debate church, and school, on the freeway and at the about our role, mission and purpose—in three supermarket, at the Little League game or on simple words: the street, is involved.”47 “Do good stories.” Doing the work of journalism is itself an act of citizenship. And civic journalists can make the movement more valuable to the profession if it scales back its ambitions, if it recognizes the lim- its of the craft, if it expects from reporters and editors that they have the skills and talents to deliver, and if it looks for common ground and common language with traditionalists. Like generations of newspeople before me, I learned much of what I know, value, and expect of journalism from an editor who cared enough to teach me. In my case, the editor was the late James C. Millstone and for this paper’s critique, concerns and suggestions about civic journalism I have drawn much on the lessons he taught. When he was a much-respected reporter covering the Supreme Court in the 1960s, he was—in Joseph Pulitzer’s phrase—a trusted lookout on the bridge of state. When he covered the civil rights movement in the South, he—as Pete Hamill described it—carried the torch into the back of the cave to tell the others what was there in the dark. Haynes Johnson, in a memorial speech for Millstone, once said that Jim should

18 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon? Endnotes Case Studies,” presented at AEJMC convention, March, 1997. 1. Rosen, Jay, Getting the Connections Right: Public Journalism and the Troubles in the Press (New York: 18. Merritt, pg. 7. Twentieth Century Fund, 1997), pg. 1. 19. Rosen and Merritt, pg. 9. 2. Merritt Jr., Davis, Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News Is Not Enough, (Hillsdale, 20. For more on this trend, see Auletta, Ken, Ameri- NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1995), pg. 141. can Journalism Review, Vol. 20, No. 4, May 1998, “Synergy City,” pgs. 24–29. 3. Meyer, Philip and Potter, Deborah, “Hidden Value: Polls and Public Journalism,” 1998. 21. Speaking of Public Journalism: Talks from the Project on Public Life and The Press—Seminars at The American Press Institute, 1993–1997, Charles E. 4. of the Pew Center for Civic Journal- Kettering Foundation, Dayton, OH, 1997, pg. 75. ism, Jan. 21, 1998. 22. Batten’s emphasis on “customer obsession” 5. Schaffer, Jan, interview, April 1998. reported by Sedgwick, John, Business Month, Vol. 133, No. 6, June 1989, “Customers First: Knight- 6. Schaffer, Jan, interview, April 1998. Ridder CEO Jim Batten,” pg. 28; by Paterno, Susan, American Journalism Review, Vol. 18, No. 1, Janu- 7. “Civic Catalyst,” (newsletter of the Pew Center for ary/February 1996, “Whither Knight-Ridder,” pgs. Civic Journalism) Winter 1998, pg. 9. 18–27; by Villano, David, Columbia Journalism Review, Vol. 34, No. 5, January/February 1996, “Has 8. Hamill, Pete, News Is a Verb (New York: Library Knight-Ridder’s Flagship Gone Adrift?” of Contemporary Thought, The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998), pg. 22. 23. Shepard, Alicia C., American Journalism Review, Vol. 18, No. 3, April 1996, “The Pew Connection,” 9. Schudson, Michael, The Power of News (Cam- pgs. 24–29. bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), pg. 33. 24. McMillan, Sally, Macy Guppy, Bill Kunz, and 10. Rosen, Jay and Davis Merritt Jr., “Public Journal- Raul Reis, “A Defining Moment: Who Says What ism: Theory and Practice,” an Occasional Paper of the about Public Journalism,” study for Civic Journalism Kettering Foundation, Dayton, OH, 1994, pg. 7. Interest Group of AEJMC, August, 1996.

11. League of Women Voters survey, 1996, reported in 25. Internet publication: Society magazine, Vol. 34, No. 3, March 13, 1997, http://www.mediastudies.org/cov96/gartner.html “Nonvoters Are No More Alienated Than Voters,” pg. 2; and in The National Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, Jan. 26. “Extra! Extra! Extra! Who Cares?; Newspapers 17, 1998, “Opting Out of Politics,” pg. 106. Face the Incredible Shrinking Reader,” Washington Post, April 1, 1990. 12. Merritt, pg. 4. 27. Schaffer, Jan, Quill magazine, Vol. 85, No. 4, May 13. Weaver, David and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The 1997, “The Best or Worst? Civic Journalism Study,” pg. 25. American Journalist in the 1990s (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996). Excerpted in 28. Merritt, pgs. 84–85. Quill magazine, Vol. 85, No. 2, March 1997, pg. 3. 29. Black, Jay (ed.), Mixed News: The Public/Civic/ 14. For development of this theme, see Kurtz, Communitarian Journalism Debate (Mahwah, NJ: Howard, Media Circus (New York: Times Books, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997), pgs. 94–95. 1993); Fallows, James, Breaking the News: How the News Media Undermine Democracy (New York: Vin- 30. Schaffer, Jan and Edward D. Miller (eds.), Civic tage Books, Random House, 1996). Journalism: Six Case Studies, a Joint Report by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism and the Poynter 15. Merritt, pg. 6. Institute for Media Studies (Washington, D.C: Pew Center for Civic Journalism, 1995). 16. Merritt, pg. 141. 31. Effron, Seth, Columbia Journalism Review, Vol. 17. Chaffee, Steven, Michael McDevitt, and Esther 35, No. 5, Jan. 11, 1997, “The North Carolina Experi- Thorson, “Citizen Response to Civic Journalism: Four ment,” pg. 12.

Charlotte Grimes 19 32. Wilkie, Curtis, The Boston Globe, Oct. 30, 1996, 42. Schaffer, Jan, interview, April 1998. “‘Public Journalism’ Plays Out in N.C.” 43. Sill, Melanie, interview, April 1998. 33. Schaffer and Miller, 1995. 44. See footnote 11. 34. Thorson, Esther and Friedland, Lewis A. (evalua- tors), Civic Lessons: Report on Four Civic Journalism 45. Norris, Pippa (ed.), Critical Citizens: Global Sup- Projects (Philadelphia, PA: The Pew Charitable port for Democratic Governments, (Oxford: Oxford Trusts, 1997), pgs. 8–11. University Press, spring 1999). For more on this dis- pute, see also Ladd, Everett C., The Public Perspec- 35. The description of the paper’s actions and tive, Vol. 7, No. 4, p. 1, “The Data Just Don’t Show Denton’s quotes come from documents supplied by Erosion of America’s Social Capital.” Galston, Denton. William A. and Levine, Peter, Brookings Review, Vol. 15, No. 4, p. 23, “America’s Civic Condition: A 36. Overholser, Geneva, “Learning from Civic Jour- Glance at the Evidence.” Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, nalism,” Washington Post, Sept. 17, 1995. Kay Lehman and Brady, Henry E. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics, (Cambridge, 37. Meyer, Philip, interview, April 1998. MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).

38. Bagdikian, Ben, interview, March 1998. 46. “Papers’ Trail: A Further Slip in Circulation as Profits Soar,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1997; “The 39. “The Case For and Against Civic Journalism,” Media Business,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 25, 1991. Internet publication: http://www.fac.org/publicat/ campaign/lth96sb3.html 47. Schudson, pg. 33.

40. Thorson, Esther, interview, March 1998.

41. “JAWS: Herstory,” Internet publication, http: www.jaws.org

20 Whither the Civic Journalism Bandwagon?