Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2006 Civic journalism and community newspapers: opportunities for social and civic connections Amy Burroughs Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Burroughs, Amy, "Civic journalism and community newspapers: opportunities for social and civic connections" (2006). LSU Master's Theses. 3473. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/3473 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CIVIC JOURNALISM AND THE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER: OPPORTUNITIES FOR CIVIC AND SOCIAL CONNECTIONS A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Mass Communication in The Manship School of Mass Communication by Amy E. Burroughs B.A. University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1995 December 2006 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With appreciation to George Flynn, who was instrumental in getting a long-delayed pro- ject on the road to completion; and to Clark Thurmond, who made several observations about community newspapers that appear in this work. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS..........................................................................................................................ii ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................................iv LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................1 Evolution of Civic Journalism ................................................................................................................5 Early Efforts and Analysis ....................................................................................................................14 Clarifying the Goals ..............................................................................................................................17 Conversation and Deliberation .............................................................................................................22 The Community’s Local News.............................................................................................................25 Community Newspapers and Civic Journalism...................................................................................29 Serving Readers in Small Communities ..............................................................................................33 METHODS................................................................................................................................................38 Research Questions and Hypotheses....................................................................................................38 Overview................................................................................................................................................38 Data and Survey Design........................................................................................................................39 Execution of Survey..............................................................................................................................42 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................................45 Interest in Public Affairs .......................................................................................................................45 Talking About Issues.............................................................................................................................47 Accessibility of the Newspaper ............................................................................................................48 Media Use..............................................................................................................................................51 Time Reading the Newspaper...............................................................................................................52 Local News Coverage ...........................................................................................................................53 Local News Coverage and Civic Participation ....................................................................................55 Community Problem-Solving...............................................................................................................58 Facilitating Citizen Involvement ..........................................................................................................60 Community-Building ............................................................................................................................63 Opinions About Growth........................................................................................................................66 News Values..........................................................................................................................................69 Residence Summary..............................................................................................................................71 Findings by Hypotheses........................................................................................................................72 Demographic Summary........................................................................................................................80 CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................................................82 BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................................................................91 APPENDIX: SURVEY AND CODING .................................................................................................95 VITA .....................................................................................................................................................106 iii ABSTRACT This study sought to fill in a gap in civic journalism research by considering its implica- tions for community newspapers, those small, locally oriented publications that serve rural and suburban communities throughout the country. In particular, this study posed the argument that such newspapers may have advantages in pursuing civic journalism, and that these approaches may especially benefit newspapers in high-growth communities. This study relied heavily on the language of theorists who describe journalism as a public conversation, the quality of which – its usefulness for readers as citizens and members of a community – the press can either help or hinder. This study also relied on the assumption that civic journalism suggests a social impera- tive as well as a civic one: How well newspapers help readers, particularly newcomers, integrate into the community socially may affect how well these residents become invested, participatory citizens. Accordingly, this study sought to test whether new and long-time readers seek different kinds of information from the newspaper and whether a leaning toward civic or social interests corresponds to length of residence. A telephone survey of subscribers of The Williamson County Sun, a semi-weekly news- paper in Georgetown, Texas, was undertaken to evaluate readers’ use and perceptions of the pa- per as a vehicle for familiarizing newcomers with the community, facilitating community in- volvement and helping residents navigate changes related to growth. Results did not demonstrate a relationship between length of residence and interest in social-oriented news, although a poten- tial relationship was suggested between interest in certain types of news and reasons for moving to Williamson County. The strongest findings of the study related to readers’ perceptions of their iv relationship with the community newspaper compared to the nearby metro daily, and their evaluations of the newspaper’s usefulness in facilitating a public conversation through strong local news coverage. v LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction Civic journalism as it pertains to community newspapers – both the country weekly and its city-oriented cousin – has been underrepresented in the research literature, even though such papers may be well suited to its objectives. Voakes found that journalists at smaller papers may be more amenable to four key values associated with civic journalism: enterprise, information for decision-making, facilitation of discourse, and attention to citizens’ concerns (1999). In a study published this year, Nichols, Friedland, Rojas, Cho and Shah reviewed 651 public journalism projects and concluded that news organizations serving small or medium communities were highest on measures of improved civic competence, such