UNC-Chapel Hill to Hold 2002 Batten Awards
Symposium Celebrates the Legacy of Civic Journalism

Washington, DC, February 25, 2002 -- The 2002 James K. Batten Awards and Symposium, documenting a decade of civic journalism, will be presented by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday, April 22.

The day-long event, "Civic Journalism: Celebrating the Past, Focusing on the Future," will showcase the impact of 10 years of civic journalism experiments in newsrooms around the country. And it will look at the future of interactive journalism.

In addition to the winners of the $25,000 Batten Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism, more than 18 top newsroom innovators and educators will be on hand to discuss their work.

Featured keynoters are Walker Lundy, editor and executive vice president of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rebecca Rimel, president of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Hodding Carter III, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation.

"This event is the capstone of a decade of newsroom experiments that created and refined better ways of reporting the news to engage people in public life," said Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. The Pew Center is sponsoring the event, the last awards program before the center completes its work at the end of the year.

"These newsroom innovations will withstand the test of time as the foundation for the one of the most significant reform movements in the history of journalism," Schaffer said.

The awards are named after Jim Batten, an early pioneer of civic journalism. Batten was the editor of The Charlotte Observer and later rose to become chairman and CEO of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain.

"Jim Batten was one of the outstanding journalists in North Carolina for years and was a splendid role model for students," Dean Richard Cole of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication said. "We're delighted to honor him with this national event."

UNC's School of Journalism, with a faculty that has undertaken key research in the civic journalism arena, was selected to host the event in a nationwide competition of journalism schools.

The winners of the Batten Award will be announced March 21. In addition to sharing the $25,000 in prize money, winners will be honored at the symposium.

The Pew Center for Civic Journalism was created in 1993 as the centerpiece of The Pew Charitable Trusts' initiative to stimulate involvement in community issues. It has helped to fund more than 120 civic journalism initiatives in more than 200 newsrooms. It also gives a megaphone to best ideas through its publications and awards programs, and produces workshops and training material for journalists.

To register to attend the symposium or for more information about the Batten Awards, visit www.pewcenter.org, e-mail news@pccj.org or call 202-331-3200.