Civic Catalyst: Winter 1997

New Civic Journalism Research
Research into four civic journalism initiatives finds surprising reach in communities, lukewarm acceptance in newsrooms.

North Carolina Project Reaches One in Four Voters
One in four North Carolina voters were aware of the "Your Voice, Your Vote Project," and over 80 percent of those voters were favorably impressed with the project according to a new poll.

Foundations: Nurturing Journalistic Values or Threatening Independence?
Pew Center's Ed Fouhy discusses the merits of foundation funding to nurture journalism.

Pew Center's New Projects
The Pew Center's Advisory Board has selected 13 civic journalism efforts to receive funding in the fourth year of the support for civic journalism experiments.

Geting Down and Dirty with the Critics
Should journalism be experimental? Steve Smith of the Colorado Springs Gazette takes on the critics of civic journalism.

Beware of Issue Myopia
Bill Felber and The Manhattan Mercury try to give the campaign back to the voters and learn some lesson about using civic journalism wisely.

Teaching Civic Journalism
Cheryl Gibbs of Earlham College reports on new approaches to teaching civic journalism in classrooms around the country.

"Tantalizing" Hints From Other Research
At least three new civic journalism reasearch efforts are measuring the impact of issues-based journalism in 1996.

When Citizens Asked the Questions, Viewers Tuned In
Ratings were up in Boston, Wisconsin and Seattle for programming that let citizens ask the questions in candidate debates for last year's elections.

Defining Civic Journalism
There are as many definitions of civic journalism as there are civic journalists. Here are a few from panelists at the December 9 workshop, "Civic Journalism Washington Style, Reporting Beyond the Beltway."