Civic Catalyst: Spring 1997

Elite Journalists and their Communities: The Gap Has Widened
Pew Center's Ed Fouhy discusses the gap between journalists and their communities, the impact it has on coverage, and what civic journalism can do to help.

Developing New Reflexes in Framing Stories
Is conflict king? Steve Smith of the Colorado Springs Gazette discusses different methods of framing stories from a civic standpoint at a Pew Center/RTNDF workshop in Chicago in March.

Sustaining Civic Journalism Efforts
The Community Change Project of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change is helping citizens take action on complex issues raised by civic journalism efforts in Binghamton, NY, Peoria, IL and Portland, ME.

Making a Difference: Covering Campaign '96
Cultural change in the newsroom has impact in the community, reports Deborah Potter of the Poynter Institute. Poynter's election study examinied election coverage at 20 news organizations across the country to see what kind of citizen-based coverage they were doing and how it was working.

What's Happening in Pew Center Projects
Traffic, voter participation rates and growth and development are among the topics targeted by Pew projects this year -- here's what they're up to.

Listening to the Public? Ghetoizing the Job
Bill Theobald of the Indianapolis Star and the Indianapolis News reports from the public journalism ghetto in his newsroom on the ups and downs of being the designated civic journalist.

Knight-Ridder to Fund Civic Journalism Projects
Knight-Ridder announces that it will carry on the community-building vision of late chairman and CEO Jim Batten by funding its own civic journalism projects.

Pew Center Helps Support Project Reconnect
Six newspaper/university teams are experimenting in community coverage, focused on a specific topic over the next two years.

"With the People"
A new toolbox for getting readers and viewers involved is published by the Pew Center; the book shows civic journalism as it is evolving in newsrooms around the country.

"Civic Lessons:" New Research on Civic Journalism
The first academic study of projects supported by the Pew Center suggests that newsrooms are ambivalent about the value of civic journalism, citizens interviewed were consistently positive or even enthusiastic.

Congratulations
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle and The Record in Bergen County are honored for their civic journalism initiatives.