Civic Catalyst: Spring 1998

Making a Big Splash, Watching it Ripple Back
In March 1997, three reporters and a photographer asked a simple question: What is the impact of alcohol abuse in Maine? Their answer, published in an eight-day series in the Portland Press Herald, touches off a massive public search for soulutions. Editor Jeannine Guttman describes the project and the community response.

Civic Journalism: Experimenting with Hand-Offs
One year ago, we at the Pew Center asked a simple question: Is there a way to help news organizations "hand-off" successful civic journalism projects to the community? The result was the Communitry Change project of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, designed to help citizens take ownership of the projects and advance them beyond activities the newspaper could engage in.

KRON Gambles on Race Series in Sweeps
Had KRON-TV gone crazy? The San Francisco station launches a week-long series about race relations during sweeps week, including a 13-minute first piece. Their gamble paid of; Pat Ford reports that the response from the Bay Area was enormous.

Orange County: Newsroom Conversations, New Approaches to News
Politics Editor Dennis Foley talks about the culture shift happening at the Orange County Register and its commitment to changing the way stories are written every day.

Inventing the Future of Journalism: A Wish List
Rem Rieder, editor and senior vice president of the American Journalism Review, delivered a journalistic "wish list" at a workshop in Atlanta in January co-sponsored by the Pew Center and RTNDF.

What's Happening in Pew Projects
The 13 Pew-sponsored projects of 1998 get underway, tackling such issues as racial change in the community, growth and development and elections.

Democracy in Action: Political Newcomers Take Back Bradenton
The Scene: The summer of 1996 in Bradenton, Florida. A strong mayor and his city council are about to sign a contract to build a new city hall-fire-police complex on prime waterfront land. Wayne Poston of the Bradenton Herald shares how the paper empowered citizens to take ownership of this issue and start public discussion.

Project Reconnect
Four newspaper-journalism school teams report on their attempts to close the distance between the papers and certain groups of their readers.

Civic Journalism: A Work in Progress
The Colorado Springs Gazette is reinventing itself from the ground up; spend a day in the newsroom and see the "civic culture" that Editor Steve Smith is working to create in a new Pew Center video.

More New Videos
Three new videos from a civic journalism retreat at the Poynter Institute in November are available for newsroom or classroom discussion. Presentations by Dennis Hartig of the Virginian-Pilot, Jody Calendar fo the Asbury Park press and Glenn Ritt of the Bergen Record address civic journalism from several perspectives.

Congratulations
"House of Cards" and "What Ails Asbury" win awards for the Asbury Park Press from the Scripps Howard Foundation, Lincoln University of Missouri and the New Jersey Press Association.