Civic Catalyst: Impact

Summer 2001

Survey Pinpoints a Sea Change in Newsroom Attitudes and Practices
An unprecedented survey of 512 U.S. daily newspapers with circulations of 20,000 or more reveals dramatic shifts in news topic and a hunger for more interactivity with readers.

Summer 2000

Civic Journalism Network
Update on the formation of the national Civic Journalism Network spearheaded by Chris Peck, editor of The Spokesman-Review.

Spring 1999

Reaching Out to Readers: They Do Notice
The efforts of the Orange County Register to create more relevant and useful journalism have been noticed by readers. Ombudsman Dennis Foley reports.

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.

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.

Fall 1997

House of Cards Tumbles Out of Asbury Park Civic Journalism Project
The Asbury Park Press shows how civic journalism can launch all different kinds of journalism -- including an award-winning investigative series.

Summer 1997

The Public Agenda: Tallahassee, FL
Over the three years of this joint project of The Tallahassee Democrat and WCTV, over 1,000 people were involved in 15 discussion groups that met regularly to discuss a wide range of community issues such as crime and race relations. The partners commissioned survey research to measure the impact of the project.

Fall 1996

Hope that Sustainable Change is Possible
Charlotte's Seversville neighborhood begins a rebound after the Observer's "Taking Back Our Neighborhoods" series, reports staff writer Ames Alexander.

Winter 1996

Seeking Common Ground
The Tallahassee Democrat's Bill Berlow looks at school taxes in a new way and applies the lesson to his everyday coverage.

Charlotte: Helping to Lead
The Taking Back of Our Neighborhoods series has had impact in those neighborhoods far beyond merely starting the discussions.

Spring 1995

Still Learning After All These Years
Failure and success stories from Tom Still and Dave Iverson of the We the People/Wisconsin Project.

Does Civic Journalism Work?
Frank Denton and Esther Thorson formally measure the impact of the We the People/Wisconsin media coalition on reader and viewer engagement.

Wichita Reverses a Trend
The Eagle gets feedback that people were paying attention: "Coverage that start[ed] from the reader's viewpoint" boosted voter turnout in the '94 elections.

Breaking New Ground
In San Francisco, the Chronicle's Voice of the Voter project gets some very quantitative feedback: a count of exactly how many voter-registration forms, distributed for the first time in the newspaper, were completed.

Winter 1995

Making a Difference
Including citizens as an integral part of the conversation can produce a radically different story, as Dave Iverson reports.