Civic Journalism: Six Case Studies
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
"Taking Back our Neighborhoods"

"I said to Rick [Thames] 'Do you think that there's actually a public journalism way to address this?' So the two things sort of came up -- the connection between a story you've been thinking about in more traditional ways and [the] public journalism opportunity.

"We were worried about how we would get people to talk about [crime] instead of just run from it."

As project director of "Your Vote in '92," Thames was well-versed in the concepts of civic journalism. "Your Vote," as it is known around the newsroom, was the Observer's first major civic journalism effort. In partnership with The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and WSOC-TV (the local ABC affiliate), the Observer staff led by Rich Oppel, Buckner's predecessor, redefined election coverage, focusing on what the voters wanted instead of reporting only what the politicians had to say. Thames also was familiar with the tools of civic journalism partnerships with other news organizations: polls, forums, and in-depth reporting of the issues.

Buckner was not in Charlotte for "Your Vote," but at Knight-Ridder she closely followed the project and a similar one at the company's Wichita Eagle.

"I was aware that there were areas where we didn't want to go too far. . . I knew it was very labor intensive so that wasn't a big surprise. I knew that if it worked, you would begin to see interaction."

Drafting a proposal for the Pew Center forced the Observer team -- Buckner, Thames, Carpenter, and some of the project's reporters -- to pull their ideas together. By the first week in February, Buckner was able to propose "our most ambitious effort yet in the realm of public journalism. The concept is simple: pinpoint -- precisely -- the sources of violent crime, and then challenge the community to pitch in and do something specifically about it."

The Observer's proposal spanned months and included:

• Sophisticated data analysis to show patterns of crime and to identify the neighborhoods the Observer would cover in depth. Reporter Ted Mellnik already was using newly available computerized police data to track violent crime in Charlotte. Very early in his research, a pattern began to emerge -- 60 percent of all violent crime took place in 42 neighborhoods located in a crescent-shaped area around the central city; 30 percent took place in a handful of those neighborhoods.

• Polling to gather data about the people who live in those neighborhoods. For instance, who had been a victim of crime? Who owned a gun? Pollsters gathered information about the effects of crime on peoples' lives, sought feedback on the reasons for crime, and invited ideas for possible solutions.

• A town meeting in each of the neighborhoods selected for in-depth coverage. The meetings offered the chance for dialogue about the problems and for interaction with experts and agencies.

• A partnership with at least one commercial television station. The Observer envisioned the station coordinating live events such as call-ins and tours of a particular neighborhood with the newspaper's profile of that neighborhood.

Each neighborhood report was crafted to encourage action on two fronts: To bolster efforts of neighborhood residents in Charlotte's "crime crescent" and to give Charlotte residents living outside these areas a stake in reclaiming those neighborhoods.

The series showed how the city's crime affected not only the personal safety of Charlotte residents but their pocketbooks as well. And it gave readers human faces behind the crime statistics. "These people were living with violent crime to an extent the rest of us don't understand," Thames said.

WSOC-TV Signs On

Buckner immediately approached WSOC News Director Mike Kronley about joining the project. Charlotte's television market leader, WSOC had a partnership with the Observer   that dated back to a 1991 joint polling effort called "The Carolinas' Poll."

Kronley was intrigued by the possibilities of another partnership with the Observer   and the chance to focus on an important issue.

"You don't just do something because it's there or someone else has done it successfully. You do it because it makes sense to do it," said Kronley. "You need to find an issue that's important to your viewers -- not journalists. Give people information they're interested in or they don't give a damn. If they don't give a damn, you've got the wrong story."