Civic Journalism: Six Case Studies
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.
"Voice of the Voter"

Walsh started another in-house database within days of the launch, logging the name, address, region, and concerns of everyone who wrote or faxed the Chronicle about "Voice of the Voter" from March through September until he accumulated more than 500 potential sources for Chronicle reporters.

With the poll results in hand, it was time for Brewer, Eisele, and Owen to decide which of the top concerns would be singled out for coverage by the partners. For three weeks in April the partners highlighted crime, education, the environment, and the economy. One topic - low voter registration and turnout - was added to reflect one of the partner's concerns.

Most papers launch a major series on a Sunday, their largest circulation day, but the Chronicle does not publish on Sundays as part of a joint operating agreement with the San Francisco Examiner.

Instead, the "Voice of the Voter" was launched on Monday, March 21, with a Page-One story about the poll and two inside pages filled with numerous graphs, sidebars, and text boxes. An unsigned letter explaining "Voice of the Voter" to readers started on Page One and continued on an inside page; it told of "a new dimension in Bay Area political coverage (that) will try to reconnect Bay Area citizens with the political process."

Eisele produced a two-part report introducing the "Voice of the Voter" that aired during each of KQED's two local-news cut-ins to Morning Edition.

The Chronicle began to run a box listing the times and topics for "Voice of the Voter" reports on KQED and KRON. Brewer also added KQED's hotline number to the Chronicle's "Let Us Hear Your Voice" box.

The hundreds of voice-mail messages, letters, and e-mail messages flooding in after the launch laid the foundation for a new part of the project: "The Candidates Column," which debuted April 4. This weekly feature allowed citizens to quiz incumbent Gov. Pete Wilson and the three front-runners for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

To make "The Candidates Column" work for all three media, the partners decided to have KQED record the candidates' responses. KQED shared the sound with KRON and the Chronicle transcribed the responses for a print version. If the question came from a message on voice-mail, the actual sound was used; written questions were read aloud. Instead of recording each candidate's response to a new question every week, the partners chose to ask the candidates for governor to respond to several questions at once in KQED's studio or by phone.

The candidates' replies to that invitation varied wildly, ranging, as Susan Yoachum wrote, "from eagerness to reluctance to refusal."

Longshot Democrat Tom Hayden accepted with alacrity, volunteering to record his answers at KQED during a campaign trip to the area. John Garamendi, the state insurance commissioner, also jumped right in, using the opportunity to take a shot at Brown and her reluctance to debate her primary opponents.

Incumbent Wilson agreed, but his staff groused about the personal tone of some of the questions and complained when the journalists declined to change the wording.

Kathleen Brown initially refused to participate. Her staff blamed scheduling problems; one aide even called the project "annoying." When told there would be a story about her refusal to participate, Brown spokesman Michael Reese finally relented. "If I move heaven and earth to change her schedule [so she can participate], will that kill the story?" he asked.

The answer was "No." Instead of sweeping it under the rug, the Chronicle ran Yoachum's look at the incident -- "Governor Candidates Hear 'Voice' " -- on the front page the same day "The Candidates Column" debuted. "The initial reluctance of the front-runners underscored what the 'Voice of the Voter' project is attempting to address-the seeming unwillingness of candidates to respond to citizen concerns," Yoachum wrote.