Invisible Boundaries: Communities of Choice, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2000

Partners:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
CBS 4 and Newsradio 610

The partners documented the way massive social changes have swept aside the traditional definition of "community" and replaced it with a patchwork of affiliations, raising serious issues for civic institutions.

Though focused on the suburbs of South Florida, "Invisible Boundaries: Communities of Choice" was a story of our times - very much an exploration of the forest, not the trees.

Using information gathered from two focus groups and a survey of 1,000 residents of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, the partners showed how factors such as sprawl, technology, immigration and employment options affect how people define and commit themselves to communities.

The research found, for example, that the workplace is more likely than the neighborhood to be the place where people spend most of their time, form their closest bonds, invest energy, volunteer and make charitable donations.

Technological advances allow new immigrants to stay closely connected-through e-mail, cell phones and ease of travel - to their native countries, making them less likely to become civically engaged in their new homeland.

The four-part series ran in the paper and on radio and television over a series of several months, from Aug. 13, 2000 to Feb. 2001. Also in February, the paper distributed a multicultural directory, listing agencies and organizations serving the needs of an ever-more diverse community. Reporters and editors conducted a workshop on the series at a convention of neighborhood activists from around Florida.

Contact:

David Blackwell
Deputy Managing Editor
Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone: (954) 356-4606
Email: dblackwell@sun-sentinel.com

Neighborhood News Network, Tampa, FL 1999

Partners:

Tampa Bay Weekly Planet

Using a database of more than 300 community groups and media organizations, the Weekly Planet created an email "wire service" for community news to compliment the "Public Life" newsletter launched earlier with Pew support. Grass roots organizations would send the Planet staff news about what they were doing and, about once a week, the Planet would package those stories and send them out via email to some 650 subscribers. The hope was that the community groups would find out where they had projects in common and how they could work together, while at the same time their stories would receive attention from more mainstream media organizations.

As part of the project, journalism students from the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa were tapped to write up the best stories for the Weekly Planet. The partners also planned to use broadcast journalism students to produce a monthly "Neighborhood News Hour" on the public access cable station and were seeking further funding to cover production costs.

Contact:

Ben Eason
President and CEO
Creative Loafing
1310 E. 9th Avenue
Tampa, FL 33605
Phone: (813) 248-8888
Email: ben.eason@creativeloafing.com

Civic Discourse, Tampa, FL 1997

Partners:

The Weekly Planet
Speak Up Tampa Bay
University of South Florida
Study Circles Resources Center

The partners continued their quest to bring civic journalism to the Tampa Bay with the convening of a "framing" conference in the spring of 1997. About 350 citizens attended three days of town hall meetings with experts and journalists and generated a 20-page list of the area's strengths and weaknesses.

The project suffered a setback, a short time later, when the lead partner, WTVT, dropped out after a change in leadership, leaving the alternative, entertainment-focused newspaper, Weekly Planet, scrambling to keep the momentum going. Editor Ben Eason launched a more serious alternative paper, a quarterly called Public Life, which carried news from neighborhood associations and civic groups and explored issues such as the media's responsibility to the community. Eventually, with additional Pew support in later funding cycles, Eason used the network of civic organizations he'd connected with to start an email based wire service, helping the groups connect to each other as well as get wider circulation for their concerns and events among media organizations.

Ben Eason
President and CEO
Creative Loafing
1310 E. 9th Avenue
Tampa, FL 33605
TEL: (813) 248-8888
FAX: (813) 248-9999
EMAIL: ben.eason@creativeloafing.com

The Public Agenda, Tallahassee, FL 1996

Partners:

Tallahassee Democrat
WCTV6 (CBS)
Florida State University
Florida A&M Universities

The third year of the "Public Agenda" project ended with a hand-off to the community. Over its three-year span, the project involved more than 1,000 people in 15 discussion groups. A final poll of 353 adults in the Tallahassee area showed the project appeared to have contributed to positive changes in community attitudes and behavior. The poll found that about one third of area residents had heard of the project. Participation in some aspect of the project - whether joining a discussion group or attending a public meeting - registered at seven percent but that represented a doubling over the three years of the project, from three percent in 1995.

More than half the respondents said the project was effective in getting people to discuss community concerns, making people feel they have a voice and identifying solutions for community problems. Respondents in 1997 were more likely than respondents in 1994 and 1995 to see the community pulling together and less likely to be at odds. They were more willing to listen and work toward compromise and strongly agreed that people could make a difference by taking an active role on important issues in their community. For more details, see Year One projects, 1994.

Mimi Jones
Project Manager
The Public Agenda
1713 Silverwood Dr.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Phone: (850) 942-7199

Michael W. Smith
News Director
WCTV-TV (CBS)
4000 County Rd. 12
Tallahassee, FL 32312
TEL: (850) 893-6666
FAX: (850) 668-3851
EMAIL: mike.smith@wctv6.com

Tampa, FL 1996

Partners:

WTVT-TV (Fox)
Weekly Planet Alternative Paper
WMNF Community Radio
Tampa Chapter of National Conference

The partners sought to bring civic journalism to the Tampa Bay area through a series of four jointly sponsored town hall forums and the encouragement of smaller "kitchen table" discussions in citizens' homes. The forums were aided by "Speak Up, Tampa Bay," a group of citizens brought together as an advisory board on civic journalism to WTVT and the Weekly Planet. The group evolved into an independent body focused on engaging citizens in deliberative dialogue by hosting forums and small group discussions on Bay area issues and on connecting the media with citizens and their issues.

In addition to the forums, the partners inaugurated the Good Community Alliance, bringing together a group of civic organizations and social service agencies to share resources and work on joint projects. The Alliance included the partners and other media organizations and sought to improve coverage of activities and events that were the basis for much of the community's civic life.

Ben Eason
President and CEO
Creative Loafing
1310 E. 9th Avenue
Tampa, FL 33605
TEL: (813) 248-8888
FAX: (813) 248-9999
EMAIL: ben.eason@creativeloafing.com

Tallahassee Democrat
WCTV6 (CBS)
Florida State University
Florida A&M Universities

The second year of the three-year "Public Agenda" project trained more citizens to lead and participate in small group discussions and continued polling to be sure the concerns of all members of the diverse community were surfacing. For more details, please see Year One (1994) project descriptions.

Mimi Jones
Project Manager
The Public Agenda
1713 Silverwood Dr.
Tallahassee, FL32301
Phone: (850) 942-7199

Michael W. Smith
News Director
WCTV-TV (CBS)
4000 County Rd. 12
Tallahassee, FL 32312
TEL: (850) 893-6666
FAX: (850) 668-3851
EMAIL: mike.smith@wctv6.com

The Public Agenda, Tallahassee, FL 1994

Partners:

Tallahassee Democrat
WCTV6 (CBS)
Florida State University
Florida A&M Universities

A three-year project, "The Public Agenda" involved thousands of Tallahassee citizens in discussing and seeking solutions to a wide range of issues facing the city.

Project leaders at the Democrat and WCTV used a host of tools - small group discussions, frequent polls, large forums and on-line chats, among them - to determine which issues citizens considered most critical and then engage those citizens in addressing the issues in a variety of ways. A community coordinator, Mimi Jones, organized citizen participation.

The partners kicked off the project in the summer of 1994 with a series of "living room conversations." A total of 29 people were interviewed in 10 separate small groups of two to five. These findings were paired with a more formal survey of 800 residents conducted by phone in the fall. The results were reported in the Democrat in a four-part, front-page series explaining the project and inviting participation. The first large public forum, attended by more than 300 people, was held Nov. 16, 1994 - the final day of the series - at the state Capitol and broadcast on WCTV. The paper ran special reports on issues identified in the public discussions: crime, growth, jobs, education and values, race relations and teen concerns. WCTV regularly ran stories about people and ideas that surfaced.

Citizens were invited to voice opinions and submit questions to public officials through the Democrat's "Public Agenda" page which ran periodically on the front of the Sunday editorial section and included "how you can help" boxes. The partners also held National Issues Forum training seminars to create a pool of facilitators for small group discussions on each issue. Six of the groups, each with six to 20 people, began meeting on their own and some continued to meet after the project formally ended in April 1997.

Polling continued throughout the project, in part to get feedback on how the project was perceived in the community. By year three, it found about one third of Tallahassee residents knew about the project and most of them had a favorable impression of it. Respondents also registered a positive change in their perception of Tallahassee as a city that pulls itself together.

Mimi Jones
Project Manager
The Public Agenda
1713 Silverwood Dr.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Phone: (850) 942-7199

Michael W. Smith
News Director
WCTV-TV (CBS)
4000 County Rd. 12
Tallahassee, FL 32312
TEL: (850) 893-6666
FAX: (850) 668-3851
EMAIL: mike.smith@wctv6.com

EcoWatch, Miami, FL 2001

Partners:

WTVJ-TV (NBC)
The Miami Herald
Ocean Drive Magazine

The WTVJ news department made coverage of the environment a top priority, launching EcoWatch on Earth Day in March 2001. Pew funding allowed the station to partner with The Miami Herald and its Sunday magazine to reach out and engage the community in its effort.

In addition to producing more than 100 broadcast stories on the environment, the station solicited viewer "Ecopinions" through a special EcoWatch Web page. Viewer and user emails on controversial topics were collected, consolidated and then forwarded to public officials and stakeholders on the issue. Viewers weighed in on such issues as a bottle bill for Florida and preservation of the Everglades -two hot environmental issues in 2002. The station forwarded hundreds of emails on those and other topics. The Web site also featured an interactive slide show, video of station reports, special dispatches from marine biologist Jean-Michel Cousteau and University of Miami environmentalist Ellen Prager, along with links and other resources.

Working with nearly a dozen organizations, such as Friends of the Everglades, the University of Miami and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the station generated a lesson plan on the environment that was distributed to thousands of Miami school children. The station promoted use of the curriculum by sending station anchors into classrooms to show EcoWatch reports and lead discussions.

To encourage environmental awareness among Miami citizens, the partners produced and distributed half a million copies of an EcoGuide filled with information and advice. For example, a section on helping preserve the Everglades suggested citizens could help by conserving water and explained how to find leaks in home plumbing that would waste water. In addition to the printed copies, the guide remained available online.

Contact:

Tim Geraghty
Vice President, News
WTVJ-TV
15000 S.W. 27th St.
Miramar, FL 33027
Phone: (954) 622-6150
Email: tim.geraghty@nbc.com

Daytona Beach, FL 1997

Partners:

The Daytona Beach News Journal
WCEU-TV (PBS)
WESH-TV (NBC)
Stetson University

At the Pew Center's request, the partners returned their funding when the project became stalled because of newsroom changes.