Civic Ways to Use Wire Stories, Richmond, IN 2000

Partners:

(Richmond) Palladium-Item
Dayton Daily News
Earlham College

The partners developed strategies to make wire stories - the main source of national and international news for most small papers - more engaging and relevant to readers. Earlham professor Cheryl Gibbs and her students created special pages of international news for the Palladium-Item, using wire stories and other readily available sources. Unlike traditional wire-dependent foreign news pages, the Palladium-Item's "Big Picture" page included reading lists, local organizations linked to the story and ways to get personally involved through donations or other outreach efforts.

The pages were critiqued by focus groups of readers and later pages were further refined. Gibbs and her students found readers became more engaged if they felt a personal connection to a story and suggested that papers could help readers make that connection using a few simple steps. They include translating statistics and demographic information into more local and familiar terms, telling readers how they can help or communicate their views to decision-makers and suggesting reading lists that include literary and cultural content as well as politics and history.

Contact:

Cheryl Gibbs
Assistant Professor
Earlham College
Drawer 62, 801 National Road West
Richmond, IN 47374-4095
Phone: (765) 983-1506
Email: chergibbs@aol.com

The People's Agenda, Indianapolis, IN 2001

Partners:

WTHR-TV (NBC)
The Indianapolis Star
WFYI-TV

While lobbyists roam state legislatures, tracking bills and wining and dining lawmakers, ordinary citizens are left out of the process by the simple business of living their lives. "The People's Agenda" was an effort to restore balance to the process by making sure legislators knew what people wanted and giving citizens updates and score cards on how lawmakers responded.

During December 2000, WTHR and the Star offered Hoosiers the chance to cast a ballot, choosing their top 10 priorities for legislative action in 2001. Nearly 3,500 people responded: 1,343 mailed in paper ballots that had been printed in the paper and 2,088 cast on-line ballots available on both partners' Web sites. They ranked property taxes as their chief concern, followed by a surprise concern with telemarketing restrictions. Other issues included better voting machines, adoption of Daylight Saving Time, school funding, drunk driving and lifetime probation for child molesters.

The paper and WTHR ran a series of reports and editorials on the issues identified, culminating in a Jan. 22, 2001 People's Agenda Town Meeting in the House chambers of the state Capitol. Lawmakers gave up their seats and watched from the balcony as some 200 citizens spoke out on issues from the floor. On Jan. 29, the partners delivered The People's Agenda to the governor and legislators.

On Mar. 26, 2001, the Star and WTHR compiled a progress report to show the status of the People's Agenda issues. Though property taxes were not addressed, a law was passed creating a "do not call" list for telemarketers. Some 800,000 Hoosiers signed up, freeing themselves of unwanted phone calls. Six of the 10 issues on the People's Agenda were addressed by the legislature.

The partners used the format to tackle several other issues in 2001. They sent surveys to hundreds of high-achieving high school students in Central Indiana, asking for their suggestions on improving education for a project called "Ameritchieve." Seventy-nine percent of the respondents identified teacher quality as the key to a good education. Respondents were invited to a public forum on April 22, 2001,to discuss how to attract and retain quality teachers and some 200 attended. A public forum on race followed on June 26, 2001, attracting more than 200 participants. A town hall meeting, Oct. 15, 2001, on national security attracted nearly 400 people. WFYI joined the partnership and aired a one-hour special on the forum on Oct. 21.

The biggest criticism the project received was that its research on the People's Agenda had been unscientific - depending on those who took the time to cast a ballot. So, with the remaining funds from the Pew Center, the partners extended their collaboration into 2002 with a scientific survey, conducted by randomly generated phone calls to all but three Indiana counties, on The People's Agenda for 2002. Again taxes were high on the agenda with education a close second. WFYI broadcast a second town hall meeting from the Capitol and the partners continued to track the legislature's action throughout its 2002 session.

Contact:

Young-Hee Yedinak
13 Listens Coordinator
WTHR-TV
1000 N. Meridian Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 655-5619
Email: yyedinak@wthr.com

Jon Schwantes
Assoc. Editor/Director, New Partnerships
Indianapolis Star
PO Box 146
Indianapolis, IN 46206
Phone: (317) 444-4000
Email: jonschwantes@starnews.com

Paul Stauber
Producer
WTHR-TV
1000 N. Meridian Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: (317) 655-5775
Email: 13listens@wthr.com

Muncie, IN 1998

Partners:

The Muncie Star-Press
WLBC-FM

When Indiana legislators met in 1999 to begin restructuring the state tax system, they had a good understanding of what their constituents thought about the issue, thanks to a booklet called "Hoosiers Talk Taxes," the culmination of a yearlong project to inject citizen voices into the debate over tax reform.

The first effort in the project was to educate journalists themselves about the complex issues surrounding tax reform. Economics professors from three Indiana universities held a seminar that attracted 20 journalists, in June 1998. The session aired live on WLBC and was broadcast later on cable.

A five-part series, "Tax Reform: Finding a Balance," ran in The Star Press from Oct. 3 to Oct. 7, 1998. It included the results of a mail survey completed by 223 Muncie area residents, showing property taxes to be by far the most unpopular tax in the state. On Oct. 6, the partners sponsored a public forum, attended by 103 people, including eight legislators, to discuss the results.

The survey results also helped guide a statewide poll of 507 Indiana residents, in late October and November, which showed most Hoosiers favored increasing so-called "sin" taxes on tobacco and alcohol. The survey results and coverage were included in "Hoosiers Talk Taxes," mailed to the governor and every member of the General Assembly in early 1999.

The issue languished until the summer of 2002, when the governor called the legislature into a special session to resolve the issue. The Assembly ended up changing the assessment system for property taxation and increasing the state income tax and sales taxes on tobacco and alcohol, thus taking the pressure off local property taxes - all measures explored in the 1999 series.

Contact:

Larry S. Lough
Editor
The Star Press
345 South High Street
Muncie, In 47305
Phone: (765) 213-5700
Email: llough@thestarpress.com