Taking Back our Neighborhoods/Carolina Crime Solutions Charlotte, NC 1994

Partners:

The Charlotte Observer
WSOC-TV (ABC)
WPEG-AM
WBTV (CBS)

Pew funds supported the hiring of a community coordinator, Charlene Price-Patterson, who was instrumental in organizing town meetings and focus groups and coordinating reader response.

Reporting started with a computer-assisted analysis of two years of crime statistics that helped the partners select which neighborhoods to focus on. They then polled 400 neighb orhood residents about what they believed to be the root causes of the crime rate. The partners also asked residents of each neighborhood to join an advisory panel that would help frame coverage and define what they saw as the causes and solutions.

Meanwhile, reporters hit the streets to do ground-level reporting on the crime situation in each neighborhood and to produce parallel reports about what worked in neighborhoods where crime was dropping. When the stories ran, the paper included boxes of very specific actions readers could take to help, including a "needs list" drawn up by residents of items and services that could be donated to make improvements in their neighborhoods. The paper also published a telephone number, manned by the United Way, where volunteers could sign up to help.

The response was large and immediate. Lawyers volunteered to use the legal process to shut down crack houses. Volunteers cleared a neglected community park, and started an after-school program and Girl Scout troops. The government also responded, razing unsafe buildings, improving sidewalks and storm drains, sending special police task forces into neighborhoods and launching recreational activities for children. In many of the neighborhoods, crime rates dropped.

Follow-up stories in subsequent years showed improvements continuing in most communities. The project won the 1996 Batten Award.

Contact:

Chuck Clark (former Government Editor, The Observer)
City Editor
Orlando Sentinel
633 N. Orange Avenue
Orlando, FL 32801
TEL: (407) 420-5468
EMAIL: cclark@orlandosentinel.com

Daily Civic Journalism Initiative, Charlotte, NC 1996

Partners:

The Charlotte Observer
WSOC-TV (ABC)
WPEG-AM
WBTV (CBS)

After the success of their major crime project, "Taking Back our Neighborhoods," the media partners spent a year trying to incorporate the civic journalism principles they had learned into daily reporting. Applying such tools as polling, public forums, listening posts and community partnerships on a quick-turn-around time frame, the partners found ways to improve coverage of breaking news.

For example, on March 24, 1996, the paper and WBTV published the results of a super-quick, random-sample pool - conceived on Thursday and published on Sunday - about nudity in the play "Angels in America." A touring production of the play stirred debate when a group of citizens demanded that an actor who appeared nude on stage be arrested for indecency. The poll found most people supported the director's right to include the scene and the controversy diminished.

A month later, the paper joined with WPEG to cover a dispute between local residents and young drivers who cruised in a neighborhood park. The paper covered a flare-up on Friday, April 26, with a package of explanatory stories and people suggesting solutions. The following Sunday, it co-sponsored a 90-minute broadcast forum at the radio station that included WPEG reporters taking questions from cruisers in the park.

One of the most successful experiments in civic coverage of breaking news was the partners' reporting on a new state law requiring schools to increase parent participation. In addition to the straight reporting, the paper published a graphic that listed the kinds of things volunteers could do even if they were available for short periods or only at night and a phone number to call to sign up. More than 300 people called a special phone bank, manned by local school districts, to volunteer.

Jennie Buckner
Editor and Vice President
The Charlotte Observer
600 S. Tryon St.
Charlotte, NC 28202
Phone: (704) 358-5001

Chuck Clark (Former government editor, The Observer)
City Editor
Orlando Sentinel
633 N. Orange Avenue
Orlando, FL 32801
TEL: (407) 420-5468
EMAIL: cclark@orlandosentinel.com

Fannie Flono
Associate Editor
The Charlotte Observer
P.O. Box 32188
Charlotte, NC 28202
TEL: (704) 358-5079
FAX: (704) 358-6166
EMAIL: flono@charlotteobserver.com