Teledirecto TV, San Antonio, TX 2001

Partners:

KVDA Channel 60 (Telemundo)

San Antonio's Spanish-language television station made history in May 2001 by integrating viewers into its newscasts through Web cameras in their homes. The feature, "Teledirecto TV," was incorporated into regular newscasts at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to add the voice of ordinary citizens to those of experts and politicians on stories that impact the public.

The station identified "neighborhood correspondents," citizens chosen on the basis of their involvement and interest in the community, and installed Web cams - video cameras with built-in microphones - in their homes. Pew support helped pay the salary of a special coordinator who reviewed the news budget for stories affecting the "correspondents," then asked them to appear on that evening's news. The correspondents had only to click on a couple of icons to activate the Web cam and add their views to those of the officials or experts appearing in the story.

The first two neighborhood correspondents were Mary Lou Mendoza, a wife and mother involved with special education at a local elementary school, and Andrea Garza, a dental assistant active in her church and other organizations. The station planned to install Web cams and computers in 40 San Antonio homes and hoped eventually to have 100 neighborhood correspondents.

Contact:

Emilio Nicolas, Jr.
VP, General Manager
KVDA Channel 60
6234 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX 78218
Phone: (210) 340-8860
Email: exnicolas@telemundo.com

Civic Radio Station, Austin, TX 2001

Partners:

KUT-FM (Public Broadcasting)
University of Texas
The Austin American Statesman

When KUT decided to develop a local news program, its director saw an opportunity to create a "civic" newsroom, building his operation from the ground up with the principless of civic journalism in mind. Pew funding allowed the station to research the community-its make-up and its needs - with tools such as focus groups, polls and mapping, to launch a local news presence that engages citizens in public life. The Austin American Statesman joined the research effort to aid its own reporting on community issues.

Between March and May 2001, the University of Texas Office of Survey Research interviewed 600 people in the Austin area and found broad support for civic journalism values as well as recommendations for the most pertinent areas to cover. While the survey found Austin's traffic a major concern, respondents didn't want more traffic coverage. Nor were they interested in more weather coverage. They were most interested in more coverage of education, science, government and the arts.

The partners conducted two focus groups to gather more specific information. One was composed of Latinos, the other a more diverse groups representing the balance of Austin citizens. Both groups expressed cynicism about the media and placed a high value on the media motivating people to action.

In June, the station held a two-day conference to write the standards and practices of the new news department. The hiring of the staff was a rather lengthy process but in February 2002, local coverage began. In March, the station aired profiles of candidates in the primary election, as well as a series of commentaries on issues in the primaries. The station's long-term plan was to partner with public television to produce a series of reports and town meetings on the difficult economic times.

Contact:

Stewart Vanderwilt
Director and GM
KUT-FM (NPR), University of Texas
Communication Building B
Austin, TX 78712-1090
Phone: (512) 471-1631
Email: vanderwilt@mail.utexas.edu

Don Heider
Asst. Professor, School of Journalism
University of Texas-Austin
Austin, TX 78712
Phone: (512) 471-1965
Email: donheider@mail.utexas.edu

Race Relations in El Paso, El Paso, TX 1998

Partners:

KVIA-TV (ABC)

In this largely Hispanic town on the Mexican border, the media partners opened a conversation on race, immigration and language with a series built around a poll of 1,008 residents in English and Spanish.

The first step the partners took was to convene a panel of academic and civic leaders, who met almost weekly through December and January of 1997, crafting the language of the poll's questions. For example, a question on bi-lingual education was changed from "Do you favor ending bi-lingual education?" to "Do you support bi-lingual education?"

The poll was conducted in February 1998 by interviewers who spoke both English and Spanish. The results were reported in an eight-part series called "Attitudes and Answers," that began May 10, 1998. The poll found areas of agreement between Anglos and Hispanics but showed a major rift on the issues of affirmative action (most Hispanics supported it while most Anglos opposed it) and language (79 percent of Anglos favored making English the official language of the United States while only 42 percent of Hispanics felt that way).

On May 13, the partners held a town hall forum attended by 160 people, who agreed that though relations between Anglo and Hispanic El Paso residents are generally good, there lingered a subtle racism that was worthy of examination and discussion. Bob Moore, now executive editor, said both the poll and the forum provided the framework for people to feel comfortable discussing the issues.

Contacts:

Robert Moore
Executive Editor
El Paso Times
PO Box 20
El Paso, TX 79999
Phone: (915) 546-6145
Email: bmoore@elpasotimes.com

Kevin Lovell
General Manager
KVIA-TV (ABC)
4140 Rio Bravo Drive
El Paso, TX 79902
Phone: (915) 496-7777
Email: kevinl@kvia.com

Talking Race: A New Approach, Dallas, TX 2002

Partners:

WFAA-TV (ABC)

In "Talking Race: A New Approach," WFAA wanted to do just that - try something entirely new in encouraging discussions about race. Intrigued by the concept of "video boxes" - portable, self-contained, user-activated TV cameras that have shown an ability to elicit amazingly candid remarks - the station placed its version of the devices in shopping malls in the Dallas area and asked people two questions: What do you think of race relations in America? When did you become most aware of race?

The station used the responses as a jumping-off point for a three-part series and an interactive Web page. It also shared the responses with the Dallas Morning News, which used the "interviews" on the cover and several inside pages of its Sunday Reader section on the first day of the series, Sunday, June 30, 2002.

In addition to the video boxes, the station invited public response to its questions on race through the Web page www.wfaa.com/dialogureonrace. The Web page also asked users to answer one of the following questions: "As a person of color, what responsibility are you willing to take to help reach better understanding between the races?" or "As a white person, what responsibility are you willing to accept for past racial injustice and apply toward a better understanding between the races?" Nearly two dozen non-whites answered the first question and 30 white users answered the second. The full responses were posted on the site along with several of the unedited video box responses, links to other sites, the three-part series and an interview with a Utah-based academic who developed the "Mutual Responsibility Theory" of race relations. The page received 5,000 visits during the three days of the series.

To extend the reach of the series even further, the station involved two talk radio hosts - one with a largely African-American audience on KKDA-AM and one with a largely white, conservative audience on WBAP-AM - in its effort to foster constructive dialogue on race. Both hosts agreed to feature the Mutual Responsibility Theory as a topic for their morning drive shows on Tuesday, July 2.

The final installment of the series documented how the calls to the two stations went from knee-jerk opposition to the idea that all races have some responsibility for improving understanding to more thoughtful, reasoned responses and even some on-the-air soul-searching. Even the conservative radio host ended up urging listeners to reach out more so that "familiarity replaces the unfamiliarity that leads to racist feelings."

Contact:

PJ Ward
Field Producer
WFAA-TV
606 Young Street
Dallas, TX 75202
Phone: (214) 977-6542
Email: pjward@wfaa.com

Dallas, TX 1997

Partners:

The Arlington Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
KERA-FM
KERA-TV
The University of Texas, Arlington

The partners seized on an initiative by the city of Arlington to increase citizen participation with "We the City," a civic approach to covering the city's move toward a deliberative model of government. The first stories, Feb. 7, 1997, explained how the media partners' civic approach would track and complement the government's efforts to engage citizens, which included the convening of neighborhood focus groups to replace the more limited public hearings before City Council. Through the spring, the partners sponsored a "civic inventory" of 900 residents, conducted by the university's School of Urban and Public Affairs, to uncover the role of informal community leaders, the importance of incidental meetings among neighbors, and the impact of absentee landlords and renters on a community. The inventory provided a baseline for assessing and comparing the quality of life in various neighborhoods. The partners did stories on issues that surfaced through the inventory and the neighborhood focus groups, including code enforcement, growth and development. Their stories also reviewed what the city's efforts had accomplished and looked at how the city could further involve citizens in their government.

The project proved to be a watershed for the Morning News, which had been in existence less than a year when the project started. The previously skeptical lead reporter attended a Pew Center training seminar when the project was launched and, as a result, spent more time in Arlington's neighborhoods, talking to residents, rather than with public officials. Her reporting stood out in the highly competitive Dallas-Fort Worth market for its richness of sources and voices. Not only did the Arlington experiment prompt more people to get involved in government, it broke down barriers with the media, as more residents began calling the paper with story ideas, attending editor's meetings and writing columns and letters.

Marla Crockett
Asst. Dir., News & Public Affairs
KERA-FM (NPR)
3000 Harry Hines Road
Dallas, TX 75021
TEL: (214) 740-9349
FAX: (214) 740-9369
EMAIL: kerafm@metronet.com