08_Last days of civic journalism_JP

This article was downloaded by:[informa internal users] On: 14 May 2008 Access Details: [subscription number 755239602] Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journalism Practice Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t762290976 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM Joyce Y. M. Nip Online Publication Date: 01 June 2008 To cite this Article: Nip, Joyce Y. M. (2008) 'THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM', Journalism Practice, 2:2, 179 — 196 To link to this article: DOI: 10.1080/17512780801999352 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512780801999352 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article maybe used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM The case of the Savannah Morning News Joyce Y. M. Nip Almost 15 years after it started, civic journalism is waning. Some say that its practices have been integrated into the routines of news making without the label attached. Others say that it is simply dying. This study seeks to define the legacy of civic journalism by investigating the news practices in Savannah Morning News, a newspaper in Georgia, USA. Ethnographic observation and interviews found that the ideas of civic journalism were instituted in the newspaper through its presentation and the routines of discovering community news. However, it was less obvious in the discovery and gathering of news about larger events and issues. The role of the news organization in convening the public for problem solving has continued, but the role of championing particular solutions was not observed. KEYWORDS civic journalism; civic mapping; news making; news sources; participatory journalism; public journalism Introduction Jay Rosen and Davis ‘‘Buzz’’ Merritt coined the term ‘‘public journalism’’ in 1993 to refer to a movement which would become the ‘‘best organized social movement inside journalism in the history of the American press’’ (Schudson, 1999). Almost 15 years have now passed, and the ideas of public (or civic) journalism have spread to other countries. However, doubts have recently been raised as to whether civic journalism is in decline or whether it is only the label that has been discarded, while its practices have become integrated into daily news making instead of largely being exercised in special projects, as had initially been the case. In 1997 Jay Rosen wrote, ‘‘If public journalism one day loses its name, becoming ‘just good journalism,’ it will have succeeded’’ (Rosen, 1997, p. 8). Has such a situation in fact materialized? The goal of this paper is to examine the integration of civic journalism in the daily routines of news making. Ideas and Techniques of Civic Journalism Supporters and critics do not always agree on what constitute civic journalism, except that a wide range of practices exist. Taking reference from previous writings (Blazier and Lemert, 2000; Charity, 1995; Ford, 2000; Grimes, 1999; Lambeth, 1998; Schaffer, 1996a, 1996b, 2001a, 2001b), I have identified six major practices. The list surpasses previous attempts at defining civic journalism (e.g. Blazier and Lemert, 2000; Grimes, 1999) in that it includes the components of both ideas and techniques. Most endeavors that carry the name civic journalism typically employ some, not all, of these practices: Journalism Practice, Vol. 2, No 2, 2008 ISSN 1751-2786 print/1751-2794 online/08/020179-18 – 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17512780801999352 180 JOYCE Y. M. NIP Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Listening to the public to help shape the news agenda . Listening techniques include conducting polls, surveys, town hall meetings, focus groups, readers’ panels, and organizing intimate living room or kitchen conversations. . Community coordinators, often paid for by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, are used to organize the events (Grimes, 1999). . The organized events are themselves reported. . Reporters go to ‘‘third places,’’ where ‘‘people gather to talk and do things together’’ (Harwood and McCrehan, 2000), to listen to the people’s concerns. . Newsrooms are made accessible (Schaffer, 1996b). . The effort to listen to the public is continuous and systematic (Lambeth, 1998), reshaping the news agenda in a back-and-forth cycle (Charity, 1995). Giving ordinary people a voice . Engaging in ‘‘civic mapping,’’ which ‘‘requires journalists to plunge a little deeper into the civic layers of our communities, beneath the official and quasi-official zone of elected officials and designated community leaders’’ (Schaffer, 2001a). . Interviewing differently: asking questions that open up the conversation; allowing people to talk at their own pace. . Citing more often or more prominently in the news the views of citizen organizations or unaffiliated individuals, or featuring ‘‘real people.’’ . More recent interactive techniques include website interactions and online games (Schaffer, 2001b; Thomas, 2002). Covering stories in a way that facilitates public understanding and stimulates citizen deliberation of the problems behind the stories . Presenting stories that focus on issues, sometimes providing historical background or other information connected to the issues. . Reporting on areas of agreement, rather than polarizing the issues (Blazier and Lemert, 2000). . Including in the story information about possible solutions to problems. . Revealing in news reports the values served by taking alternate courses of action (Blazier and Lemert, 2000). . Framing stories along the ‘‘master narrative,’’ which is the progress (or lack thereof) made by the community in solving the problem (Charity, 1995). Presenting news to make it more accessible and easier for people to engage in the issues . Paying attention to the ‘‘civic design’’ (Ford, 2000; Ritt, 1999) of newspapers, by employing fact boxes, check lists, issue maps, reader rails, grids, charts, and graphs. . Including ‘‘mobilizing information’’ in stories, which members of a news audience can use to ‘‘determine how, whether and where to express their attitudes in political influence processes’’ (Lemert et al., 1977). Engaging the community in problem solving . News organizations convene or sponsor meetings with community leaders and ordinary citizens. . Enlist readers to take part in efforts at problem solving (Corrigan, 1999). . Champion the solutions suggested by the community (Charity, 1995) Maximizing the impact of the coverage in the community . Print, television and broadcast news organizations form alliances in delivering certain stories (Grimes, 1999). Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM Research on civic journalism falls into five main categories: (1) discourses about its history and ideas; (2) an analysis of the content of the news, often in comparison to noncivic journalism news products; (3) case studies of civic journalism projects; (4) evaluative research on the effects of civic journalism; and (5) civic journalism education. The organization of news work in civic journalism is among the least studied aspect of the subject (Friedland, 2003; Massey, 1998). Civic Journalism in Daily News Work Sociological studies of news production suggest that news is the product of negotiations between and within institutional processes and practices while drawing upon cultural resources (Fishman, 1980; Tuchman, 1978). Outside the news organizations, news sources negotiate with journalists on mutual access and what gets reported. Within the news organization, journalists compete against each other for assignments and negotiate among themselves over what gets published. From the perspective of journalists, the organization of news making could be described as falling into four stages (Gans, 1979; McManus, 1994): 1. 2. 3. 4. Knowing from sources what is available for covering (discovery). Selecting what is suitable for covering (filtering). Gathering information and writing the stories (reporting). Deciding what is suitable (and how, when, and where) for publishing (selection). Research on news content has found that institutional, mostly official and particularly executive, sources dominate the news (Signal, 1973; Tuchman, 1978). Civic journalism champions the role of citizens in news making. What role do citizens play, in relation to the institutional news sources, in the news making in organizations that have had significant experience with civic journalism? Research Methods To answer the question, I conducted a case study of the Savannah Morning News (SMN). Cases studies are considered the appropriate strategy when ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘why’’ questions are asked about a contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context over which the investigator has little control (Yin, 1994). Data came from field observations, interviews, archival news reports, and internal and published documents. After obtaining initial agreement, I visited the SMN in Georgia on 13 December 2004, to prepare for my field observations. Between 10 January and 7 February 2005 I went in the SMN newsroom every weekday from around 9.30 am to 6 pm. On one occasion I stayed late to see through the process of putting the paper to bed, and occasionally I went in on a Saturday to see the operation on slow days. Except on two occasions, I attended the twice-a-day news meetings on weekdays. I also sat in other meetings that came up, observed interactions between journalists in the newsroom, and from time to time shadowed editors and reporters. Sound-recorded interviews were conducted with 21 present and three former journalists of the SMN. Many were interviewed more than once. Another six journalists of the newspaper provided information.1 The practices of news making, the meaning accorded to them, and the contexts in which they were seen (Becker, 1970) formed the 181 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 182 JOYCE Y. M. NIP focus of the interviews. The interview transcripts were sent back to the interviewees for confirmation. Follow-up correspondence by email in 2006 and 2007 with some of the interviewees provided updates. To minimize any effect of my research on the events, I restricted my presence to being a silent observer except when socializing was expected by the occasion. I certainly did not express any views on matters of journalistic planning, judgments, or values. However, given the SMN’s past support of civic journalism, my research topic might have prompted the interviewees to report more positively on related practices. The newspaper and the individuals each signed an agreement to release information for my research. Savannah Morning News Since 1963, the SMN has been owned by the Morris Communications Company, a private media company based in Augusta, Georgia (Morris Publishing Group website, 2006). Like most US newspapers, the SMN’s circulation has been declining for some years. Its areas of circulation have contracted, but in its main ones it remains the only daily newspaper. From 1998 to 2004, the SMN beat the larger dailies and won the General Excellence Award in Georgia four times (Crisp, 2004). The SMN is a good example of a civic journalism newsroom. A Pew Center study (Friedland and Nichols, 2002) documented that 96 percent of news organizations that led the 651 civic journalism projects published between 1994 and 2002 were newspapers. They made up at least one-fifth of all newspapers in the United States. Like nearly 45 percent of news organizations that have practiced civic journalism, the SMN is a small-to-mid-sized newspaper. At the time of my visit, it had a weekday paid circulation of almost 55,000 and a Sunday circulation of 67,450. Also, like 45 percent of the cases, the SMN serves a metropolitan area, with a household coverage of nearly 45 percent in the city zone of Savannah (Audit Report, 2004). However, news organizations that have practiced civic journalism for more than four years like SMN made up less than 20 percent of the cases. The SMN made some initial attempts to carry out civic journalism in 1994 when Lawrence Peterson was the city editor, but most of the civic journalism was initiated under the co-leadership of Rexanna Lester, the executive editor since 1995, and Daniel Suwyn, the managing editor since 1996. Like others, the SMN’s civic journalism started as projects. These included the 1999 ‘‘Aging Matters’’ series, and the 2001 ‘‘Vision 2010’’ education series, both of which won the James K. Batten Awards for Excellence in Civic Journalism. The stable leadership committed to civic journalism would have facilitated the integration of its practices into daily news making. Civic journalism in the SMN reached a turning point in 2005 when a new publisher arrived in early January. Suwyn left the paper at the end of the same month, and Lester stepped down in September. Since then, the newspaper and its website have undergone big changes. My visit, coinciding with the last days of the joint leadership of Lester and Suwyn, thus provided a rare opportunity for gauging the practices of civic journalism in its last days in the SMN. Newsroom Organization at the SMN At the time of my visit, the SMN newsroom was organized according to a team structure. This was a structure that became rather popular in the United States in the Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM 1990s (Schierhorn et al., 2001). Although it was first adopted in newsrooms without any connection to civic journalism (American Journalism Review, 1994), Lewis Friedland (2003) has commended it as a learning organization, which he believed was a prerequisite for transforming a traditional newsroom into a public one. The team structure places key decisions on the reporters. It encourages the development of shared expertise and discourages the formation of fiefdoms (American Journalism Review, 1994). Since reporters are on the frontline of the news organization’s contact with the community, it seems logical that the team structure should facilitate civic journalism if the teams could decide on what to report. Journalists in the SMN were organized into five topic teams and one planning team, under the executive editor, managing editors, and content development editor: (1) culture and community; (2) government and business; (3) justice; (4) quality of life; and (5) sports (see Appendix A). Each team was headed by an editor and an assistant editor and, with the exception of the culture and community team, comprised four to seven reporters and one photographer. Within each team, the reporters were each assigned special beat responsibilities, with the understanding that each had to cover for the others when needed. The assistant team editors doubled up as copy editors. Stories were generally content-edited by the team editors first, and then sub-edited by the assistant team editors before being passed on to the chief copy editor. All of the teams together made a newsroom staff of fewer than 70 people. On weekdays, the home edition of the broadsheet newspaper consisted of four sections, each normally ranging from four to eight pages. Most of the A section, except A1, contained wire stories. The B section, ‘‘Coastal Empire,’’ was for local and regional general stories. Section C, ‘‘Accent,’’ was the community and lifestyle section, and D was sports. The teams wrote for all sections of the newspaper except for sports, and the entertainment section (called ‘‘Diversions’’), which replaced ‘‘Accent’’ on Thursdays. The neighborhood pull-out sections, ‘‘Closeups,’’ distributed free-of-charge every Thursday, published pieces contributed by members of the community. The teams budgeted their stories separately. In the daily news meetings, the team editors reported their budgets and, together with members of the planning team, agreed on the budget of the newspaper for the following day. There seemed to be hardly any arguments at the meetings about where stories should go. However, on several occasions, what was recorded at the meeting was subsequently overridden through negotiation between reporters or team editors, and the planning and night editors. Team leaders met once a week with the managing editor to plan longer-term stories. Ad hoc project groups involving members from multiple teams were formed from time to time. In the four weeks of my observation, I sat in meetings of four ad hoc groups that coordinated the Black History Month, St. Patrick’s Day, Iraq elections, and race relations project, respectively. Setting the News Agenda Discovering Stories The SMN’s reporters were expected to generate stories. The police, courts, and government beats were the most reliant on official institutions for story discovery. At the time of observation, the K to 12 education beat was also heavily tied to the official 183 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 184 JOYCE Y. M. NIP procedures over the campaign that was being launched to suspend some members of the school board. The other beats relied most heavily on quasi-official institutions and individual employees of those institutions for story ideas, despite the desire of civic journalism to go beyond official and quasi-official sources. The ‘‘news net’’ (Tuchman, 1978) was no longer spatially, but electronically, anchored. Reporters learned about upcoming happenings from press releases and meeting agenda published by the institutions on the Internet, and by calling and emailing their human sources. Reporters were observed working from the office a great deal, including making phone calls. In the SMN, the police and court beats seemed to be the only ones that were still more or less spatially anchored. The police reporter went to the police headquarters every weekday morning to check the crime incident reports recorded in the past 24 hours. While there, she tried to meet with the police investigators or the information officer to get further information about selected incidents. After returning to the newsroom, she listened to the scanner while trying to get further details from the police. For important cases, she would try to talk to the ordinary people involved. In the evenings, those staying took over the monitoring of the scanner. Four reporters shared among themselves the coverage of government. This seemed a disproportionate number, given the SMN’s small staff, particularly given the focus of civic journalism on ordinary people. The city reporter, Bret Bell (20 January 2005),2 who had worked in the SMN for four years, explained that the division of work was a legacy of a former government editor. While agreeing that government coverage did not warrant four reporters, he welcomed the arrangement for allowing him time to pursue in-depth stories, one being ‘‘Justice Betrayed,’’ which won him the Freedom of Information Award by the Georgia Press Association (Crisp, 2004). Official meetings were events that the government team always covered. In contrast, the meetings of the neighborhood associations were normally not covered. The municipal reporter, acknowledging that neighborhood associations were useful news sources, said that covering government meetings made the task of meeting the four-bylines-a-week quota easier (18 January 2005). Reporters were expected to produce three (10-inch) dailies and one (30
40-inch) weekender every week. The county reporter (31 January 2005) said that the sources he dealt with the most were county managers and heads of county government departments. Most of his stories originated from government meetings, not merely as decisions made but as issues raised, which he would then follow up. Similarly, the assistant team editor of the quality of life team said that most of the stories of her team originated from sources in various levels of government. But then the content was about how the lives of the people were affected (13 December 2004). This is consistent with previous findings that in civic journalism citizen sources are used to personalize issues (Haas, 2001). The poverty beat is a rarity for small newspapers like the SMN, but was seen as answering to the needs of the mainly black and poor Savannah community. The poverty reporter, Jan Skutch, appeared to have no problems in getting story ideas after having worked in the paper for 34 years. He said that his main news sources were the officials of the relevant government departments, and non-profit-making organizations. Ordinary people would also phone him with story tips from time to time. To get ‘‘real people’’ into stories, he relied on referrals from the non-profit organizations because he considered it disrespectful to approach people on locations where they sought help. He did not cover Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM meetings, but sometimes got story ideas from meeting agenda and press releases (13 January 2005). Another beat that relied heavily on social service organizations as news sources was the non-profits beat. The non-profits reporter said she considered her role to be mainly that of watchdog over the non-profit organizations. She also sought the help of these organizations in referring ‘‘real people,’’ but she would ask those people to further introduce her to their friends, for fear that they might say positive things about the agencies that referred them (7 February 2005). Likewise, the history and the religion beats relied most heavily on quasi-institutional sources such as museums and churches for story ideas (History reporter, 5 February 2005; Religion reporter, 4 February 2005). Planning Projects Election projects gave greater opportunity for ordinary people to help shape the news agenda. Listening techniques had fed into election reporting from the 1995 city council elections (David Donald, 3 February 2005; Politics reporter, 17 January 2005; Rexanna Lester, 13 December 2004; Steve Thomas, 21 February 2005). Steve Thomas, who worked in the SMN from 1990 to 2002, said that when he was the government and business editor, the SMN held community forums and conducted a survey asking the citizens about their concerns. During the 1996 and 1997 elections, the newspaper asked readers to volunteer their homes, and invite a dozen friends and neighbors over to a backyard barbecue. The paper would buy the food and send a couple of reporters and a photographer over to listen and report on the issues raised. The local NBC affiliate, with which SMN worked, filmed the barbecues (Sally Mahan, 4 March 2005; Steve Thomas, 21 February 2005). The municipal reporter recalled that during the mayoral and city council elections in 2003, he and the city reporter spent three to five hours on each of four afternoons visiting four neighborhoods, each of a different demographic composition. They walked around randomly and talked to a total of approximately 30 people about the issues that concerned them (City reporter, 28 January 2005; Municipal reporter, 27 January 2005). The government and business team editor, Pamela Walck, recalled that she had carried out a similar exercise as a reporter during the 2000 county elections (28 January 2005). Listening techniques were used in projects from time to time, not as part of a news routine but as part of a ‘‘culture,’’ as some put it. Backyard barbecues were discontinued after Tuck Thompson, the government editor then and a strong advocate of civic journalism, left in 2003 (Pamela Walck, 21 July 2006). During the county elections in 2004, no community listening techniques were used to inform coverage, because, Walck said (27 January 2005), the newsroom was too occupied with the G8 summit that was being held near Savannah. The departure of a number of journalists steeped in civic journalism from 2000 to 2004 removed much of the initiative and knowledge about civic journalism from the newsroom. Discounting sports, two of the four topic team editors at the time of my observation had no experience in civic journalism. Whether the culture of civic journalism in the newsroom would continue was in question, as journalists hired into the newsroom were not always briefed about the philosophy or techniques of civic journalism (Bret Bell, 20 January 2005; Daniel Suwyn, 18 January 2005). A re-visiting of the 1994 race relations project was going on at the time of my visit. It did not start as a civic journalism project but the managing editor had suggested injecting 185 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 186 JOYCE Y. M. NIP an element of community listening into it. During the period of observation, the SMN had conducted a survey and held focus groups, moderated by a university professor, with selected black, Hispanic and white citizens, respectively. A meeting that brought together members of the three focus groups was being planned to discuss the survey results. It was also Suwyn who suggested introducing components of civic journalism into a reporting series, ‘‘Left Behind: Black males and public schools,’’ first published on 9 April 2004. The higher education reporter had obtained a grant from the National Education Writers Association for the project, based on a proposal without any element of civic journalism in it. In response to the heated reception to the series, the newspaper held a community forum in early May. Responding to the issues raised at the forum, the higher education reporter, Jenel Few, wrote more stories in the following months (Few, 28 January 2005). The series later won first prize at the 2004 National Awards for Education Reporting. In the first of a series of Savannah neighborhood profile stories published just before my study visit, a civic mapping technique was used (Daniel Suwyn, 18 January 2005). This time, the reporter did not hit the streets or knock on people’s doors at random. To write the Thomas Square profile, the non-profits reporter visited and talked to leaders of citizen associations, and snowballed her contacts in identifying the informal leaders of the neighborhood (13 January 2005). The exercise, like those conducted for previous election projects, could map out the social and information network of the community. Unfortunately, no mechanism was instituted for the contacts that were thereby obtained to be shared beyond the reporter and her editor. Two routinized mechanisms that facilitated citizen input into the news agenda were observed. One consisted of readers’ advisory panels, which met bi-monthly (Daniel Suwyn, 13 December 2004). A panel of five women and two men, one of whom was black, came to the newsroom on 25 January 2005. After each in turn giving suggestions about the newspaper for a total of 40 minutes, they sat in the afternoon news meeting and were invited to decide from the news budget what stories would go on the front page of the following day’s paper. This arrangement, if conducted regularly, would go beyond listening to the people to shape the news agenda, but relegating the decision about news values to (selected members of) the community, one of the practices for which civic journalism had come under severe criticism. The other mechanism was built into the design of the newspaper: every newsroom-generated story carried the reporter’s byline with her telephone number and email address. Email addresses all followed a standard format of ‘‘first name.last name@savannahnow.com,’’ and were posted on the SMN’s website. Giving People a Voice Identifying Citizen Sources The first day I visited SMN (13 December 2004), Daniel Suwyn, the managing editor, said they no longer do civic mapping regularly. He later explained that given the downsizing of the newsroom, it was not an efficient way of producing stories on a day-today basis (27 January 2005; 4 February 2005). A few years back, the newsroom had about 75 positions with two to three vacancies (Pamela Walck, 21 July 2006). At the time of my visit, it had 67 people with four vacancies. Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM Under Tuck Thompson, government reporters were required to go and talk to ordinary people for at least one day a week without the goal of doing any particular story (Bret Bell, 20 January 2005). They were charged with adding at least one name a week to an index card box shared among team members. Even then, the systematic incorporation of civic journalism into day-to-day news making did not seem widespread in the newsroom. Bell (20 January 2005) believed that the government team was the only one that did civic mapping back then. Like community listening, the practices of seeking out voices of the people did not form part of the organization of work. These practices were discontinued as the people overseeing them left. The compilation of the index card box, together with regular civic mapping, stopped when Thompson was succeeded by an editor with little idea about civic journalism (Bret Bell, 20 January 2005; Pamela Walck, 21 July 2006). Of the 14 SMN reporters interviewed, only two said that they visited ‘‘third places’’ from time to time. An internal document, ‘‘Savannah Morning News Newsroom Competencies,’’ asks journalists to, among other things: . . . . select varied and diverse sources; know the community before reporting on it; use more than words and numbers (e.g. use people to embody analysis); seek subjects in the communities that could educate and inform the readership of the region’s varied cultures. The undated document, which was probably written around 2000 judging by the names of the people in the drafting committee, could have translated some of the ideas of civic journalism into guidelines for news making. Unfortunately, it was not disseminated widely. Most of the journalists who were asked specifically about it said that they were unaware of it (Environment reporter, 21 January 2005; Justice editor, 24 January 2005; Quality of Life assistant editor, 24 January 2005). None of the editors and reporters who were interviewed suggested that the management made any direct connection between the document and performance evaluations. Including Citizens in Stories Citizens could form part of stories in two ways: (1) when cited as news sources, and (2) when telling their views or stories in their own words. The latter gives them greater control over the content, and is a practice now commonly used in participatory journalism (Nip, 2006). When asked, the reporters interviewed all valued the inclusion of citizens in stories because they made the stories more real. By comparison, the value accorded to breaking news per se did not seem very high, seemingly confirming one of the criticisms on public journalism that it ‘‘softens’’ the news (Corrigan, 1999). The ‘‘Crime and criminal justice reporting policy’’ that was being re-drafted at the time stated that they would go beyond merely covering significant breaking news, but also ‘‘the response and administration of our public safety agencies,’’ and the ‘‘actions and solutions that citizens [could] take to effectively respond both individually and collectively.’’ An illustrative incident was a killing to which the police were alerted before 9 pm on 19 January 2005. It was not reported until 21 January on the front page of the A section, together with an interview and a picture of the victim’s mother, plus a short biography of the victim. In the 187 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 188 JOYCE Y. M. NIP newsroom, the news staff generally did not monitor television news, of which they had a low opinion. The Closeup editor, who had been with the SMN for over 10 years, said that seven or eight years earlier the paper had stopped reporting traffic accidents and fires unless there was loss of life (2 February 2005). It was only in community news that the practice of handing over space to the people formed part of the work routines. Stories in Closeups*SMN’s pull-out neighborhood sections (one edition for each neighborhood)*were written entirely by unpaid freelancers (Culture and community assistant editor, 13 December 2004). The annual Neighborhood Newsroom program, a supporting operation that had been started in 2001, trained members of the community into correspondents, who could then move into the sports, business, and entertainment sections of the daily paper, and eventually into staff jobs. They looked for trainees who lived and worked in neighborhoods that were under-represented in the newsroom and in the newspaper’s usual areas of circulation (S. Corrigan, 2001). The idea, however, did not work out entirely as expected. Only one of all of the previous graduates ever made it as a member of the staff, and only for one year. As of January 2005, none of the Closeup freelancers was a graduate of the program (Culture and Community editor, and assistant editor, 13 December 2005). The daily ‘‘vox populi’’ column in the ‘‘Accent’’ section published short (around 50 words) quotes from members of the community. The newspaper initiated these by posting questions to solicit responses, but readers could also phone or email in their comments on other issues. The better submissions were edited before publication. Handing over space was a practice that SMN used often in projects. The Black History month coverage that ran from 29 January through February 2005 published essays written by local middle and high school students*alongside reports written by staff journalists*answering questions like: ‘‘How has the Civil Rights Movement changed the way you live today?’’ ‘‘What person or event in black history has had the greatest influence on your life?’’ and ‘‘What needs to happen to improve race relations?’’ After the conclusion of the ‘‘Left Behind’’ series, representatives of education programs serving black males were invited to write brief accounts of their programs (SMN, 25 May 2004). In one of the planning meetings for the race relations project, some suggested setting up video cameras in the neighborhoods for people to record their stories. The same suggestion came up in a planning meeting for the St. Patrick’s Day’s coverage. In the latter context, the same technique would not advance democratic participation, although it might enhance a sense of community. Community is never defined in civic journalism, but it seems to be identified with the neighborhood and with ‘‘local, territory-based, grass-roots organizations’’ (Schudson, 1999, p. 127). In the SMN, the voice of the people had a place in the routine organization of work only in the community and neighborhood sections of the newspaper. In the sections that cover ‘‘larger’’ issues, journalists would decide from time to time whether the people were to be included. Presenting News in Accessible and Engaging Ways Both the planning editor and night editor of the SMN were designers. Designers always formed part of the reporting project planning teams. Some in the newsroom raised Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM the criticism that the emphasis on design had tipped the balance to ‘‘design over content’’ (Closeup editor, 2 February 2005). The SMN’s presentation guidelines identified 11 story types, including an innovative ‘‘Q&A’’ approach and ‘‘format’’ types. A 26 January 2005 A1 story written according to the ‘‘developments format,’’ ‘‘Judgment day for Golson recall,’’ included two one-column breakout boxes: If YOU GO What: The hearing to decide if the accusations made against School Board President Hugh Golson have merit. When: 1 p.m. Where: Courtroom 1 of the Chatham County Courthouse Judge: Sr. Judge James Harvey of Bryan County [State law requires that a judge from outside the judicial circuit involved hear the case.] KEEPING SCORE Jackie Sommers and Small . . . . . . Twice failed to gather enough signatures to receive a petition to recall District 3 school board member DeWayne Hamilton. Submitted a flawed application against District 2 school board member Daniel Frazier. Missed the deadline for turning in their application targeting District 1 member Susu Cox. The first breakout box contained mobilizing information (Lemert et al., 1977) that facilitated the reader to act as citizen. The second minimized the reader’s effort in acquiring information. Suwyn said that elements of civic design like breakout boxes had been ingrained into the newsroom without the label civic journalism attached to them (4 February 2005). Under the guidelines for five of the story types*‘‘dailies,’’ ‘‘daily enterprises,’’ ‘‘weekenders,’’ ‘‘short-term projects,’’ and ‘‘long-term projects’’*were these sentences: ‘‘Use a photo, graphic, breakouts and WEB link to add another dimension to the story. Use the WEB to enhance this type through audio, video, slide shows or WEB chats.’’ The guidelines seem to have been unevenly implemented. Photographs, graphics, and breakout boxes were commonly observed, but use of the web was less common. The paper’s website normally contained the same in-house-produced content as the print newspaper. One evening at 7, the police reporter intended to post an update of a crime story on the web but was unable to find the web producers. Public postings on the online forum normally did not relate to the news content. The newsroom used the forum and live chat functions consciously only in selected projects. Regular use of the web for story enhancement or updates was difficult given that there were only two people in the web team, who were often frustrated by problems created by the Digital Technology content management system. Individual stories aside, the weekly Monday crime map on the front of the B section spatially presented all the crimes reported one week earlier. It stayed on the web throughout the entire week. Writing was another presentation element in which resources were invested. One of the main duties of the content development editor was to edit the writing of weekend and project stories and coaching the reporters involved about the elements of good writing. 189 190 JOYCE Y. M. NIP Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 Engaging People in Problem Solving Community problem solving hinges on two things: (1) having the information needed to discuss the issue, and (2) having the opportunity to dialogue in a deliberative mood (Charity, 1995). Few query the role of the news media in providing adequate information, but many are skeptical that the news media should provide the opportunity for deliberation. The executive and managing editors of the SMN, however, did not have any problem with the newspaper playing the role of community convener. If we announce that we’re sponsoring something that’s going to be held . . ., two or three hundred people will show up . . . It’s not that we’re telling people what to think or how to think or what to do, but we have the ability to bring people together to facilitate the conversation, and that to me is what civic journalism is. (Rexanna Lester, 13 December 2004). The back-and-forth cycle ‘‘from listening to talking it over, listening to talking it over’’ (Charity, 1995) of community problem solving in civic journalism was evident in the ‘‘Left Behind’’ series. Although the series did not start from community listening, it provided the opportunity both for problem solving and listening to shape further reporting. On the first day of the publication of the series, the newspaper declared: ‘‘A community discussion begins . . .’’ The forum and online chats with education experts were announced in the newspaper for more than one day. Readers were encouraged to ‘‘join in the conversation’’ on an online forum specially created for the series (SMN, 9 April 2004, p. 1A). Excerpts from the online forum were published in the print paper on 10 April 2004. The announcement on the day of the public forum said: ‘‘Solutions will be the focus tonight . . .’’ (Savannah Morning News, 2004). In the forum that drew 300 people, Mayor Otis Johnson, who was himself black, called for a class action lawsuit against the school board (Few, 2004; Jenel Few, 28 January 2005). The call became the subject of discussion of the newspaper’s editorial on 9 May 2004. An invitation was extended to groups that worked with black males to submit 150-word statements for publication about how their programs had made a difference in the lives of black males (Few, 2004). Letters to the editor became a space not just for the voice of the people, but an arena for public dialogue as well. A letter dated 13 May 2004, for example, responded to an earlier one dated 4 May 2004 about whether the education system was the prime cause of the lack of school achievement among black males. Another letter dated 10 July 2004 suggested male-only classes in elementary schools as a solution. As in ‘‘Vision 2010,’’ the ‘‘Left Behind’’ project had facilitated citizen action. Even one year afterwards, the Savannah State University and Armstrong Atlantic State University were hosting an African-American Male Initiative Program (Few, 2005). However, unlike in ‘‘Vision 2010,’’ the newspaper was no longer involved in pushing for solutions to the problem reported in ‘‘Left Behind.’’ This retreat from the role of advocate is consistent with what has been found elsewhere (Friedland, 2003). Conclusion Ten years after the SMN started practicing civic journalism, journalists in the SMN still associated the label with projects (Bret Bell, 20 January 2005; Jenel Few, 28 January 2005; Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM Rexanna Lester, 4 February 2005). Bret Bell considered projects to be the form that was needed to realize the best of civic journalism (4 February 2005). For example, convening the community to search for solutions to problems could not be achieved easily in daily reporting. The reporters saw the higher editors, not themselves, as initiators of civic journalism projects (Bret Bell, 20 January 2005; Education reporter, 12 January 2005; Pamela Walck, 21 July 2006; Politics reporter, 10 January 2005; Quality of Life editor, 11 January 2005). After Suwyn departed on 31 January 2005 and Lester became a columnist of the paper in September 2005, the impetus for initiating civic journalism projects died. The race relations project never materialized as a published series. Even more controversial was the practice of championing solutions raised by the community, to which Mary Mayle, a former SMN city editor brought in as a special reporter for the ‘‘Vision 2010’’ project, maintained her opposition. She considered it improper for the SMN to have helped to form the board of management of the Excellence Fund following the ‘‘Vision 2010’’ project, and for its managing editor to sit on the board. Bret Bell felt otherwise. Referring to the Savannah River water project, another project funded by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism and one in which he was involved, the city reporter said, [A]s far as taking a group of people and having them help guide your coverage, ask the right questions and push for answers, or at least help them push their agenda forward, I think is good . . . [I]t makes some people uneasy . . . It’s sort of removing ourselves from the traditional objective role as a journalist and moving more toward public advocacy, which is uncomfortable sometimes. But for stuff like the project that I worked on, [which] was trying to get the legislature to shape some kind of a sound water policy that benefits the community, I mean, it’s our community too. And I think we should play a part in helping to set that policy. I do. (4 February 2005) Perhaps the controversy could be laid to rest if the news organization’s role of champion is confined to the editorial pages, a practice that former SMN team editor Sally Mahan prefers (4 March 2005). Conceiving of civic journalism as projects, some doubted whether it could be done on a sustained basis. ‘‘If you do it all the time you will neglect your daily responsibility to tell people what’s going on in the world around them. And if you focus too much on one project, however praiseworthy, you’re abdicating your responsibilities’’ (Politics reporter, 17 January 2005). Focusing on issues, typical of civic journalism, could mean giving less emphasis to event reporting, which seemed to be the case with the SMN at the time of my visit. On a day-to-day level, the identified practices of civic journalism that were routinized in the SMN were: . . . . . organizing readers’ advisory panels; listing the contacts of journalists; excerpting quotes by citizens in ‘‘vox populi’’ in the community ‘‘Accent’’ section; accepting freelance contributions to the neighborhood section, ‘‘Closeups;’’ and providing guidelines for user-friendly design and writing. With these features, citizens obtained news information more easily. They could also air their views and tell their stories. But their writing was restricted to the neighborhood 191 Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 192 JOYCE Y. M. NIP section. They did not have access to the other sections of the paper, where larger issues were reported. Previously tried mechanisms of active listening to the community, such as civic mapping, or regular visiting of ‘‘third places,’’ were not routinized. The practices still in place could not achieve civic journalism’s goal of engaging the community in deliberation to solve problems. As one of the members who attended the reader’s panel said to Daniel Suwyn after the meeting, ‘‘vox populi’’ was like an exchange of comments. Instead, she suggested, it should be used for exploring solutions to problems (Daniel Suwyn, 25 January 2005; 27 January 2005). The routine practices described above could quite easily be changed by the reallocation of resources, and modification of work procedures and guidelines. Towards the end of my observation period, a re-designing of the paper was underway. The team structure, which had been in place for nine years (Rexanna Lester, 13 December 2004; Daniel Suwan, 4 February 2005), was dismantled after the departure of Suwyn and Lester. The Neighborhood Newsroom program had also ceased running. Although the team structure has been seen as a form that facilitates civic journalism, not every journalist in the SMN concurred with this view. When civic journalism took the form of projects, team editors who were not involved might be unwilling to release their reporters from their daily reporting duties. Mary Mayle said that the newsroom was not excited when the year-long ‘‘Vision 2010’’ project was going on; none of the team editors joined the community meetings that were held (28 January 2005). The same resource concern arose when Jenel Few reported on the ‘‘Left Behind’’ series. As public reaction encouraged further reporting in the months following the initial publication of the series, Few had to stop when required to resume daily education reporting duties after the departure of the education reporter from the paper (Jenel Few, 28 January 2005). The team structure has been thought to discourage the forming of fiefdoms and to encourage the sharing of expertise. The experience in the SMN showed that this was not always the case. One of the reporters complained that since photographers were assigned to teams, the flexibility in allocating photographers was lost. Projects that involved journalists across teams might have made good use of available expertise, but extra time for coordination and execution was required. In the Black History Month project, where reporters from different teams worked together, the stories took longer to edit because they went from one team editor to the other. On the positive side, however, reporters filled in more readily for other reporters within the team (Jenel Few, 28 January 2005; Nonprofits reporter, 13 January 2005). It was also true that when potential competition arose between reporters, as it did on one occasion when a government reporter and an environment reporter, who were on different teams, discovered the same story simultaneously, conflict was avoided by communication (assistant Government and Business editor, 13 December 2004). Reporters also suggested incidents when sources were passed from one reporter to another within the team and across teams to help others with their reporting (Non-profits reporter, 13 January 2005; Poverty reporter, 13 January 2005). But these amicable gestures might be to the credit of the personalities involved rather than of the system. In fact, one team editor recalled that a former team editor and some of her former reporters had caused difficulties in the work relationship. As for the practices that relied on the culture of civic journalism, they could come to a stop with a change in personnel, as described above, or with the imposition of new goals set by corporate management. Previous studies have shown that a new direction set by corporate management with a new editorial leadership could bring a sudden end to the Downloaded By: [informa internal users] At: 08:15 14 May 2008 THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM ideas or practices of civic journalism (Friedland, 2003). At a meeting held with the editors on 2 February 2005, the new SMN publisher, Julian Miller, said that his first priority was to cover the community with hyperlocal news. Since then, the SMN had experienced further cuts in the headcount in the newsroom, and another contraction in its circulation area (SMN, 18 July 2007). If the building of the community is contradictory, not complementary, to the building of the public, as Schudson (1999) suggested, the new direction of the paper could run contrary to civic journalism’s goal of encouraging participation in public life. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study was made possible by a Fulbright Research Grant for the period 1 September 2004 to 30 June 2005, during which the author, thanks to the agreement of Dean Thomas Kunkel, was affiliated as Fulbright Visiting Scholar with the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she greatly benefited from discussions with Professor Maurice Beasley, Professor Michael Gurevitch, Mr. Chris Hanson, Ms. Chris Harvey, Professor John Newhagen, Ms. Jan Schaffer, and Professor Carl Session Stepp. The author gives particular thanks to Ms. Jan Schaffer, the Executive Director of the Institute for Interactive Journalism, and Professor Leonard Witt, the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University, for their recommendations of newsrooms to carry out field observations. She is deeply grateful to the Savannah Morning News, who accommodated her as an observer, and to those who gave generously of their time amid very busy work schedules to be interviewed and provide information. NOTES 1. 2. In addition to the journalists, sound-recorded interviews were conducted with the advertising director, Kimberly Hoxie, and the pre-press Manager, Kathy Woods. The digital media content producer, Andie Larson, also provided information. Former SMN journalists that were interviewed were: David Donald, the former precision editor; Sally Mahan, a former team editor; Steve Thomas, the former assistant managing editor. The paper cites information obtained via private communication by placing the date of the communication in parentheses after the name of the source. 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