Fall 1998
What’s Happening in Pew Projects
Portland, ME
Partners: The Portland Newspapers, Central Maine Newspapers, WGME-TV (CBS),
Maine Public Television, Maine Public Radio.
The Maine Sunday Telegram launched the project in August with a poll and is publishing weekly reports.
The new governor will be given a citizens’ agenda as a suggested road map for the next administration.
“Beyond the Ballot: Maine People on Maine’s Future,” the partners’ four-year commitment to focusing
on the top issues in the gubernatorial race and beyond – as decided by the people – is in full swing.
A statewide poll of 1,100 people highlighted regional differences. Jobs surfaced as the top concern
in all but the South, where the economy is the strongest and the unemployment rate the lowest in
the state. The poll identified the economy, including jobs and taxes, as the number one issue.
That was followed by social concerns, including care of children and the elderly and health care;
education; the environment; and crime and violence. The paper is also publishing the candidates’
ideas for addressing these issues.
The project launched a series of six forums in September, at least one for each of five regions in
the state, where poll respondents are first invited to identify and prioritize issues. Next they
have an opportunity to question candidates about those issues. WGME-TV is using the meetings as
a basis for news series on the issues.
Next January, the partners will publish 10,000 copies of a book about the statewide and regional
issues, including citizen stories, to show how these issues affect their lives. This citizens’
agenda for Maine, including suggested solutions, will be sent to state and local leaders.
Madison, WI
Partners: The Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin Public Television,
Wisconsin Public Radio, WISC-TV (CBS), Wood Communications Group.
The four earlier parts of the series engaged citizens and policy makers in a statewide The third program, “Land Use on Trial,” snared healthy ratings in July – once again The fourth program, an Aug. 26 broadcast, “Working in Wisconsin,” was preceded by statewide On Oct. 16, hundreds of citizens arecoming to Madison for a live, two-hour broadcast featuring
“We the People/Wisconsin” is wrapping up its series, “150 Years…And Counting,” with an Oct. 16
citizens’ forum with the candidates for governor and U.S. Senate.
conversation around four topics – family, race and culture, land use and work – that
represent the pillars of the last 150 years of human experience in Wisconsin.
demonstrating the partners’ ability to engage readers and viewers on this subject. Staged
as a mock trial on land use, the program aired at 5 p.m. on a Saturday. In the Madison area,
it attracted a combined rating and share of 8/34; it was 6/25 in the La Crosse area. A
retired state Supreme Court justice presided over the trial from a La Crosse county courthouse.
On hand were state and local officials, property rights advocates and a citizens’ watchdog group.
polling that examined citizen attitudes toward their jobs, their employers and labor unions.
A roundtable discussion in Eau Claire, site of a devastating auto-tire plant closing in 1992,
attracted employers, public officials and workers from across Wisconsin. A statewide workforce
council and a leading economic development council in Dane County responded with positive feedback.
the candidates for governor and U.S. Senate. The partners expect this “double-header,” to be
the major fall campaign event because several of the candidates have said they won’t engage in
many debates. The candidates will be presented with a portion of a “Citizens’ Charter,” a
guidepost built from suggestions and values developed by participants in the previous forums.
The student-published newspaper, The Bronx Journal, has been approved for use in the Bronx public As part of making the news accessible to the Bronx’s multi-cultural community, the weekly
Bronx, NY
Partners: BronxNet, The Multi-lingual Journalism Program of Lehman College.
The “Eyes on the Bronx” partnership scheduled two televised town meetings for this fall on AIDS
and Social Security. The first of the live, interactive programs linked the 17 campuses of the
City University of New York for a discussion on the impact of AIDS on college-age people. The
second, “Social Security and Generation X,” linked the campuses with participants in Puerto Rico.
For both programs, translators handled questions and comments in Spanish on the air.
schools, which will immediately increase its circulation from 7,000 to 13,000. Patricio Lerzundi,
director of Lehman’s Multi-lingual Journalism Program, said the schools asked for the 32-page
tabloid because it contains one-page news summaries in 12 foreign languages and because it deals
specifically with community news, including success stories and health issues particular to the
Bronx. The Journal recently added a children’s page as well.
television news magazine, “News 67” is being translated into French, Italian and Japanese.
A Korean-language version is planned next.
Muncie, IN
Partners: The Muncie Star Press, WLBC-FM, local access cable TV.
Muncie partners held an Oct. 6 public forum to discuss results of a citizens’ tax survey. Star
Press Editor Larry Lough said that survey, which focused on the Muncie area, is guiding a
statewide poll that will question citizens on the fairness of the current tax system, the
changes they prefer and their confidence in the legislature’s ability to execute tax reform.
Indiana’s tax system has been declared unconstitutional, forcing the next legislature to come
up with a new tax structure. The partners plan to release the larger poll before the legislature
meets in January so that legislators can have citizen input in the debate.
The partnership sponsored two meetings over the summer. In one, 20 journalists heard from
economics and tax-policy experts. The second, a citizens’ forum, drew 103 people, including
eight legislators, to discuss solutions to the tax question.
Respondents ranked education as their highest priority, followed by crime, morals and values, Respondents were also questioned about their knowledge of and support for ballot referenda on Project leader Dion Nissenbaum of The Press-Enterprise said the partners are using the findings
Los Angeles, CA
Partners: The Orange County Register, The Press-Enterprise, La Opinion, KCET-TV (PBS),
KCBS-TV, KPCC-FM, KCRW-FM (NPR).
“The Election Connection” is using results of a statewide poll of 600 voters, seeking which
issues Californians most want the gubernatorial candidates to address, to help drive the
partners’ election coverage. Joining the partnership in the poll were the Santa Barbara
News-Press, Santa Rosa’s The Press Democrat, KGO-TV of San Francisco and KFSN-TV of Fresno.
and jobs and the economy.
education, Native American casino gambling and a tobacco tax hike proposal.
for more in-depth interviews and longer, more nuanced stories. The group is regularly updating
its web site, www.electionconnection.org, with stories and information on the ballot initiatives.
Citizens will be asked to choose among trade-offs identified by community advocates as potential The partners will facilitate citizen deliberation and invite elected officials to join in
Seattle, WA
Partners: The Seattle Times, KCTS-TV, KUOW-FM, KPLU-FM.
Is growth inevitable? That’s the question the “Front Porch Forum” has been exploring since May.
This fall the partners are convening a group of citizens, the area’s three county executives
and a host of community advocates to discuss trade-offs associated with slow-growth policies.
consequences of slow-growth policies. Would people be willing to pay higher housing prices?
How much higher? Could they live with slower job growth or a drop in jobs? What would they
think about living in a less diverse, older community? How about paying higher taxes or having
existing tax revenues diverted to other programs? The participants will vote electronically
on the choices.
discussions and respond to citizens. The reports will be published and aired after the
Nov. 3 election.
Sacramento, CA
Partners: The California Voter Foundation, Compaq Labs, state news organizations.
The California Voter Foundation (CVF) has partnered with Compaq Labs to produce a searchable
database of contributions received by all statewide candidates and ballot measure campaigns
for the 1998 general election cycle (July 1 – Dec. 31).
The eight statewide races – governor, lieutenant governor, controller, treasurer, secretary of
state, attorney general, insurance commissioner and superintendent of public instruction –
may raise as much as $100 million. Among the 11 ballot measures to be voted upon in November,
an Indian gaming initiative may end up being the most expensive initiative battle in state history.
By combining data filed both on disk and through the Secretary of State’s electronic filing
program, CVF’s 1998 Online Disclosure Project is creating a database of campaign contributions
that can be searched by name, date, occupation, employer, city, state or amount. CVF also
plans to enable Internet users to browse the contribution records or download them to their
own computers for further analysis from the CVF web site, www.calvoter.org.
CVF will also incorporate into its database contributions of $1,000 or more made in the last
16 days of the campaign. These are posted within 24 hours by the Secretary of State.
And CVF is working with journalists to find out if their local legislative candidates plan to
participate in the voluntary electronic filing program or will file their diskette data in an
accessible format. Those that do will receive a pat on the back in CVF’s California Online
Voter Guide.
Accompanying the series is an outreach and education campaign, incorporating town hall meetings in In June, KCET-TV in Los Angeles sponsored a screening, reception and town hall discussion on the The producers are seeking to make Livelyhood more than good television. They are also seeking to
Oakland, CA
Partners: The Working Group, KQED-TV, Public Radio’s “Marketplace.”
Since its national premiere in November, 1997, three of the four episodes on Americans’ adaptations
to the changing workplace have aired, including Shift Change, Working Family Values, and, most
ecently, Honey, We Bought the Company. The fourth episode, Our Towns, airs next Jan. 12.
Maine and California, the internet, and a Livelyhood Tool Kit, a resource guide to help people
take action on the issues portrayed in the series. For example, in August, The Working Group
partnered with the University of Southern Maine in Portland to hold a town hall meeting to discuss
the ownership strategies (employee stock ownership plans, profit-sharing and worker-owned coops)
presented in Honey, We Bought the Company. That episode focused on a Maine company.
work/life issues from the Working Family Values episode. In mid-September, a screening and
roundtable discussion was held in Oakland, CA.
make it a tool to help people discuss and confront emerging challenges in their work life, said
Sandy Strehlou, the project’s outreach director.
El Paso, TX
Partners: El Paso Times, KVIA-TV (ABC).>
The El Paso project on race relations is exploring other avenues after extensive coverage of
survey findings in May. The El Paso Times published eight straight days of stories and
KVIA-TV gave the survey coverage in news and special programming.
Metro Editor Robert Moore, who directed the survey, said possible spin-offs may include
convening a conference of mid-level business managers to educate them on the problems
between Anglos and Hispanics that surfaced in the survey and working with local university
Black Studies and Chicano Studies programs to design workshops and training sessions
targeting the differing perceptions revealed in the survey.
Among the findings: 85% believe state and federal lawmakers affect the quality of their lives; The citizens’ agenda will be finalized during a live 90-minute special on WXXI-TV on Oct. 21 Citizens from the partners’ earlier civic journalism initiative, “Voice of the Voter,” will “What we really hope to do,” said Elissa Marra, WXXI-TV’s news director, “is to identify
Rochester, NY
Partners: The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, WXXI-TV, WXXI Radio, WOKR-TV (ABC).
The partners last month got the results of a statewide issues poll that will form the basis for
five citizens’ work sessions to craft a citizens’ agenda that will serve as a blueprint of
issues for candidates to address during the campaign and act upon after the election.
87% think lawmakers pay more attention to the wishes of campaign donors than to the desires
of their constituents. Candidates for state offices are responding to the same poll and their
answers will be compared with the citizens’ and published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
with cut-ins on WOKR-TV. Gary Walker, WXXI-TV’s vice president of news and public affairs,
says the media partners will use the agenda after the election to measure legislators’
accomplishments over the next two years.
form the core groups for the work sessions. People newly polled are also being invited to
participate.
the issues most affecting Rochester’s future. The citizens tell us they need to know how
lawmakers’ decisions will be affecting their lives all year long. And that’s what we’re
going to find out.”
Idaho Falls, ID
Partners: The Idaho Statesman, The Idaho Falls Post Register, The Lewiston Morning
Tribune, The Idaho Spokesman-Review, Idaho Public Television, KTVB (NBC, Boise).
“Idaho Speaks Out,” the media partners’ election initiative, polled statewide in May and
discovered that federal debt, taxes, schools and health care costs were uppermost in
respondents’ minds. A second poll in September sought to get at which of those issues
will most influence voter decisions and what other factors will affect races for governor,
Congress and the state legislature.
Education surfaced as affecting voters the most, followed by the economy/jobs and
taxes/government spending. Respondents said they would approve a sales tax hike if
the money were earmarked for early childhood education and state higher education.
The partners are sharing the poll numbers and some analysis, and each partner is tailoring
the stories to local readers and viewers.
Daily World Assistant City Editor Doug Barker said an October staff retreat to discuss the Barker said last year’s polling and a forum of 30 citizens in May surfaced support for
Aberdeen, WA
Partners: The Daily World, Channel 20 and TCI Cablevision.
In the next phase of their two-year “Changing Tides” effort, the partners are looking for ways
to bring together citizens and community leaders to iron out differences in perceptions about
solutions to economic and other changes on the Olympic Peninsula.
citizens’ voices – and the lessons learned – will be followed up by some kind of citizen/ leader
interaction in November. One scenario has citizen focus groups engaging community leaders in a
dialogue on solutions; another possibility is an open town hall forum that will ask area leaders
to respond to citizen concerns.
dramatic solutions to community problems. For example, citizens said they would be willing
to pay more taxes to support a downtown renewal project. The poll also found citizens to be
far more solutions-oriented than the elected leaders think they are. “The key lesson is
that we, as reporters, should begin to think of citizens as players, which, we’ve discovered,
they are…and to make that citizen voice part of our coverage,” Barker said.
Reports on “Vis Valley” examined how successive waves of immigrants have made the modest
San Francisco, CA
Partners: The San Francisco Examiner, The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
“The New City,” the San Francisco Examiner’s year-long portrait of the changing face of the
city, included an in-depth look at sports, such as cricket and Gaelic football, as the carrier
of new cultures.
blue-collar neighborhood a demographic microcosm of the city. Visitacion Valley, once
heavily Italian and Maltese, has evolved into a diverse community of African-Americans,
Latinos, Filipinos and Polynesians, with a recent influx of Chinese. The paper reported
how these changes have created tension but also renewed activism and triggered a major
commitment of government housing money that is contributing to a new sense of community.
“The New City” continues to examine the public policy implications of the city’s demographic
changes. See the “New City” web site at www.examiner.com/newcity/.