Changing Tides, Aberdeen, WA 1998
Partners:
The Daily World Channel 20
TCI Cablevision
In year two of their “Changing Tides” project, the partners attempted to bring together citizens and community leaders to craft solutions to the political, economic and environmental challenges the region faced.
A March 1998 mail survey of 130 traditional community leaders – elected officials, educators, union leaders and others – turned up marked differences from an earlier poll of 400 area residents. The survey found traditional leaders more pessimistic than the general public about their ability to solve the region’s problems. They also preferred private-sector solutions while the general public thought government should be more responsible. Four out of five community leaders thought local government represented the people well; less than half the public agreed. While both groups agreed the economy was the top priority, there was no consensus on how to improve it.
A May forum brought the two groups together and surfaced support for dramatic solutions to community problems. Citizens, for instance, said they would be willing to pay more taxes to support a downtown renewal project.
While the project was community-focused, it had a big impact on The Daily World newsroom. As one editor put it, “The key lesson is that we, as reporters, should begin to think of citizens as players… and to make that citizen voice part of our coverage.” The paper built staff training into the project, including a series of brown-bag sessions on civic journalism and a staff retreat to discuss citizens’ voices and lessons learned from the project.
Contact:
Matt Hufman (formerly at The Daily World)
Metro Editor
Las Vegas Sun
PO Box 98970
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8970
Phone: (702) 385-3111
Email: matt@lasvegassun.com