Maine Citizens’ Campaign Documentary Video, Portland, ME 1997
Partners:
The Portland Newspapers
WGME-TV
Maine Public TV
Maine Public Radio
What started as an election year effort to get citizen voices in campaign coverage entered a new phase in 1997, as some 40 residents of Sanford, Maine, who’d been empaneled for the “Maine Citizens Campaign” refused to disband when the journalism project was over. The group began a second year exploring issues and meeting with public officials in hopes of taking action for positive civic change.
With Pew funds, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram continued to provide facilitators and other support for the citizens group but there was much less regular coverage by both the papers and broadcast partners.
WGME produced three legacy videos on the group; one distributed to junior highs and high schools throughout Maine for use in a civic involvement curriculum, another aired on WGME and a third distributed to media around the country as a model of the citizen engagement process.
The partners teamed up again to use the citizen consultation model for covering state government with the “Beyond the Ballot” series. The partners polled 1,100 people from five different regions of Maine to determine which issues people felt were most important and how they varied from region to region.
The series began Aug. 23, 1998, with stories showing the issues of jobs, education and taxes transcended regional differences while interest in social issues such as child abuse, health care and poverty differed from region to region. Follow-up stories gave the five candidates running for governor in 1998 a chance to address the citizens’ issues.
Through the fall, separate town meetings were held in each of the five areas surveyed. Seventy-five demographically selected citizens deliberated the issues for a day and questioned gubernatorial candidates who attended the sessions. The information gathered was published in book form and distributed to key leaders throughout the state. The paper also used the book as a guide for reporting on what progress Gov. Angus King made in addressing citizen issues after his election to a second term.
Contacts:
Gary Legters
Operations Manager
WGME-TV
1335 Washington Avenue
Portland, ME 04104
Phone: (207) 797-9330
Jim O’Rourke
Acting News Director
WGME-TV
1335 Washington Avenue
Portland, ME 04104
Phone: (207) 797-9330
Lois Czerniak
Executive Producer
WGME-TV
1335 Washington Ave
Portland, ME 04130