We the People/Wisconsin, Madison, WI 1994
Partners:
Wisconsin StateJournal
Wisconsin Public TV
Wisconsin Public Radio
WISC-TV (CBS)
Wood Communication Group
Pew support helped “We the People/Wisconsin,” one of American journalism’s first and most enduring civic journalism coalitions, use innovative techniques to engage citizens in election coverage. The Pew support helped the partners measure whether the effort had an impact on public participation in the elections. The experiment showed that a planned, coordinated, multi-media civic journalism effort can interest citizens and draw them into the public sphere.
For coverage of the fall 1994 elections for governor and U.S. Senator, the media partners used the techniques they had been fine-tuning since coming together in 1992: Broadcast town hall meetings and debates where citizens were the key participants – identifying and discussing issues and asking questions directly of the candidates. The project organized three town hall meetings and a debate among gubernatorial candidates and one town hall meeting in the senate race.
In addition, the Wisconsin State Journal published a voter education series called “Armed and Dangerous,” just before the November election, about how candidates and their campaigns try to manipulate public opinion through advertising and calculated debate responses. The information was also compiled into a booklet and 300 copies were distributed just before the election.
Surveys measured voter awareness and connectedness before and after the civic journalism effort. A random sample of 230 adults was interviewed in September, before the coverage, and 141 of that group were interviewed after the election. Among the findings: public interest in and knowledge of the election was higher. People felt encouraged to vote and they had a more positive attitude toward participating news organizations. The findings were published in “Civic Journalism: Does it Work?” a Pew publication written by State Journal editor Frank Denton and Esther Thorson, Associate Dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Contacts:
Deborah Still
Project Director
We The People/ Wisconsin
PO Box 5534
Madison, WI 53705
Phone: (608) 833-8545
Thomas W. Still
President
Wisconsin Technology Council
PO Box 71, 615 E. Washington Ave.
Madison, WI 53701-0071
TEL: (608) 442-7557
FAX: (608) 256-0333
EMAIL: tstill@wisctec.com
Tom Bier
General Manager
WISC-TV
7025 Raymond Rd.
Madison, WI 53719
TEL: (608) 271-5171
FAX: (608) 271-0800
EMAIL: tbier@wisctv.com
David Iverson
Executive Director
Best Practices in Journalism
2601 Mariposa St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
TEL: (415) 553-2489
EMAIL: iverson@wpt.org
James B. Wood
President
Wood Communications Group
700 Regent St.
Madison, WI 53715-1233
Phone: (608) 259-0757