Keeping Your Ears to the Ground

 

   

 

A Journalist's Guide to Citizen Participation in the News:  A Primer on Community Journalism

 

 

 

 

Tamara L. Gillis, Ed. D.

and

Robert C. Moore, Ed. D.

 

 

 

 

Keeping Your Ears to the Ground

 

A JournalistÕs Guide to Citizen Participation in the News:  A Primer on Community Journalism

 

 

 

Tamara L. Gillis, Ed. D.

and

Robert C. Moore, Ed. D.

 

Elizabethtown College, PA, USA

The Polytechnic of Namibia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by The Polytechnic of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

Department of Media Technology

Private Bag 13388

Windhoek, Namibia

 

 

The Department of Media Technology currently offers a National Diploma in Journalism and Communication Technology.  Though a partnership with the Department of Communications at Elizabethtown College and the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA), the program is engaged in both the instruction of civic/community journalism and its application in the public sector.

 

 

Copyright © 2003 by Tamara L. Gillis and Robert C. Moore

 

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission.

 

Printed in the Republic of Namibia

Table of Contents

 

 

About the Authors                                                                                                      iii

About This Guide                                                                                                         v

Chapter 1:  Developmental Communication and Civic/Community Journalism            1

Making the Connection Between Developmental Communication and Civic/Community Journalism                                                                                1

Thinking of Journalism in a New Way                                                                   3

What is in a Name?                                                                                                 3

Of Special Note                                                                                                       6

Additional Resources                                                                                              6

Chapter 2:  Public Listening and the Practice of Community Journalism                      9

      Key Concepts of Community Journalism                                                               9

      Public Listening                                                                                                    10

      There are Various Layers of ÒPublic:Ó  Tapping into These Layers                      11

      Identifying What is Important to the Community                                                  13

      Limitations of the Media                                                                                       15

      Questions to Consider                                                                                           15

      Assignment                                                                                                           15

      Additional Resources                                                                                            16

Chapter 3:  Public judgment and the Practice of Community Journalism                    17

      What are Some of the Characteristics of the Relationships Between Journalists, the Community, and the Media in General?                                               17

 

      Public Judgment                                                                                                    18

      Questions to Consider                                                                                           20

      Assignment                                                                                                           20

      Additional Resources                                                                                            20

Chapter 4:  How Can Journalists Engaged in Community Journalism Help Citizen Act?                                                                                                             23

 

      Review of Public judgment                                                                                   23

      Finding Solutions:  Consensus                                                                             24

      Helping Citizens Act                                                                                             25

      Questions to Consider                                                                                           25

      Assignment                                                                                                           26

      Additional Resources                                                                                            26

Chapter 5:  The Five Layers of Civic Life, Broadcasting, and the Practice of Community Journalism                                                                                         27

 

      Review of the Five Layers of Civic Life                                                               27

      A Community Journalism Model for Broadcasting                                              28

      Commitment                                                                                                          28

      Research                                                                                                                29

      Substance                                                                                                              29

      Questions for Review                                                                                           30

      Assignment                                                                                                           30

      Additional Resources                                                                                            30

      Chapter 6:  Putting All of This into Practice:  The Community Journalism Project     31

            A Few Final Comments                                                                                        31

            The Project                                                                                                            32

      APPENDICES                                                                                                           33

            Civic & Community Journalism Bibliography                                                      35

      Civic Journalism and Community Empowerment Organizations and Resources—Online Links                                                                                     47

 

            Civic Organizations (From the Battlefield School District)                                   59

            Civic Journalism Online Resources (From the Texas A & M University)            61

      The WWW Virtual Library:  International Affairs Resources (Maintained at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, USA)                                                  63

 

            Journalism Organizations and Related Sites (From the University of MD)          65

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Authors

 

 

 

Dr. Tamara L. Gillis

 

Ed. D., Higher Education Administration, University of Pittsburgh; M.S., Communications Studies, Shippensburg (PA) University; B.A., English, Shippensburg (PA) University. Dr. Tamara Gillis is associate professor of communications and chair of the department at Elizabethtown College.  In addition, she has held the position of director of student publications, advising student media (The Etownian and the Conestogan yearbook) and teaches journalism, publication design, and public relations courses. Her research interests include civic journalism, student culture, change management, public relations officers in organization structures, public art as communication, and a "great books" approach to teaching public relations. Dr. Gillis' email address is: gillistl at etown dot edu

 

 

Dr. Robert C. Moore

 

Ed. D., Higher Education Curriculum and Instruction and Communications Technology, West Virginia University; M.S., Mass Communications and Educational Media, Clarion (PA) University; B.S., Education - English, Speech and Communications, Edinboro (PA) University. Dr. Robert Moore is professor of communications and former chair of the department at Elizabethtown College.  He teaches communications seminar, media and society, introduction to media production, international communications, and organizational training. His research interests include international communications, civic journalism, freedom of the press, communication administration and curriculum development. Dr. Moore's email address is: moorerc at etown dot edu          

 

 

 

About This Guide

 

This guide is designed to accompany an advanced journalism course in the study of current journalistic initiatives.  The guide emphasizes the important connection between communities and their media -- print and broadcast and the resultant imperative for journalists to serve the citizenry.

 

Using an investigative approach, coupled with case study analyses, participants/students will develop an understanding and appreciation for civic/community journalism, its practices, its application and development, and the implications for it in global communications.

 

The purpose of this guide is to encourage journalists to learn, understand, and apply the basic values and principles of traditional journalism in light of new democracies and community empowerment found within the tenets of civic/community journalism.

 

Objectives

 

The course and study guide will help the journalist recognize and value the practice of journalism as an agent of social change and empowerment.

 

It will help the journalist become aware of the resources and develop the skills to apply civic/community journalism practices in their daily work as a journalist.

 

The journalist will adopt a philosophy for developing journalism initiatives in service to the community and its members.

 

Of Special Note

 

When discussing the civic journalism model presented here, the authors will use the term community journalism.  It should be understood that in this context, the word community could be interchanged with civic or public.  Many of the readings or resources used to support this guide, in fact, use civic or public journalism rather than the term community journalism.

 

A further distinction needs to also be made.  Community journalism, as defined here, is not interchangeable with the term community media.  In this regard, community media is referred to as a media that has its focus, and perhaps its geographic location and distribution, limited to a very defined local group of people or target area.  It is also often referred to as a media that is located in a local community.  Community journalism is a way of doing journalism, of serving the people, of involving the people in the issues that are important in their community.

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

Developmental Communication and Civic/Community Journalism

 

 

 

 

READINGS

Charity, A. (1995).  Doing Public Journalism.  New York:  The Guilford Press.  CHAPTER 1.

 

 

 

MAKING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN DEVELOPMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND CIVIC/COMMUNITY JOURNALISM

 

NWICO, the New World Information and Communications Order, the movement by UNESCO in the 1970's, can be seen as a foundation, a basis, for the current trend, the current emphasis, among journalists known as civic, public, or community journalism.

 

The goals of developmental communication fit nicely into the movement of community journalism or civic journalism.

 

To briefly define developmental communication, it was the belief that the instruments of media (radio, television, newspapers) could be used by the central government of a country to help build a nation. The whole idea behind UNESCO and NWICO is that developing countries could build themselves up using the media. This was both a very important concept and a very misunderstood concept. That is, governments, not only the colonial governments but also the current governments of independent and developing countries, interpreted the UNESCO position to mean that they could take control of the media, and that they would use their government authority to tell the media what to do.  The purpose was then to tell the media what was important to tell the people.

 

This, in a sense, disenfranchised the people and the media, it took away some of their freedoms because it was essentially the government telling the citizens what was important to them. What must be remembered in terms of nation building, in terms of development communication, is that it occurs as the result of people, not of government.  No matter how much the government tells the media to develop people, if people don't want to develop, they don't.  If people don't develop, nations don't develop. This is where both the theory of development communication and the practice of development communication collided. Instead of media often being used to support a government agenda, they should be used to support the people's agendas, to support what is important to them. This, by the way, is not different from what UNESCO in the early 1970's was saying; it was just different in terms of practice.

 

Illiteracy, health, poverty, education and even political awareness are all elements of nation building, of people building, and while developing countries' governments acknowledge that these things are important, it was probably their control that caused the lack of media being supportive of initiatives in developmental communication. So, community journalism is sometimes interpreted as a return to the goals of developmental communication. It is an effort to, what has been called, "democratize the media."

 

When the term democratization of the media is invoked, the idea expressed is not about making the media democratic, not about making it American, not about making it free. Democratizing the media is all about making it responsive to the people. When the media is democratized, it is media whose mission is one that serves the people.

 

The basis of this approach comes directly from the UNESCO Commission. According to the UNESCO report on the New World Information and Communications Order about democratization of the media, "It is a matter of human rights, the right to communicate is an extension of the advances toward liberty and democracy. Democratizing the media cannot be simply additional facilities. It means broader access to the media by the general public, and the interchange of information between people without the dominance of any one person or one group."

 

When the media is democratized, it means, in practice, that it serves the people and that the people use the media to get the information that they are interested in so that they can live their daily lives in an improved way. In order for that to happen, the people must participate in determining the focus of the media. There is not necessarily a hierarchy in this process. Journalists are not above the people in this regard.  In fact, journalists are servants to the people and partners with the people. All people are considered equal and central to the purpose of the media.  Urban residents are simply one of the groups of people that are involved in the consultative process with the media. They are not to be elite, not to have undue influence.  But, in order to do its job properly, the media may have to go far outside of urban centers to reach all of the constituencies that they are to serve. Reporters must cover rural and remote areas as well know how the people feel and to share information that is important with them. It is the use of information as a self help, as personal growth, and to achieve greater information and education for everyone that is essential to developmental communication and the common goals of community journalism. These are very laudable goals and are important to self-determination, self-improvement, and to nation building. These are the goals that journalists should strive for in their daily work.

 

In civic/community journalism, relationships must be forged between the media and the citizens as equal participants in this entire process. That is actually a very old concept and the basis on which journalism was established hundreds of years ago.  That is where journalism began and civic/community journalism is a return to journalism's roots.

 

 

THINK OF JOURNALISM IN A NEW WAY

 

There is a new way of thinking about journalism, a new way for each journalist to do his or her job.  When a journalist goes into the field and begins exploring stories, the focus is to be less from the mouthpieces of business, industry and government and more in collaboration with the people. That's easily said but more difficult to do.  Another component of this new way of thinking is in the newsroom--in editorial meetings. As a story lead develops, the journalist must consider how it impacts the people from all levels of the community. Civic/community journalism requires a more people-centered approach to developing stories and to the stories suggested for the media.

 

If journalists are more people-centered in their writing, more people-centered in their reporting, then the newspaper or broadcast station, regardless of who owns it, will become more valuable to the people. The goal of civic/community journalism is to make the media valuable to the people, because journalists are telling and sharing with them the things that are important to them.

 

 

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

 

There are three terms that are used, often interchangeably, to represent this new journalism concept: public journalism, civic journalism, and community journalism. All three terms have, as a common basis, the idea of the journalist as a member of the community gathering new stories for the civic good ... for the public goodÉfor the community.

 

A journalistÕs focus is on the community and how as a journalist, reporter, broadcaster, they can best serve the people.  This is best done when the journalist is a member of the community by being one of the citizens, not as an elitist member of the media or society.

 

These three terms represent the same idea--that collaboration between the citizens of the community and the media should all work together to solve problems or come up with ideas that might be solutions to problems that face the community and have a focus on self-improvement.

 

The term civic journalism began with American newspapers in the Nineties as they began to revisit the roots of the worthy profession. But today, journalists are involved in cases of civic journalism that include collaboration of the different community media - television, radio and the local newspaper.  They work together to help the community deal with issues, or just bringing these issues to light, so that the people in the community can begin to discuss solutions and opportunities to make their lives and communities better.

 

In fact, civic journalism is happening around the world. Case studies have documented projects related to civic improvement and public deliberation (some with the participation of the media) in:  Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala, Hungary, Lebanon, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tajikistan.

 

Civic journalism can be described using a simple three-phase process as written about by many of the authors in this movement in civic/community journalism. Those three phases include: consciousness raising, working through the issue with the community, and then a phase of issue resolution. While the resolution phase may sound like a final stage, it is just the beginning of actually solving problems and getting the community involved in solving their own problems or challenges.

 

In the consciousness-raising phase, the media finds out what issues are of concern in the community. To do that, the media must go out and become part of the community. The media reconnect themselves and talk to people, not just opinion leaders in the community. The media need to learn from the citizens. They need to learn: what the people think is going on in their community; what would the people like to know more about; and, how do the citizens think they can make a difference and improve their lives. In the first phase, the journalist is on fact-finding mission to learn about the community. In the process, news stories may be written or produced about various aspects of the information uncovered.  However, during this phase, reporters are conducting research on their community for the purpose of a much more long-range investigation.

 

In the second phase of Òworking through problems or issues,Ó the community has now identified, for the journalist, the issues, an agenda or a public agenda, with the emphasis on "public."  The citizens have given their input to the media and enlightened them on what they think is important in their community. From these issues, the media can begin to construct news stories that highlight the peoples' point of view of what's happening, or perhaps hold meetings to find out what the community would like to know more about, how they'd like to see issues addressed, collect ideas, discuss ideas, bring government into the discussions, find out a variety of ideas are and how they fit into the picture. This activity leads to the third phase of civic/community journalism, resolution.

 

The plans and activities in phase two may lead to news coverage (print or broadcast) like a series of articles in the newspaper, or a series of segments on a broadcast news program, or a community project that addresses the original issue to alleviate the problem.  But, the civic/community journalistÕs responsibility does not stop there.

 

Because civic/community journalism is a process, the final phase, the resolution phase, leads back to the beginning of the process. In the resolution phase, news stories and projects may be completed. This may result in a resolution to the issue originally identified for the civic/community journalism project. But other issues may have come to the surface during the reporter's work with the community. It is at this time that these new issues are taken back to the first phase and worked through the process, again, with the community, in an attempt to solve these new issues.

 

Problems aren't always solved, and sometimes when they are solved, new problems come to light. So, the cycle continues.  As the media becomes more aware of issues, they try to help people find solutions to the issues, and with the citizens, continue to focus on improvement and resolution of the issues. Because it's the peopleÕs solutions, not the media's solutions, the media simply continues to be that voice in the community, that forum in the community, where the public feel that they are the center, they are the most important part of the community.

 

As mentioned previously, this is the bridge between developmental communications and civic/community journalism.  This is the return to what journalism was all about when journalists first started writing in newspapers--to keep their communities informed of issues affecting their survival. Early newspapers developed for local citizens to have a voice in public issues, for citizens to know what was going on in their community, and for citizens to know how to participate in their community. Civic journalism, public journalism, and community journalism is a movement with the people leading the media, telling the media what is important to them, and directing how the media can provide that forum for the citizens to engage in problem solving.

 

In the United States and other countries, civic journalism projects have addressed such issues as elections, crime prevention, youth programs, AIDS, health care, and education.  These topics are of universal importance and many of the international projects have focused on the same topics.  While much of the published support materials in the field use American projects as examples, the tactics employed and the lessons learned will be able to be applied throughout the world.

 

Civic/community journalism is not a movement among scholars. It is not a movement among lecturers at polytechnics and universities, it is not teaching new journalists or new students how to serve people better. In fact, civic/community journalism is a movement of practicing journalists to do their job better and to make the impact of the media for meaningful.  Arthur Charity, author of Doing Public Journalism, became most noted for his efforts in this area when he was an editor at a newspaper in Ottawa, Canada. Civic journalism has its roots, its growth, in a non-American movement. Today, it is still not solely American. How do the journalists feel about this new way of approaching journalism? Arthur Charity notes in his book a positive change for reporters in the performance of their jobs. They have reconnected with their local communities and improved their writing and focus skills as journalists.

 

The Pew Foundation for Civic Journalism has documented the shift in newsroom attitudes using this process. An enormous amount of reading material is available from the organization and from their website: www.pewcenter.org Your lecturer has copies of many of the articles and publications.  See the extensive bibliography at the end of this guide (items that are in bold are available for loan from the lecturer.)

 

Reporters from newspapers and broa