Civic Journalism 1997 Abstracts
Civic Journalism Interest Group
The Treatment of Public Journalism in Three Media Review Journals • Renita Coleman, University of Missouri-Columbia • Between 1993 and 1996, the three major journalism reviews published 45 articles of various types that focused on some aspect of public journalism. Analysis provides comparisons among these journals by examining the role each played in the debate, assessing the quality of criticism, and analyzing the evolution of thinking about the subject. This study provides evidence that the quality in evaluations of the debate has matured even while public journalism itself remains highly controversial.
The Language of Public Journalism: An Analysis of the Movement’s Appropriation of the Terms Public, Civic, Deliberative Dialogue, and Consensus • James Engelhardt, University of Oregon • This essay applies Stephen Lukes’ multidimensional conception of power to the public journalism movement. Particularly, it is concerned with how the language and/or vocabulary of public journalism reveals a particular power dynamic – a dynamic both synonymous and discordant with traditional journalistic practice. This article relies on the work of scholars who have confronted the interrelation between language and power such as V.N. Volosinov, Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, Roger Fowler, and Trinh Minh-ha. The new journalistic movement’s use of four terms – public, civic, deliberative dialogue, and consensus – will be addressed, exposing the distinctions between public, civic, and traditional journalism and exemplifying that public journalism consists of more than just good journalism.
Civic Journalism: The Practitioner’s Perspective • Peter Gade, Scott Abel, Michael Antecol, Hsiao-Yin Hsueh, Janice Hume, Jack Morris, Ashley Packard, Susan Willey, Nancy Fraser Wilson and Keith Sanders, University of Missouri • The debate about the practice and theory of civic journalism has grown as more media have experimented in the 1990s with civic journalism projects of varying sizes and goals. Critics and theorists have voiced their thoughts on the movement, but very little is known about what journalists think about civic journalism. This paper attempts to address this issue by asking journalists at two similarly sized newspapers, Mobile (Ala.) Register and the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, to react to a series of statements about the role of the media in society and civic journalism. Of the four types emerging from this Q-Methodology study, Neutral Observers and Civic Journalists factor themselves toward the philosophical poles of libertarianism and social responsibility, with Responsible Liberals and Concerned Traditionalists taking more centrist positions.
Newspapers and Citizen-Based Journalism in the 1996 Elections: a Cross-Market Comparison • Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Deborah Potter, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies • Efforts to do citizen-based journalism and effects of those efforts were compared in 20 markets through content analysis and before-and-after surveys of media practitioners and citizens. Media intent had a strong effect on certain content categories, but content had weak or no effect on citizen attitudes and behavior. However, media intent did predict citizen knowledge and trust in media. The outcome suggests that previous commitments to citizen-based journalism in certain markets left an ongoing effect.
Issues and Agendas: The Case of Wichita, Kansas Revisited • Christina Newby • This study examines the agenda-setting function of local and national media on citizens of Sedgewick County, Kansas. The purpose of this research is to examine the agenda-setting effect with regard to citizens’ concerns and look at the way in which agenda-setting is viewed by individuals who have experience with public journalism. The research replicates a study that expands a traditional agenda-setting research content analysis and introduces a correlation with in-depth interviews.
The 1996 Presidential Campaign, Civic Journalism and Local TV News: Does Doing Civic Journalism Make Any Difference? •Amy Reynolds, University of Texas-Austin • This content analysis compares the local television news coverage of the 1996 presidential election by two stations, one that supports the civic journalism philosophy and one that supports traditional journalism. The civic journalism station successfully eliminated opinion polls/horserace from its coverage and focused on voting efforts and issues, but, while the station clearly showed civic journalism leanings and provided some notable differences in coverage, it still didn’t fully achieve the goals of civic journalism.
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