Civic Journalism 2003 Abstracts
Civic Journalism Interest Group
A Public Journalism Model for the Middle East and North Africa: Effectiveness of Media-NGO Relationships in Partial Autocracies • David C. Coulson, Nevada-Reno and Leonard, R. Teel, Georgia State • This study examines how the media and non-governmental organizations might work together with each other to develop a model of public journalism in partial autocracies in the Middle East and North Africa. We found that a form of public journalism can be practiced in the region. It appears that despite working in partial autocracies where media are generally owned or controlled by government, journalists cooperating with NGOs can represent the needs and concerns of civil society.
Exploring Radio Public Service as Civic Journalism • Tony R. DeMars, Sam Houston State • This paper seeks to begin a discussion of radio public affairs programming as an outlet for topics within a civic journalism model. Dominant music-format radio stations in a major radio market were surveyed to determine their scheduling of and attitude toward programming public affairs on the station. Simultaneously, a sample of potential radio listeners was surveyed to measure uses of radio and attitudes toward public affairs type programming.
Narrative Definers? Storytelling as a channel to public discussion • Risto Kunelius, and Mika Renvall University of Tampere-Finland • News journalism’s reality constructions are structurally dependent on institutionalized, power routine sources, the “primary definers”. The paper illustrates (by means of an analysis of a case study from Finland), how this constant fact of journalism research can partly be challenged by use of “narrative definers”, by opening the journalistic public sphere to ordinary people’s storytelling about their experiences concerning common problems.
Tracing the Effects of Public Journalism on Civil Society: 1994 –2002 • Sandy Nichols, Lewis A. Friedland, Jaeho Cho, Hernando Rojas and Dhavan Shah, Wisconsin-Madison • This study examines 561 cases of public journalism, published between 1994-2002, to address previously identified methodological shortcomings in the existing public journalism research literature. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the study traces the effects of organizational features, particular projects, story frames and roles played by citizens on improvements in citizenship, political processes and volunteerism. Specific effects on civil society are discussed, study limitations are addressed, and insights for future research and practice are offered.
Civic Journalism and Objectivity: A Philosophical Resuscitation •Henry Overduin, McNeese State • The purpose of this paper is to show that civic journalism – however much it rejects the traditional views of objectivity – still requires the concepts of ontological and epistemic objectivity because those ideas are essential for the possibility of communication and truth in journalism. Building on arguments from Nicholas Rescher, this paper restates the case for objectivity and replies to its critics.
When Schools Fail to Act Ethically: The Vital Role of Civic Journalism • Janis, T. Page, Missouri-Columbia • In summer 2001, a small town in Illinois experienced an incomprehensible series of traumas, thrust into the center of a national crisis involving toxic mold contamination, an infected school, and an intractable school board. Assertive coverage by the local press not only provided substantial investigative reporting, but gave voice to an oppressed public. Written from personal experience, this auto-ethnography documents the vital role of civic journalism in promoting good citizenship when public servants fail.
Elite And Non-Elite Sourceing In Civic And Traditional Journalism News Projects • Jennifer Roush, West Virginia • This project was broken into two studies to analyze the use of “elite,” media-savvy, and “non-elite,” non-media savvy, sources in civic and traditional journalism. In the first study, four newspaper series about mining and aging were used to show the use of sources in the practice of civic journalism. The Charleston Gazette’s “Mining the Mountains” traditional journalism series, and The Herald-Dispatch’s “West Virginia After Coal” civic journalism series, both with six stories each, were chosen to explore the idea of whether civic journalism uses more non-elites as sources.
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