Civic journalism, also known as public journalism, "is not a settled doctrine or
an unfolding philosophy about the place of the journalist in public life. This
philosophy has emerged most clearly in recent initiatives in the newspaper world
that show journalists tyring to connect with their communities in a different
way, often by encouraging civic participation or regrounding the coverage of
politics in the imperatives of public discussion and debate."
from Public Journalism: Theory & Practice, by Jay Rosen & Davis Merrit, Jr., a
pamphlet published by the Kettering Foundation in 1994.
Here are some of the characteristics of civic journalism projects:
* Public listening, often at professionally facilitated meetings sponsored by
the newspaper. (The Spokesman-Review sponsored a series of neighborhood pizza
parties to ask people about growth.)
* Solutions-based reporting, focusing on consensus as well as conflict;
reporting what's right in a community as well as wrong. (This has led to
criticisms that civic journalism is "happy talk."
* Framing issues in new ways (reporting from perspectives other than official
sources). I wrote a few months ago about how the Colorado Springs paper covered
a school levy last fall from the viewpoints of students, teachers, parents and
citizens without children in the schools.
--Kenton