Paul Dolan of ABC News is one. He says he is convinced that one way to deal with the future is to return to core journalistic values. That theme is echoed again and again among editors who are turning to civic journalism techniques. Now entering its fourth year, that media coalition has sponsored regular explorations of key state issues. The partners, with help from market research firm, Wood Communications, host town meetings and focus groups around the state to begin conversations on issues citizens have told the partners they consider vital.
Reports appear on page one and on the six o'clock news.
Call-in radio programs give everyone who wants to participate an opportunity to do so in the weeks leading up to the live television specials that are the climax of the quarterly process. But at the heart of the process is hard, shoe-leather reporting that transcends the easy, traditional formulas so characteristic of much of journalism. Similar practices were used in dozens of other civic journalism projects underway in 1994. Instead, citizens would be the focus for his paper's political coverage. The idea was embraced and advanced in 1992 by Rich Oppel, then executive editor of the Charlotte Observer .