Teaching Civic Journalism: Integrating Theory and Practice

Abstract

I could no longer avoid the conclusion that students in my civic journalism class were favoring homeless people in a dispute with local merchants over an anti-panhandling ordinance. Two students had taken to begging for spare change to write first-person accounts of what it feels like to be down and out in an upscale community. And yet six weeks earlier, many of these students were hesitant to make eye contact when the class visited a homeless shelter tucked alongside railroad tracks near downtown Palo Alto. Students appeared to be developing a keener sense of empathy as citizens, even as I reminded myself that perhaps another lecture was needed on the importance of maintaining objectivity. A central goal of the course, in fact, was to encourage students to consider the shifting and complex roles played by journalists in the civic life of a community (Steele,1995). This contemplative orientation to news writing requires not only reporting about a community problem, but also evaluating the news writing process itself. As advocates of community-focused journalism have argued (Killenberg & Dardenne, 1997), instruction should encourage students' internal evaluations of how they think about news writing experiences. A student might consider whether his or her sense of objectivity or autonomy was compromised, and whether a project strengthened his or her feeling of connection and responsibility to a community. Students should participate as well in an external assessment of news writing effects on the community. For the Palo Alto project, students reviewed literature in political science, mass communication, and related fields to develop an appreciation for how the press functions as an agent of civic activation. Students then applied relevant theory in the formulation of goals. A strategy for evaluating the project was also developed prior to the actual news writing as students designed questionnaires to assess possible effects in terms of desired goals. Consequently much of the work occurred before the first story was written, and a great deal of time was spent as well in the post-project, evaluation phase. The course thereby provided a model for how journalism curriculum can combine theory, news writing, and evaluation. This paper will discuss the merits of such an integrative approach to teaching about the principles, practice, and effects of civic journalism. This reflective approach to instruction is consistent with the overall mission of civic (or public) journalism, which grows out of a frustration with the limits of conventional reporting (Chaffee & McDevitt,1999). Journalists' traditional understanding of their civic role is ultimately a matter of faith that citizens will acquire knowledge and otherwise use the news for deliberative participation. This belief stems from the hazier assumption that truth will win out in the marketplace of ideas as citizens choose among diverse sources of information (Smolla, 1993). By contrast, civic journalism does not assume that conventional reporting will provide the basis for active citizenship. While reform of the beat system, narrative styles, reporting techniques, and press content are beginning steps, civic journalism's focus extends beyond the newsroom and into the citizenry. Evaluation of news media influence - whether by standard methods of social science or other means - is consequently a fundamental component of civic journalism practice and should be incorporated into instruction. A civic journalism class should demonstrate to students the possibilities for news media influence - even if the measurable effects of a particular project appear modest. In this regard, instruction in civic journalism is compatible with service learning, a relatively new approach to instruction inspired by John Dewey's argument that the primary goal of education is to help students become active citizens (Dewey, 1916; Corbett & Kendall, 1999). An explicit linking of news coverage goals with community needs can encourage students to appreciate journalism as an expression of citizenship. …