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Survey of IMDP Projects
A Survey of International Media and Democracy Projects: A Report Prepared for the Kettering Foundation.
INTRODUCTION
On Dec. 17 1985, David Mathews, the president of the Kettering Foundation, invited journalists to a meeting at the foundation’s Washington office to discuss the role of journalists in the community. The meeting mused over whether there might be some special breed of journalists that could be called “community journalists,” a term that was to become one of the early names for public journalism. In subsequent memos and meetings, Mathews began defining his understanding of “community journalism” as one rooted in and involving a community.
That meeting, 17 years ago, marked the beginning of the foundation’s long history of interest in a “different kind of journalism.” Although conversations about this new journalism were going on around newsrooms in America long before the Kettering Foundation got involved, the foundation’s work with public journalism pioneers has produced some remarkable projects such as Jack Swift’s 1988 community involvement project at the Ledger-Enquirer, Arthur Charity’s book, Doing Public Journalism, Buzz Merritt’s text, Public Journalism and Public Life: Why Telling the News is Not Enough, and later, Jay Rosen’s research project, Public Life and the Press, to mention but a few.
Today, that interest has gone beyond the borders of USA. This is partly due to the realization that there is a global push toward democratic governance, which in turn has heightened the need to know how journalists in other countries have attempted to place the people at the center of the democratic practice in thinking of their audience as citizens.
But attempting to conduct research on international public journalism presents certain methodological and conceptual problems. Prime among these is that public journalism as a concept was developed and popularized in the USA. As such it may manifest itself differently in international contexts.
To quote Jay Rosen in a recent interview with the online media publication, Blue Ear, “in Countries where social and political history is different from the USA and perhaps even turbulent, the replication of the American public journalism model is not an option.”
Thus the best public journalism is one that responds to the unique civic situation in a particular country. It is a homegrown media solution based on each country’s social history, political culture, press tradition and party structure. For example, in many countries, political parties wield a greater control in the framing of issues, in the engagement of citizens and even in the conduct of journalism. This in turn defines the type of public journalism that emerges. Thus public journalism in other countries ought to start from the state of contemporary journalism in those countries and the unique challenges therein. Indeed this research found examples in certain countries, such as Senegal and Kosovo, where a form of public journalism emerged spontaneously in response to local needs.
And yet one could argue that while its application and manifestation may be different, the idea of public journalism itself is universal. For public journalism, stripped to its chore, is a way for journalists to involve citizens in the democratic practice by providing them with information that they can use to act as citizens. There is no one sure way of doing that. But there are certain practices and residual values that sets such journalism apart, and which guided this research in identifying the case studies. Jay Rosen, in his book, What are Journalists For, points out some of the integral elements and benefits of public journalism:
“Public journalism, at its best, leaves behind some additional capacity in the community augmenting its ability to `recognize itself, converse well, and make choices’. About this development public journalists are permitted to care, and care deeply." (Rosen, 1996, p.20)
Media scholar, Ed Lambeth, provides a widely quoted definition of public journalism as a form of journalism that seeks to do the following:
* listen systematically to stories and ideas of citizens even while protecting its freedom to choose what to cover.
* Examine alternative ways to frame stories on important community issues
* Choose frames that stand the best chance to stimulate citizen deliberation and build public understanding of issues.
* Take the initiative to report on major public problems in a way that advances public knowledge of possible solutions and the values served by alternative course of action.
* Pay continuing and systematic attention to how well and how credibly the media is communicating with the public.
David Mathews, the president of the Kettering Foundation, adds a broader philosophical underpinning to Rosen and Lambeth’s definitions:
“Public journalism isn’t any one particular thing. It is simply a way of looking at journalism that puts journalism in the context of a democracy, or approaches it from the context of good democratic practice. It, itself, is not a practice. It is a way of thinking. If you tried to explain it by trying to find one good example of public journalism, not only could you not do it, but, it would be misleading, as it is a way of thinking.”
With that in mind, we asked how journalists and media houses were struggling to situate journalism in the democratic practice in many different countries. The research came across ordinary and unique examples. In some cases, there were efforts by journalists to replicate the American model of civic journalism in their countries. Others attempted to refine that model to their own situations. In other situations, the community sought to tell its own stories using modern technology, thus bypassing journalists. In yet other examples, new repositories of information, known as community information databases, accessible to citizens, have been established to help create an informed citizenry. Overwhelmingly, the community media, which in the past was seen as a channel for mundane neighborhood events, is increasingly becoming important as the best mirror of a community that is close enough to its audience to be able to engage them.
The research faced an interesting dilemma in situating “the activist press” within the wider context of public journalism. The activist press is common in developing countries and has played an extremely important role in bringing about change in governance in previously undemocratic countries especially in Africa and Latin America. It is this type of press that is usually mentioned in conversations with journalists from developing countries as an example of public journalism. Despite its important place in history, this press, by its very nature, does not usually involve citizens in naming and framing issues but instead picks an issue and runs with it. This has created a press that sets the news agenda without the involvement of citizens. While one could argue that an activist press arises as a response to undemocratic governance, two examples of a “reformed” activist press are interesting to look at as illustrative of how media could move from activism to civic engagement. The Cape Times, which waged a bitter campaign against apartheid in South Africa, and The Clarin, which opposed the military dictatorship in Argentina, have moved away from what The Clarin calls the “paternalistic” nature of an activist press to a citizen-driven news agenda. But such “media reforms” were only possible after the rise of relatively democratic governments in both countries. This provides us with an interesting insight into one of the important conditions that appears to sustain public journalism internationally, namely that it requires a certain amount of freedom of expression and assembly in order to thrive. The relationship between public journalism and freedom of expression is hardly discussed in existing literature on public journalism but becomes increasingly important as one ventures outside USA and may explain why there are fewer public journalism projects especially in developing countries compared to countries such as USA.
Indeed the case of Algeria Interface, an online publication ran by Algerian journalists in exile, stands out as an example of what tends to happen to civic-minded journalist when they try to incorporate some elements of public journalism in their work: they are either harmed or driven into exile.
Overall, this research found a rising interest in public journalism among international journalists mainly due to an increase in the number of countries that have embraced democracy. This has led the media to search for news ways of doing their work in the changing environment. The case studies chosen here are illustrative rather than exhaustive and a planned book will pick up from where this study ends.
CASE STUDIES
AFRICA
Radio Oxy Jeunes, Senegal
The sprawling suburb of Pikine in Dakar, Senegal, resembles any other urban slum in African cities where poverty and unemployment collide to create a vast sea of hopelessness. In more ways than one, Radio Oxy-Jeunes reflects its surroundings where only the very determined ever make it. Conceived as an idea in 1996, it remained just that for three years due to bureaucratic lethargy and government’s preference for foreign owned stations capable of paying the huge licensing fees.
Faced with a bureaucratic stone wall, the young people behind Radio Oxy-Jeunes, which is backed by World Association of Community Radio Stations and the Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, resorted to writing hundreds of protest letters to the Ministry of Communications, followed by many unfruitful visits. But a chance encounter with the country’s president changed all that. He ordered that a license be issued immediately.
Today, Radio Oxy-Jeunes is Senegal’s only community radio for youth and represents a good example of how a media house can engage the citizenry. Its 40 hours of programming per week focuses on the life and concerns of the people of Pikine. It does this by giving a platform to the marginalized people and strengthening community organizations by trying to get people involved in development and civic awareness. In a society where oral traditions are more valued than the written word, the station attempts to capture and express the views of ordinary people through such programs as “The Street,” Political satire”, “traditional healing” and a news program called “Pikine for Pikine” focusing specifically on local news. It broadcasts in all local languages including those of immigrant workers.
Among the stations stated aims are:
a.) To support the people of Pikine in improving their critical thinking skills and insights related to the political processes that affect their conditions and prospects.
b.) Promote traditional African culture across the spectrum of cultures represented in Pikine;
c.) Encourage the people of Pikine to understand their rights and to take action to make sure those rights are applied; and,
d) Facilitate and support open talk amongst the population of Pikine on the major issues that concern them.
PROGRAMMES
Some of the programming initiatives by Radio Oxy-Jeunes that work towards the above goals are:
1) Dialog Conseil – This is one of the most political shows in the radio’s programs. Every Sunday night a Mayor is invited to discuss, with a live audience of his/her constituents, issues and problems in their quarter. Each week the focus is on a different quarter and it's Mayor. Prior to the show, Radio Oxy Jeunes reporters [who are local people] interview people in the relevant quarter in their homes and on-the-streets. These interviews reveal the major issues that concern the community. The interviews are played, for response by the Mayor, as part of the live broadcast, that also allows citizens to follow-up on concerns either by being present during the taping or phoning in. When, after 3 editions of this program, the Mayors refused to appear because of the questioning and criticism they faced, the program continued in their absence making the mayors seem unconcerned and uncaring. Today, no mayor dares to miss a taping and the program is ranked as one of the most popular.
In a country where official bureaucracy and traditional hierarchy often stands in the way of people getting through to public officials, the station now serves as an excellent tool for breaking down these barriers by providing a forum where citizens can engage such officials in question and answer sessions. These sessions with elected officials are the most popular of the station’s programs and citizens often take the opportunity to remind officials of their election promises which they might not have fulfilled.
(2) Blah Blah: This programme airs every week night and focuses on evaluating local political life, issues and dynamics. Hosted by 2 local comedians, the show relies on contributions from local people through phone calls, interviews and written contributions to provide biting satire with serious political points and debate.
(3) The Bus : In one of its most innovative programs, the station sends out a bus to experience and discuss a prominent local issue. “The Bus” morning show which airs every week day from 9 a.m to noon, focuses on such issues as the state of the local markets, and features a live coverage of the discussion involving stall holders, customers and market management among others. The topic changes each morning depending on the urgency and nature of the problem. A recent and memorable program was aired around the issue of traffic jams, and focused on the difficulties facing people trying to get to Dakar for work each morning.
4). Xam sa walla (Know your rights). This program focuses on the promotion of
socio-economic rights amongst young people and is aired once a week. It usually com-
mences with a short drama on a rights issue relevant to young people. A recent program, for example, focused on the issues facing young people trying to get a small loan from a bank for an income generating idea they had developed. The drama attempts to capture the real issues faced by young people. It is then followed by a live discussion that brings together the main people in the community relevant to the issue - in this case young people who have been refused loans, young people who have obtained loans, bank and insurance company managers, teachers, parents, employers and unemployed young people.
But despite the station’s popularity among the 1.5 million inhabitants of Pikine, it still faces nagging teething problems. While many of those who work there are volunteers, the management plans to hire professionals but lacks the funding. They are also waiting to hear from the government on a possible waiver for $3200 for annual license fees. But their work represents an innovative way for a media house to help people solve their own problems. It also stands out as an example of a form of public journalism that has emerged spontaneously in response to community needs.
Algeria Interface
The civil war that has raged in Algeria for the last decade makes the country one of the most dangerous places to work in as a journalist. Government security agents and the Muslim fundamentalists involved in the war have both been blamed for targeting journalists for elimination.
On March 30, 1993, Noureddine Khelassi, a well known Algerian journalist who was the editor of a daily paper called La Nation, published his last edition saying “the present situation makes it no longer possible to publish a newspaper which believes in democracy, pluralism and respect for human rights.” Thereafter he fled into exile in France and dreamt of establishing a newspaper abroad guided by these ideals. But he had no funds.
A chance encounter with Rolf Gauffin, a retired Swedish journalist and diplomat and an expert on North Africa changed all that. Gauffin had covered Algeria and knew the difficulties facing journalists in that country. In 1996, the two drafted a proposal for an independent newspaper and presented it to the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) for funding. But the idea of an independent newspaper was dropped in favor of an internet-based publication to take advantage of advances in technology, and to cut down on production and distribution costs.
SIDA, together with Olof Palme International Centre, a Swedish NGO, funded the proposal and the Algeria Interface was born. Its team comprised of two part-time journalists, an accountant and editor. Within weeks, they had set up an office in Paris and by November 1999, their web site was up and running as a site for Algerians by Algerians. Its mission is to “report the news completely and objectively while remaining faithful to the basic principles of freedom of expression, defense of human rights, and promotion of democratic values.”
While being based abroad guaranteed the venture the freedom it could never get inside Algeria, operating in exile presented its own problems especially in getting stories from home. To circumvent this problem the editor, Djamel Benramdane, set out for Algeria and quietly built a network of a dozen highly rated journalists who would feed the Algeria Interface with stories. Their stories appear on the Interface without by-lines to protect them from any repercussions back home.
The Algeria Interface still has to overcome various hurdles to be viable. Internet connectivity in Algeria is poor and the sole provider, CERIST, is controlled by the government. There is also the problem of getting reliable contributors who are not taken up by the demands of their regular jobs. A more important problem for the team at the Interface is financial independence. It currently operates with a budget of $24,000 a month, which is not enough to sustain its news gathering and investigative journalism efforts. But despite these hurdles, the Interface remains Algeria’s sole voice in the quest for democracy. Its relevance in the lives of Algerians is indicated by its rising readership with its site averaging 30,000 hits a day.
The Interface provides an example of what can reasonably be expected from the media in an authoritarian context. While it would be unthinkable for the media to hold public forums in Algeria today, the Interface regularly conducts online polls and surveys on current issues in Algeria and publishes the results. More importantly, it is experimenting with online discussions amongst readers on issues facing Algeria today.
Maneno Mengi Video Project
Maneno Mengi represents a unique media project in the use of video as a way of providing a voice to the poor and the voiceless without the help of journalists. Indeed this is an example of public journalism as practiced by a community on itself. It is also an excellent example of how media technology can help a community in naming and framing its own problems and in seeking solutions.
Radio is the most dominant media in Tanzania, but is largely in the hands of the government. Communities in rural and inaccessible places have no avenue for expressing themselves to authorities. Maneno Mengi sought to fill that void.
Registered as an independent organization in 1998, Maneno Mengi, which in Swahili means a lot of talk, promotes the use of video to help communities solve their own problems. Set in Zanzibar, Tanzania, the project places a heavy emphasis on public talk and on the final product of such unstructured talk by using video as a media in claims making and mediation.
Essentially, Maneno Mengi involves the process of convening a people together to address a common problem. The camera is always present in each session of deliberation, recording the process as it evolves over several weeks. The digital camera is held by various villagers in turns while the process of continuous editing is done through a hand-held Apple PowerBook G3 laptop computer loaded with the Final Cut software.
By letting grassroots groups express themselves freely on video, the project offers a forum for the expression and capture of the struggles over democratic rights. This is an aspect aptly captured in a title of one of the first digests from the project named “Wananchi Mtuambie” (let the people tell us). It is an example of decision making at the village level. The project and the process has been used to tackle such community issues as the struggle to ban dynamite in fishing and also to stop logging at the Hangai forests. In the latter project, villagers entered in a video dialogue with forest officers to decentralize the management of Hangai forest to the villages.
The wide distribution of these videos has also helped to influence official policy over these issues and to awaken other communities to the power in using video as a communication medium.
In such cases, the use of video becomes a tool for self-assessment and evaluation, strengthening local networks and moving forward in iterative circles of shooting and reviewing as the community explores an issue. At the heart of the video model is the interactive communication aspect that brings a people together and gives them a voice with a wide and influential reach. It is thus a form of community-controlled media in which a community is able to express itself without the need for a journalist to mediate such communication.
Swaziland
Another project of note is the public journalism short course introduced by USIS in the South African country of Swaziland and taught via interactive video to mid-career journalists in Swaziland. The project was modeled after the American model of public journalism in combination with development journalism. (Development journalism was a form of communication popular in the 60s and 70s which was geared towards addressing the developmental needs of people in Third World countries). The design of the Swaziland project included two teleconference meetings held in September and October, 1997, twelve interactive internet video meetings with the journalists, and a two week field experience. The project adopted the six step public journalism model of public listening, developing community issues and a time frame, developing community forums, collaboration between media within the community, promoting the concept with the community, conducting the project and evaluating community response. Participants chose to focus on rural health care, rape and incest stories. These finals stories were published in the various media represented in the project.
As a result of this course and subsequent seminars by USIS, the Swazi Broadcasting Corporation now has a weekly regular feature on rural communities. The Observer newspaper started an on-going weekly community page that appears on Mondays, based on community forums convened to discuss community problems. In both situations, however, the two media houses have stuck to the American model, perhaps due to the way that the concept was introduced to them. Also, the two media houses do not collaborate with each other in tackling common problems.
The Swaziland case study is also interesting in that public journalism was introduced as “a practice” rather than a way of thinking and a greater emphasis was placed on teaching the media the required steps. This has placed a greater responsibility on the media which for instance feels obliged to convene forums. Such a practice hinders the devolution of power and shared responsibility that is expected to occur when citizens come together to tackle their own problems.
ASIA
Indonesia
As the world’s third most populous nation and emerging democracy, Indonesia represents a fascinating case study of an innovative media trying to rise above decades of dictatorship to a media that represents the public voice.
Due to Indonesia’s vast territory, radio is the only medium that can reach the remote areas of this archipelago. Today, there are 769 private radio stations serving the entire population. During the 32 years of the Suharto regime, the stations largely aired music and entertainment programs. They were only allowed to broadcast the news provided by the official broadcasting system.
After years of entertainment programming, the opening up of the political space after the fall of Suharto in 1999 provided both enormous opportunities and unexpected challenges to the media. Most rural radio stations in Indonesia are small structures with outdated equipments. They also had no trained broadcasters.
But with the help of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 25 radio stations serving outlying remote areas have came up with the idea of networking among the radio stations to offer the Indonesian population new avenues and possibilities to participate in the new democratic process. The project is called “Democracy on Air Project.”
To prepare the stations for this maiden role, UNESCO organized successive conferences in 1998 and 1999 to provide reporters with skills in journalism and, more importantly, news programming with a special perspective on the democratic process that Indonesia was going through at the time. To strengthen the stations further, UNESCO linked them through an internet-based network that allowed the daily exchange of news items among the news organizations. This was important in several ways:
First, the networks that were otherwise constrained by budgets could freely obtain and broadcast news items from all parts of the country. Second, for the first time in Indonesia, people could tune in to local stations that were truly broadcasting what was happening in the community. In a country accustomed to vertical and authoritarian communication, the stations embarked on civic education campaigns broadcasting items on democratic principles, good governance and even development issues. Every station managed to run the campaign independently by setting its own agenda. UNESCO’s role ended with the provision of technical equipment and training. Last year, the stations embarked on a campaign against corruption, which was seen as the number one impediment to democratization.
Socially, people use the radio to convene meetings, send invitations to a marriage or to cultural events or to discuss local issues in talk-show format. This service is especially critical in the remote areas where phones and post office are a rarity.
Russia
The question of the disconnect that exists between media and citizens has increasingly been thrust in the forefront of debates in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Attempts to build and reinvigorate the civil society in that country often point to the increasing irrelevance of the media in the lives of ordinary citizens. But a few journalists in Russia are trying to change this. One of the most prominent examples of the new civic-oriented journalism that is cropping up in Russia is a radio program known as “The Goal of Life.”
The program, which started in 1996, is the brainchild of Natalia Abramova, a journalist and senior editor for Saratov Broadcasting Company. The program is funded by the American Foundation, Eurasia. The purpose of “The Goal of Life” is to establish a social dialogue in Russia to assess economic and communities proposals from Saratov’s citizens. The program thus seeks to help Saratov citizens solve their enormous economic and political problems to be able to act and live as citizens through a public dialogue that picks citizens ideas and lets people explore ways to realize them. Some of the ideas have been turned into lucrative ventures. One of the projects that has directly resulted from the program is a factory in Saratov that now produces advanced computer hardware and which has created 1,000 jobs. The program is also credited with helping end government monopoly on industry, which has led to a 30 per cent decline in the prices of goods. It is also credited with helping bring digital optical telephone lines to Saratov. The program has also led to the organizing of the first Women’s Business club with a membership of 93 women who actively take part in the public life of the city.
Abramova summarizes the program this way:
“It forms social relations, a tradition of freedom that recognizes the right of media to present ideas. I try to give my viewers the news and information they need to make decisions in a self-governing society. I try to help them see how they can be active participants not only in building news coverage, but also in building our communities.”
As a parting shot to journalists still pursuing traditional reporting methods she has this to say:
“Standing apart, as seemingly neutral observers while public life collapses, was no longer possible for me…”
This results-oriented program appears to provide us with a powerful statement about the expectations that accompany public journalism projects in societies with pressing problems such as Russia’s. In such situations, it appears that it is imperative that public talk lead to some form of public action. In other words, the pressing and urgent nature of the problem does not allow for the luxury of public talk for the sake of it.
RADIO SAGARAMATHA, Nepal
Radio Sagaramatha is Nepal’s first independent community broadcasting station and represents South Asia’s first major effort at "independent community radio." Situated on the foot of Mt Everest, the station whose name means the head in the heavens (the Nepali name for Mt Everest) is closely tied to Nepal’s slow evolution from an absolute monarchy to a limited democracy, a process that started in 1990.
In 1993, Nepal’s Communication Policy Act was enacted which liberalized the airwaves and allowed for the creation of independent media. This was the principal factor that opened up new possibilities to democratize electronic media, hitherto totally controlled by government. The station airs a combination of educational, informative and entertainment programs including chats, radio features and opinion concerning vital issues affecting the everyday lives of the citizens of Nepal's capital (Katmandu) and its environment. Recent programs featured have focused on Katmandu's growing air pollution problem, urbanization and its impact on heritage sites, tourism, the threat of HIV/AIDS and garbage disposal.
But perhaps what makes Radio Sagaramantha an interesting media is its audience which tends to be drawn from the urban dwellers of the capital city that is also the political center of the country. The radio is thus broadcasting to an intelligent and informed community. This audience is both a challenge and an opportunity. Getting attention of this audience demands programming that is competitive, comparable and even better than what already exists, since Sagaramatha is dealing with a public that has always influenced Nepal’s political and economic decision-making. Aware of the vast power of Radio Sagaramantha’s audience, the government tends to gauge public opinion and the importance of issues based on the stations programs. Thus for the listeners, the station is a way of making claims, and for the government the station is a handy tool of gauging people’s concerns and responding to them. This is a good example of a media as a civic network and its role in improving the flow of information to ensure an inclusive democratic dialogue.
Recently, the government, perhaps out of the realization of the important role that this new community media is playing, approved a series of requests made by Radio Sagaramatha. These include allowing the station to have up to 24 hours of broadcasting ( up from the current 13), grant the station a mobile license that will allow Sagarmatha to go (almost) anywhere in Nepal, broadcast from a mobile studio, place no further restriction on advertising, and reserve the frequency FM 102.4 Mhz exclusively for Radio Sagaramatha throughout the whole country.
The station, which was established with financial and technical assistance provided under UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), still operates as a non-profit making operation with a small core staff and relies on mobilizing independent producers and communities for programming.
TAMBULI COMMUNITY RADIO, The Philippines
An interesting project taking place in the Philippines represents a growing trend among communities which, lacking access to national media, are increasingly opting to establish their own media as a form of engaging each other in wrestling with their own problems.
The Philippines project, "Tambuli Community Radio Project" has, through the help of UNESCO, set up a management and training team that co-operates with communities to organize independent community radio stations in less developed rural areas. So far twelve community radio stations have been established
In the project the thrust is to the communities: the local folk build the radio station and through focus group discussions, set the guidelines for the broadcasters. They then organize the radio team from all sectors of the village. The villagers volunteer their services for the greater good of the community. The funders provide equipment and training while the community identifies its own development priorities. Devoid of commercial or sectarian interests, these small radio stations help strengthen the democratic process by providing access to different viewpoints, and animate the local development efforts.
For the communities involved there is a deep sense of pride of being the masters of their own communication facility that allows them to correlate their activities with wider national development goals. The success of the project has caused UNESCO to extend its financial support for a follow-up phase under which the Tambuli Foundation of the Philippines, will support and promote such community endeavors throughout the Philippines.
QATAR
Further away in the Arab world, a most prominent example of civic journalism by a television station has become a major force in shaping public opinion in the Middle East. This is the Al Jazeera television station in the tiny Arab state of Qatar. Started four years ago by Qatar's leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, as an independent 24 hours news channel for the Arab world, the station has angered the governments of every Arab state and earned the tiny country (population 723,000) countless enemies in the Arab world. Its greatest appeal has been in its ability and courage to question such previously taboo subjects like polygamy and lack of democratic governments in the Arab world. Its programs include call-in talk-shows, live debates and extensive coverage of issues from an independent Arab perspective in a region where the media has largely been controlled by governments. It’s candid programming and commitment to open dialogue among citizens (who previously had no opportunity to be heard on air) are some of the reasons that explain Al Jazeera’s influence and popularity. The station has 28 million subscribers and satellite dishes have cropped up in the most unlikely places including outside Bedouin tents.
In a recent inerview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Sheikh Hamad Bib Khalifa said he started the station because he felt the Arab World needed a fresh voice to prepare the region for democracy, which he felt was inevitable in the region. Today Al Jezeera has correspondents in every Arab capital and in Western cities. Its thirty million dollars annual budget is bank rolled by the Qatar government but the station operates independently.
KOTHMALE COMMUNITY RADIO, Sri Lanka
A multi-media civic mapping project underway in Sri-Lanka represents a new way for media to engage citizens in public affairs. The Mahaweli Community Project is a joint pilot project between Kothmale Community Radio, the university of Colombo, the Institute of Computer Technology, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, the Telecommunication Authority of Sri Lanka and the local governing councils of Nawalapitiya and Gampola.
The goal of this one year old project is to assess the prospects of converging community media and informatics to determine its possible impact on development efforts in rural communities. The project will feature a community database located at three access points within the community. The database will be developed through a daily interactive radio program broadcast over Kothmale community radio station to ensure that relevant community information needs are being adequately addressed. The access points will provide the users with free access to the local and national databases, use-net service, e-mail facilities and other relevant information available with the Internet. It is hoped that such easy access to information will make it possible for citizens to participate in development efforts and public life by being well informed and being in a position to reach centers of power through various communication avenues.
The project’s experience will be closely monitored with on-going research on the impact of the radio program, rural database development and use. A publication synthesizing methodology and findings will be produced for possible replication in other rural communities with community media. The design of this project is interesting in that it combines various forms of media and could point to innovative and comprehensive ways of designing public journalism projects in future.
Australia and New Zealand
The Australian Public Journalism Project is interesting for the way it has tried to fine-tune the American version of public journalism to serve the Australian socio-political situation.
In early 1990s, Australia faced the same challenges that led to the emergence of public journalism in USA, namely, declining newspaper circulation figures, a disconnect between media and the communities they serve and a declining interest in public affairs and in civic participation. Suggestions to try out the kind of civic journalism projects going on in the USA to help build and strengthen links between the media and their audience were met with skepticism by defensive editors who argued that they were already doing that through community forums, meet-candidates nights and newspaper sponsored activities in schools and business areas. But such reactions did not address the key issues being raised by those promoting public journalism, such as a polarizing and pejorative debate on the vexing race issue in Australia or the absence of avenues for citizens to be a part of the daily news agenda.
That resistance, however, changed in 1998 when the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Wollongong established the Public Journalism Project to try out the public journalism concept using a case study approach. Known as “Public Journalism, Public Participation and Australian Public Policy: Connecting to Community Attitudes,” the project is a collaboration between the media on the one hand (The Courier- Mail newspaper, Rural Press Limited and John Fairfax Limited), community organizations (The Australians for Reconciliation Project, and the Ethnic Communities Council) and University researchers.
Drawing directly from the Pulitzer Prize winning Akron Beacon Journal series on race relations in the USA, the project called on the public to set an agenda for debate on race relations and immigration in Australia.
Over 600 people attended the two forums, a remarkable number considering that they were held during the election campaign period for a federal and state election. And although all the stories were competing for space with a major political event, The Courier-Mail devoted two eight-page lift-outs to the forums plus various articles in its regular edition reflecting the range of perspectives on the issue. This was unlike any coverage previously devoted to the topic and the articles elicited more letters to the editor, hotline comments and opinion pieces than the election campaign itself.
The Courier-Mail won the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Prizes in 1998 and 1999 for its coverage of both the immigration and indigenous issues under the public journalism initiative. Today, the Public Journalism Project has extended its activities in Queensland and outlying rural areas.
There have been other public journalism projects in Australia carried out by individual media houses such as the one in 1999 done by The Australian newspaper around the referendum to consider whether Australia should become a republic.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has also held a number of public forums to identify issues of local significance in Ipswich and the suburb of Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. Local issues raised included crime, politics, race, and quality of government services. The forums were broadcast live and among those in attendance were municipal officials. It was hoped that the issues raised would feature prominently in future planning of municipal affairs.
New Zealand began its experiments even earlier using the American public journalism model. During the 1993 general election campaign, politicians, frustrated with the journalistic reliance on “bad news,” ten-second sound bytes and the adversarial A versus B reporting model, made unprecedented use of talk-back radio, and television talk shows that allowed them to interact directly with the voters. This public journalism technique allowed politicians the opportunity to engage directly with the citizens. Two New Zealand newspapers, The Evening Standard and Waikato Times, quickly adopted this community-centered journalism and each recruited university researchers to conduct public opinion polls, asking readers to identify campaign issues. Among the technique tools used for the polls were telephone surveys, readers’ panels and deliberative opinion polls that brought citizens together for discussions. Journalists then wrote stories based on the issues identified by citizens and asked parties to respond. When a party failed to, the papers printed a block of white space with the words “no response.” Naturally, this happened only once when the National party objected to the newspapers attempts to drive the campaign. But after the “no response” space was published, the nationals never missed another deadline.
EUROPE
KosovaLive
KosovaLive represents an interesting idea of a successful internet based news agency that has taken up the concept of public journalism and given it an indigenous model. Conceived by Kelmend Hapciu, a former international fellow at the Kettering Foundation, the site was launched a year ago to provide unbiased news about the grassroots issues of every day life such as health care, education, social welfare and good governance to media outlets.
The project was funded by a consortium of donors including the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute, Press Now, the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the governments of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. But the project was surrounded by uncertainities from the beginning. No one was sure if the local media outlets would run stories from KosovaLive instead of their own by-lined products.
To overcome this uncertainty, the fledgling agency decided to operate as a non-profit organization that would make its stories available for free to both electronic and print media. One year later, that uncertainty has been replaced by an overwhelming demand for its succinct and sharp stories that dot Kosova’s news outlets of six daily newspapers, 24 television stations, and 92 radio stations. The agency’s news serves not only the two million Kosova inhabitants but the entire southern Balkan region. The agency is staffed by five reporters, all based in the capital city of Pristina and 20 correspondents in outlying towns.
KosovaLive publishes 30 stories per day in Albanian and a dozen in English, all freely distributed through its website, fax, e-mail or Pony Express.
Kelmend Hapciu, who has steered the agency through its first year, sees its role as critical in the economic, political and social recovery of Kosovo. “Civil society can take root and only flourish with the help of a strong and politically independent media. There are many challenges facing our country today and our job is to provide citizens with the information that they can use in their daily lives in order to act as citizens.”
But Kelmend and the agency still have one more hurdle to negotiate. He is getting ready to convert the free internet site to a subscription-based service.
“It is hard to get people to pay for something they have been getting for free but it is necessary to generate our own revenue,” he says as he gears up for the challenge.
Tamil Radio and Television (TRT) Network
The Tamil Radio and Television network represents one of the best unique examples of a type of civic journalism that produces bonding but not bridging social capital. Based in Paris, France, the network beams programs in Tamil to Tamils living in exile in Europe, Canada, South Africa and in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion.
It was started in 1997 as a limited company by journalists to fill the huge news void experienced by Tamils uprooted by conflict in their country. The radio and TV stations focus on issues relevant to the Tamil community such as news and current affairs on the Sri Lanka situation and the rest of the world. But it also provides another important service to the exiled Tamil community by giving them the information they need to adapt to their new environment, bond together, and answer legal and administrative questions through such programs as “Udhavuvoma” (Can we help?). TRT also airs programs such as profiles of Sri Lankan and Indian celebrities, literary reviews, sports and popular cultural programs.
The Radio and television station is in many ways a symbol of the growing power and influence of the Tamils, who started arriving in Europe in early 1980s to escape the conflict in their country. Life in Europe presented its own unique problems for these new immigrants such as getting visas, work permits or even information about the situation back home. The radio channel was an instant hit among the Tamils in exile and provided answers both to their day-to-day problems and news on events in Sri Lanka. Listeners polled by the station often cite the fact that the station has given them a voice and a bond in exile as the reasons why they like it.
Sweden.
Heavily inspired by American examples, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper in Stockholm, Sweden, has over the past two years been trying to apply public journalism to its coverage of Swedish issues with what the project coordinator, Petter Beckman, calls “increasing success.” A small group of three reporters and Beckman have been spearheading the effort which aims at strengthening and widening the paper’s capacity as a inclusive democratic forum by tearing down fences around the arena of public discourse. As he explains it:
We aim at making our contents more relevant and accessible to "non-elite" groups, and inviting them to take part in the "public deliberation" that takes place on newspaper pages. We have been allowed the freedom to set our own agenda that we extract using various techniques of community mapping.”
The project started off with a focus on socio-economic division and ethnic/racial relations which are both hot-button issues in Sweden, but has recently drifted more towards other unsolved problems of modern society such as the ubiquitous shortage of time and connected issues.
They have also done a deliberative series of stories on teenage fashion and the peer pressure that such trends put on parents and teens (in many ways depriving both kids and parents of their freedom of choice).
The group’s last project was an attempt to connect the rather technical political debate on tax levels to how low income groups have been affected and deprived by the tax laws.
But despite this relative success, Beckman feels there are still some unresolved issues that they need to address if the project is to last:
“We are beginning to get a glimpse of the possibilities of this journalistic approach, but feel we need help to explore and develop its full potential. For instance, once you have mobilized your readers, what do you do next? How does one keep the topic up over a greater length of time than two weeks - especially if you don´t control other sections of the newspaper? How do you deal with the tendency of the "regular organization" to lose interest just when citizens are beginning to warm up? (Clearly this is a matter that involves the strategic choices of the entire newsroom. And how does one proceed - tactically - to increase influence over the necessary decisions higher up in hierarchy?)”
He points out that the public journalism initiative at the newspaper has been very much his own and not being at the top of the organization presents certain difficulties.
I enjoy the rather strong support from the Chief Editor who is much involved in the basic goals. But the initiative, and the more elaborate understanding of what we are doing, is with me. Right now we are considering shifting our focus from projects to "spreading the word" (the understanding, the methods) in the rest of the newsroom. I will, as a part of this strategy, be organizing several training program this year.”
To better prepare himself for the trainer’s role, Beckman who has a degree in political science with an emphasis on democracy and civic life, is trying to expand his own understanding of the public journalism concept and thinking through learning and networking.
Finland
In the Scandinavian countries, efforts to launch public journalism projects date back to 1997 when Aamuhleti, one of the biggest dailies in Finland, and two university researchers, Heikki Heikkila and Risto Kunelius, launched a short-lived pilot project. The project, which was carried out in the city of Tampere, brought together a group of 12 citizens (dubbed the budget jury) to discuss the city’s budgeting priorities in a series of meeting. A reporter from the paper covered the public talks. Out of these deliberations and the subsequent coverage in the newspaper, the researchers observed that the traditional method of reporting stories is poorly equipped for reporting deliberative forums. They are in the process of trying to develop a better method for reporters to capture deliberative talk, which they will then test out in future forums.
But this did not deter other experimental projects from taking place. So far, the largest and perhaps fruitful project is one carried out by Savon Sanomat (a daily published in Kuopio, in eastern Finland). Between autumn 1998 and spring 1999, the paper conducted three small-scale projects involving six journalists, a researcher, and an informal support group within the newsroom. The reporters gathered six groups of ordinary citizens, who where invited to discuss their concerns, to frame problems, raise questions, and find solutions. The idea was to have these groups contributing to the newswork, while the reporters would commit themselves to developing public discussion on the basis of these contributions.
The participants were selected using the “snowball” technique. First, a group of reporters set up an advisors’ list of persons who were neither journalists’ friends nor established news sources. Once the advisors had been informed of the projects by phone, they were asked to suggest two or three names they would like to see in a group. This round of phone calls produced a list of more than 150 candidates, of which about 50 were invited. Eventually 46 of them took part in the discussions.
The first project, (which was called ‘Citizens!’), focused on generational differences in Kuopio, the paper’s hometown. The participants were divided into three groups, i.e. senior citizens born in the 1930s, those born in the 1950s, and younger adults born in the 1970s. Each group met twice for 7-8 hours of intensive talk. In the first session the groups focused on problems, in the second they tried to find solutions to the problems they had detected. During the project the groups became so interested in each other’s viewpoints that a third meeting was held in which some members of all groups were present. This extra session was more informal, but it was also covered in the paper.
The second project was launched a couple of months later in two small municipalities, where ‘community groups’ met on three occasions. In the first two sessions the groups reflected upon their concerns and the extent to which residents could influence local decision-making. In the third meeting the groups had the opportunity to present their questions and suggestions directly to the local authorities. The third project (called ‘Voters’) was an ad hoc experiment in which a group of citizens spent an evening discussing topics they thought would be relevant in the parliamentary elections; the following evening they were allowed to ‘interrogate’ local political candidates. Since this project ended, the paper has decided to convene the group once a year to meet the MPs elected from their constituency.
All these group meetings and discussions took place in the presence of two reporters and the researcher, who also acted as a moderator. The discussions resulted in a dozen stories, which were expected to lead to ‘spin-off stories’ and transform into public processes or even ‘beats’ that would be under constant supervision in the newsroom. The projects were open-ended, but as it turned out they remained rather short-lived. Spin-off stories that were supposed to develop public discussion further and cater it with journalistic tools available remained quite sporadic, and after May 1999 they ceased altogether. In autumn 1999, however, the paper took a step towards institutionalizing a similar approach by establishing a weekly section to cover local issues from the residents’ perspective. The reporter responsible for the projects is also in charge of this new section.
LATIN AMERICA
The civic journalism project in Argentina represents a case where an American model has been modified to fit a local situation. The project began a year and a half ago when Fundacion Ciudad, an Argentinian civic organization promoting citizen participation in public affairs, organized a civic journalism seminar with support from the United States Information Agency. The two-day seminar was devoted to the theories and techniques of civic journalism and was attended by over 60 Argentinian journalists. The conference explored ways to adapt civic journalism to problems in Argentina.
Two American journalists, Max Jennings, editor of the Dayton Daily News, and National Public Radio’s John Dinges were sponsored by the Pew Center to speak about their experiences in organizing civic journalism projects.
Jennings described the Dayton Daily News project, “Kids in Chaos” in which the newspaper convened community forums to deal with a local problem as an example of how some media organizations in the USA are trying to frame their reporting around citizens concerns and voices. Dinges, on the other hand, described the NPR election coverage project which was built around an election agenda set by citizens through polls and small forums.
But unlike the US situation where civic journalism arose out of a concern of declining public confidence in the media, participants heard a different story in the case of Argentina. The Argentinian media enjoys a high level of confidence from citizens, due to its years of opposition to military dictatorship. And even after the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983, the media has continued to play this activist role as Argentina attempts to build a democratic government. One of the most memorable activist press projects, since the fall of the military dictatorship, was the vigorous campaign to expose the corruption that has shrouded the privatization of state-held enterprises.
Despite this impeccable role as a watchdog, the conference heard from participants that the reporting of public affairs does not generally incorporate the views of citizens. Participants described the media’s treatment of ordinary people as paternalistic, a treatment that massages rather than challenge them.
This conference was important in that it set the theoretical and practical understanding of what is expected of a civic press. Participants resolved to work on two civic journalism projects to change the way that the media relates to the citizens.
The first project, named “Citizens Agenda” focused on the coverage and citizen participation in the election of the mayor of Buenos Aires and a convention to draft a city charter. The election was a major break from tradition in that the mayor had previously been appointed by the central government.
As part of this project, Clarin and La Nacion, the two main newspapers in Argentina, held public forums in which the people of Buenos Aires attempted to set a citizen’s agenda that they felt ought to drive the elections. The papers also organized meetings between candidates and the citizens in an attempt to have the candidates address the people’s concerns. As a result of these forums and subsequent coverage, the June 2000 mayoral elections are today regarded as the pioneer example of a civic journalism project in Argentina. A follow-up project about the inhuman conditions in Argentina’s prisons is in the works.
Argentina’s television station, Channel 13, has introduced a news program doing some pioneering work in public journalism as well. Known as Noticiero de Santo (Santo’s News Program) the program focuses on helping people solve their daily problems by providing them with service-related programs.
According to Ruben Garcia, the show’s producer, the service is something that is not likely to be seen on any other media. The show is built around the high profile of Argentina’s top journalist, Santo Biasati. In his regular broadcasts of “Santo the citizen,” the journalist will immerse himself in the daily routines of Argentinian citizens and report his experiences live. Some of the most memorable episodes include Santo riding the subway in scorching summer heat and reporting on people’s complaints. Other shows have taken Santo to the neighborhoods of greater Buenos Aires to cover city life issues such as bumpy roads, speed ramps, street lights and even safety. The best part of the show is the power that it wields over policy and decision makers who quickly responds to issues raised in the show by solving them.
Garcia, the show’s producer has an explanation for its popularity:
“We complain about this, we have fun with that, we inform and entertain. In other words we try not to have dragging stories portraying a dull country. We have succeded in having many people call us up, watch us, listen to us and that gives us the opportunity to cover more stories. Putting such stories on air is enough to cause people to react. People are taking refuge in the media. We are doing the job that public officials are supposed to do. The institutions that were set up to serve the public have failed to do so.
Thus by taking citizens claims and airing them, the television station is constantly reminding the government of its obligations to citizens.
But the Argentinian initiative was by no means the first civic journalism project in Latin America. In 1998 a pilot project was conceived to promote democracy in Bolivia, in which the two main newspapers, El Nuevo Dia and La Razon, participated. In October 1998 La Razon published a supplement on the structure and functions of Bolivia's Ombuds(wo)man while El Nuevo Dia devoted two pages to a questionnaire entitled "discover if you are part of the problem," which highlighted citizens' responsibility to fight corruption. Another project in Bolivia involves the two major dailies and a TV network which have agreed to open their pages to NGOs promoting civil society with a view to promoting civic dialogue to nurture Bolivia's democracy. Bolivia is still an emerging democracy and the main emphasis then is on civic education to create an understanding of citizens’ responsibilities in nurturing that democracy.
Colombia hosts an interesting public journalism project established by Ana Maria Miralles, a university researcher who has attended Kettering workshops. As the coordinator of Voces Ciudadana Por la Seguridad y Convivencia, a public journalism project based in Medelin, Colombia, she has worked with newspapers, television stations and NGOs to get proposals from citizens on ways to address issues of concern to citizens. One of their earliest projects involved addressing the issue of insecurity in Medelin. Maria, who has also written a book about public journalism, is currently engaged in experiments on innovative public journalism techniques to gather people’s opinion and ideas on issues through a toll-free number. Such opinion is accessible to the media participating in her project and they can use it for story ideas.
In Costa Rica in 1998, the leading news radio station, Radio Reloj, launched a civic journalism daily program called, "Reloj, you and your community," which aims at involving the community more in the news and to give people information relevant to their community. This is a radical departure from the earlier techniques of gathering news in that it lets the readers and viewers set the agenda of the issues around which journalists set their stories. Journalists from these media have been participating in USIS civic journalism workshops. Some of the issues that they have covered so far --- crime in neighborhoods, overcrowding and corruption---are at the top of citizens concerns.
Another way in which the civic journalism movement has appeared in Latin America is through teleconferences and workshops with the academic community. Several such conferences were held with the faculty at the University of Costa Rica's Communications School who were introduced to the concept of civic journalism and have since become enthusiastic promoters of the concept. It is hoped that they will incorporate some of the ideas in their teaching.
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