Civic Journalism - Case Studies

Case Studies

• Citizen Voices

The Citizen Voices Project was one newspaper’s attempt to facilitate civic conversation within the diverse city of Philadelphia. Citizen Voices came in to effect in 1999, during a very close mayoral election between a black democrat and a white republican. Citizen Voices was modeled on the National Issues Forum and was intended to amplify minority voices not frequently acknowledged in the political realm. Forums were held throughout the city, facilitating deliberation of the most important issues facing citizens: jobs, neighborhoods, public safety, and reforming city hall. Essays written by Citizen Voices participants were published in the commentary pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer, while the editorial board framed its coverage of the campaign around the five designated issues. While the Citizen Voices Project did not increase voter turnout, it has given journalists a new perspective on how to cover urban political issues.

• The Front Porch Forum was introduced in Seattle in 1994 through a partnership between the Seattle Times newspaper, KUOW-FM radio station and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. The mission of the Front Porch Forum was to strengthen communities through news coverage that focuses on citizens’ concerns, encourages civic participation, improves public deliberation and reconnects citizens, candidates and reporters to community life. Over the course of 5 ½ years, the Seattle Times and KUOW-FM featured a series of stories highlighting issues that affect Seattle residents, and encouraged readers' participation.

• Robert Cribb is an investigative reporter for the Canadian newspaper the Toronto Star. He has written several stories about modern slavery, irresponsible doctors, organized crime and corruption within government. Cribb is well known for his Dirty Dining series about the amount of health inspections that are conducted at Toronto restaurants and how that information is dealt with. This led to a disclosure policy in Toronto that requires restaurants to post the results of their health and safety inspections in their front windows, which is one of the first of its kind in Canada.

• American journalist Matt Taibbi wrote a highly publicized article in 2009 called “The Great American Bubble Machine" exposing the historical corruption of Goldman Sachs since the Great Depression until today. He described Goldman Sachs as being "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."