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Public Journalism

Public journalism is a movement within journalism that aims to reconnect news institutions to public and civic life and local community. Also known as “civic journalism,” it began with a series of experiments in local newspapers in the late 1980s and eventually spread to more than a fifth of all U.S. newspapers (as well as some public and commercial television and radio stations) before beginning to fade as a self-conscious movement around 2002. The public journalism movement generated an impressive array of innovative practices in newsrooms and communities and an extensive network of practitioners, educators, and organizations committed to reshaping professional and institutional norms. Further, public journalism laid some of the foundations for the current practice of citizen journalism.

Philosophy of Public Journalism

The philosophy of public journalism, as manifest in the writings of its leading theorists and practitioners, can be summarized as follows: Journalists must assume responsibility for helping to constitute vital “publics” with the usable knowledge that enables them to deliberate about complex issues and to engage in common problem solving. Since journalists invariably frame and narrate the story of our common life in their reporting of “the facts,” they should do so with an eye to how their stories permit people to see themselves as citizens rather than as mere spectators, victims, or consumers of information. While they should not compromise their objectivity through advocacy journalism, or by taking the lead in developing solutions to problems, they can play convening and catalytic roles that bring citizens together to deliberate among themselves, and with those who hold positions of power and authority, so that citizens may help fashion problem-solving strategies and policy responses.

Journalists can frame their coverage in ways that enable citizens to better map their own associational resources and build the knowledge base needed for active and productive engagement. They can shine a comparative spotlight on “solutions” that seem to have worked reasonably well in other communities, in order to expand citizens' knowledge of potentially useful models and to generate a sense of efficacy, without advocating for specific models or succumbing to “feel good” news and superficial optimism. Indeed, civic journalists can be tough on those in power by challenging them to respond to citizens' own agendas and real-life concerns and to engage with integrity in how they present their views and follow through on their commitments. And even as civic journalists help to expand the forums and usable knowledge through which citizens can engage with public life, they hold citizens themselves accountable for grappling with the full complexity of issues and acting responsibly to solve common problems. If there is a bias in civic journalism, it is a bias toward the democratic work of citizens in a self-governing republic.

History of Public Journalism

The public journalism movement began in the mid-1980s at the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, led by James K. Batten, its then-CEO. Concerned about declining readership and the drift of newspapers from the communities they served, Batten began a companywide search for new forms of what he called “community connectedness.” In a series of experiments, beginning in Columbus, Georgia, in 1987, and moving soon to Wichita, Kansas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, editors at Knight-Ridder papers began to wrestle with the relationship between their coverage and democracy.

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