THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506180036
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: Cole C. Campbell, Editor
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
In April, Deputy Managing Editor Dennis Hartig spoke to the annual meeting of the League of Women Voters of South Hampton Roads.
He discussed the newspaper's efforts to engage readers as citizens in covering local news. This approach has become known as public journalism.
League members were intrigued - enough to hold meetings across the region to evaluate whether the newspaper kept citizens in mind in covering crime news in May.
The rationale for the monthlong content audit was spelled out last week in a two-page report written by Barbara Ballard and Susan Goranson:
``The Virginian-Pilot's commitment to this approach must be evaluated before it may be declared a success; citizens must examine its implementation and outcomes.''
The league's audit criticized some Virginian-Pilot stories for not providing enough information, such as not including how to detect and how to report child abuse in a report on the rise in abuse cases.
The report praised a story on problems in the prosecution of teenagers accused in the killing of Joey Garcia for reflecting the victim's perspective, but said the story could have done more to promote community dialogue ``by including information on legal reform, Gov. Allen's Committee on Juvenile Justice Reform and support groups.''
The audit praised a story about an ax-attack victim for including the victim's perspective but criticized it for not including information about victim-support groups.
It lamented the absence of a follow-up to a story about a widower's anger that his wife's killer had been paroled, wondering ``if the problem that allowed a convicted killer to be mistakenly paroled had been corrected.''
The audit praised several stories:
``Leaguers gave Debbie Messina good marks for `Fighting Paint with Paint to Save Trees in Kempsville' because it was informative. And by printing `How to Help' with organization phone numbers, the article moved readers towards taking action in stopping vandalism.''
``Leaguer Janette Franklin praised Lynn Waltz's article `The Company' for its breadth, chronicling the arrest, trial and conviction of criminals. It was an education for Franklin in the true scope of the drug `business.' ''
``Larry Brown's recent `Democracy and Citizenship' series on crime represents a good effort to promote education and dialogue. . . . In `Looking Beyond the Numbers,' he reported the ideas of residents as they discussed concerns about crime and violence. League members felt that the newspaper had done a public service by getting individual citizens involved in debating issues. Just as important was coverage of the debate between Norfolk residents and city officials in a citizen workshop on crime. Hats off to Larry Brown for `Seminar Puts PACE Through the Paces.' ''
One league member emphasized the importance of complete information to citizen education and action:
``The feeling of being powerless against crime is reinforced when all you hear about is crime. To empower people, we have to see a complete picture of crime in the community - the crime, the victim, the arrest, the criminal justice system, rehabilitation and reconciliation. To maintain a balanced picture, public journalism needs to run companion articles and inserts, to be fair to readers, showing that crime happens but criminals go to jail, especially with citizen help, and people get on with their lives.''
That supports criticism from Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Chuck Griffith, who says the paper has failed to cover some important convictions his prosecutors win.
We're rethinking our coverage philosophy.
The audit urged us to do more to cover ``grassroots organizations and institutions that deal with specific issues.''
It concluded by defending us against implied criticism in a column by the former executive editor of The New York Times.
``While Max Frankel's comments in `Public Journalism: Reform or Just Rhetoric?' may not have been based on a careful reading of the paper, the League's comments are. And the conclusion is this: The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star has made great strides in public journalism by opening citizen dialogue and pointing the way to citizen action!''
Thanks for the report card. We'll keep working to improve our marks. by CNB