In a new ABCD Institute workbook, White pinpoints the disaffection of local residents with the way newspapers cover their communities and offers a series of strategies designed to put citizens and reporters back on the same page.
For newspapers it's a matter of economics. According to White, papers have suffered a decline in readership from 64.8% in 1987 to 58.3% in 1997. Competition from the Internet, a rash of niche magazines, and cable television is siphoning off their audience.
In their scramble for new readers, news agencies are beginning to pay attention to the increasingly diverse ethnicity of metropolitan areas. Some are taking steps to connect with these readers and elevate their voices in the paper.
Thus the time may be ripe for residents to respond. In the three-part guidebook, White lays out some ideas.
First Steps. For starters, he says citizens must reconcile their desires with the newspaper's own interests and goals. This entails some homework to learn the mission of their newspaper, the kinds of stories it runs, and who writes them. They must then decide what stories they want to read about their communities, find an "angle" that will attract a reporter, and make a case about the possible impact of such an article.
As a case in point, White quotes a study by ABCD co-director John McKnight, who queried community leaders in the low-income Austin neighborhood of Chicago about the types of coverage that would interest them. They opted for stories about how citizens made a difference, how local events came about, and about the everyday actions of residents that could help them connect to their neighborhood, the city, and the world beyond.
There are many avenues for making local voices heard, White advises. Today, newspapers run guest columns, opinion polls, neighborhood sections, special issue sections, and web sites. Some sponsor focus groups or even town hall meetings where citizens can vent their concerns.
In turn, citizens can help speed the flow of information and nurture contacts with reporters. White suggests community leaders set up mechanisms to help the papers gather neighborhood news. Residents might assemble a community resource guide, complete with names and phone numbers of local "experts," institutions, and associations. They could create a neighborhood news bureau or hold periodic community information sessions for reporters. And they could be tutored to monitor local coverage and learn how to handle themselves with reporters.
The workbook also contains a case study of some 15 to 20 low-income Toronto neighborhoods that gives credence to White's strategies. A group known as the Coalition Against Neighbourhoodism (CAN) banded together to fight their neighborhoods' negative portrayals by local newspapers. They developed a Bill of Rights for fair-minded media treatment and an advocacy network to fight instances of negative coverage. They also taught residents how to deal with the media, produced videos showing more positive views of their communities, and set up mechanisms to improve local dialogue with reporters and editors.
With CAN's support, researchers at the University of Toronto conducted a content analysis that documented a significant disparity in how the three major local newspapers covered disadvantaged and elite local neighborhoods. Results from that study are highlighted in the workbook.
Newspapers and Neighborhoods: Strategies for Achieving Responsible Coverage of Local Communities and City-Sponsored Community Building: Savannah's Grants for Blocks Story may be ordered from ACTA Publications ( l-800-397-2282), at $9.00 each.
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