| In this study, the author examined the interface among newspaper organizations, journalists, and the ideas and practices endemic to public journalism, an experimental form of journalism. It was assumed that public journalism aimed to alter the ways that journalists thought about and did their work, as well as the ways in which news organizations operated, in order to stimulate widespread public engagement and participation in civic life. This study marked the first known attempt to systematically examine the attitudes and experiences of newspaper journalists working on public journalism projects sponsored by their news organizations. The study is based on nonparticipant observation in four newspaper newsrooms (the San Francisco Chronicle, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, the Wisconsin State Journal, and The Charlotte Observer) and in-depth interviews with 72 journalists working in the newsrooms. The fieldwork was conducted in January through September 1996.;Across all the newsrooms, we found that journalists associated public journalism with an increased focus on (and solicitation of) public involvement in socio-political processes, because public journalism projects placed premiums on citizen participation. Our fieldwork suggested that journalists traditionally had neither sought nor received regular, systematic public input on most issues nor public feedback about their work. Few, if any, had established ongoing relationships with citizens. The public journalism emphasis on facilitating public involvement was a salient feature of public journalism, one that almost all of our informants used as a touchstone for understanding public journalism.;Most journalists in our study had not thought much about their expectations of citizens, what they believed "ordinary" people were capable of, and responsible for, as citizens in a democratic system. Few had perceived the kinds of partnerships among the press and citizens that public journalism advocated. Some appeared to be threatened by the push within public journalism to work with citizens. Others found the emphasis on citizen involvement in newsgathering offensive, a call for "lowest common denominator" journalism. Regardless of their reactions, however, public journalism had stimulated thoughtful consideration of the interface among citizens, journalists, and socio-political processes. |
