Karen B. Dunlap is president of The Poynter Institute. The following are her remarks delivered at the Federal Trade Commission’s “News Media Workshop” held on December 1 and 2, 2009:

My topic is the importance of journalism to civic involvement and this morning I want to focus our attention on the people: the journalists who act to engage communities and more importantly, the people acting in the role of citizens.

Since journalism is often presented through news and feature stories I will make my comments through stories.

Last week Lebrew Jones was released from prison because of a reporter, Christine Young. That type of action by a reporter is not unheard of but the circumstances of this case were unusual and instructive.

This is an excerpt from a column last week in the Times Herald-Review of Middletown N.Y.

Lebrew Jones would still be behind bars for a murder that experts are convinced he didn't commit if (Christine) Young hadn't investigated his questionable prosecution and conviction.

Jones walked out of prison Thursday after spending 22 of his 53 years behind bars, even though there was never a shred of evidence to prove he killed a young New York City prostitute named Michaelanne (Micki) Hall.

Let me tell you how that story began.

Young was a college intern in Manhattan reporting on runaway prostitutes over 20 years ago when she heard about a murder from two unrelated sources. What she heard revealed a discrepancy in time of the death, and convinced her that the wrong man was convicted.

During the next two decades she reported for newspaper and television stations around the country but she never forgot the murder and gradually built a file on Jones that she carried in a plastic basket. In 2005 she moved back near New York City to work in Middletown. When she tracked down Jones she learned that at about the same time she moved there, he was transferred to a prison within 20 miles of her.

Young interviewed him, read transcripts of the trial, checked evidence and talked with those involved including the victim’s mother, who immediately said she thought the wrong person had been convicted.

The newspaper produced a multimedia presentation about the case on their web site, others got involved and Jones was released.

My Poynter colleague, Al Tompkins wrote about this story last week in his Poynter.org blog, it is worth a close look.

It speaks to two important resources in quality journalism:

• reporting skills
• and the investment of time by the individual and the organization.

The best reporting requires training and experience, and
great work requires resources, often the most important one is time.

The story also speaks to Civic Involvement

Let’s define Civic involvement as moving others to act in ways that better a community, a group or the life of an individual. Good journalism is still about comforting the afflicted It is still the business of righting wrongs.

Three other stories demonstrate non-traditional approaches to journalism that serves civic life

The first is The Chauncey Bailey Project in Oakland.

When reporter Don Boles was murdered by a car bomb in 1976 while he investigated the mafia in Arizona, reporters flooded in to Phoenix and continued the investigation. When journalist Chauncey Bailey was shot down on the street in Oakland in 2007 a coalition of media representatives formed to continue his investigation of violence and fraud associated with an Oakland bakery.

Sandy Close of New American Media and Dori Maynard of the Maynard Institute convened the coalition. It crosses media platforms and includes representatives of many media organizations and associations; it includes freelancers, educators and students. The continued reporting of the Project presents a stand against fear, and a commitment to the community. That engagement invites residents to also act for good in their community.

Oakland is the base for some Spot.us efforts, using the innovative approach of public financing for specific stories.

One story, The Green Movement comes to Inner-city West Oakland is an audio report told by members of the community. It traces the history of the area and ties history to community ecology efforts. Speakers tell what they have learned from generations past about farming. And they create farms in the middle of the city to improve health and the environment. They are leading their community and
telling their own story.

Both of those projects received major funding from the Knight Foundation and in their recent report, Knight focused on the news
needs of communities. Eric Newton will speak to you later today.

The third example is Politifact and I’ll only make a point because you will also hear from Bill Adair later.

Politifact was developed by the St. Petersburg Times to move citizens past apathy and cynicism when faced with election lies, half-truths and counter charges. It has proven to be a useful step in holding figures accountable and sorting out the truth for the public. The innovative approach won the Pulitzer Prize this year for National Reporting. (I should mention that Poynter owns the St. Pete Times.)

In each case journalism improves civic life because it encourages people to act in their role as citizens. That means going beyond self-interest and trivial pursuits to focus on that, which serves communities.

One More example: Last year the St. Petersburg Times ran a series of stories on a child from Plant City, just east of Tampa. The title is:
“The Girl in the Window.” Here’s how it began:

Three years ago the Plant City police found a girl lying in her roach-infested room, naked except for an overflowing diaper. The child, pale and skeletal, communicated only through grunts. She was almost 7 years old.

The authorities had discovered the rarest of creatures: a feral child, deprived of her humanity by a lack of nurturing.

Reporter Lane DeGregory and photojournalist, Melissa Lyttle traced the life of Danielle after she was found in a waste and roach filled closet-sized room. Neighbors knew that a woman and her two adult sons lived in the filthy house but they didn’t know a child lived there. One did recall seeing a little girl peep through a broken glass window once but never saw her again until someone called the police.

The story followed Danielle through the hospital, foster homes, school and finally to a couple who adopted Dani and with their son, helped her thrive. DeGregory also wrote about the woman who kept her daughter in a closet for years with only enough food to survive.

As a result of the story:
Th

• e Children’s Board reported a 30% increase of calls reporting cases of possible child neglect;
• the Times web site had over 1 million page views, a record at that time;
• large numbers of those online left comments and sent emails;
• Calls to adoption agencies went up and one set of foster parents said they adopted a child after reading the story;
• It was translated in 7 languages and appeared internationally including a Tel Aviv newspaper and a South African mothers blog;
• Educators used it in college classes;
• One woman said she had been adopted, so she sent money to Dani from her retirement fund;
• Some

said they were shocked that child neglect like that could happen in the U.S. during the 21st century;

That last statement touches on my point here on journalism and civic life. Journalism allows us to look through a window and see ourselves, see our communities, come to grips with who we are and what is going on around us.

I’ve given examples that show some of the best of journalism, but let me quickly add that news reports today have faults, too

They include

• many questionable story choices; (must we hear more about the couple who crashed the WH dinner);
• Stories that are poorly reported, edited or produced;
• Some communities are still underreported or ignored; and yes,
• fact are wrong at times. (No doubt some here have been misquoted, once.)

And yet each day society is served by outstanding journalism throughout the nation, on various platforms, in traditional and newer
forms of news media.

The examples I’ve presented show that journalism goes well beyond information and observation. I’m concerned that we could gain a volume of information and opinion, we could have extensive channels of social interactions and lose the news.

I’m concerned about that.

I’m also concerned that in the interest of new financial models we could create a more elitist approach to news produces the informed few and the under-informed and misinformed masses. There’s a huge social cost to that including unrest.

Journalism brings communities together, inspires individuals and groups to act constructively, it seeks to right wrongs, opens a window so that we see ourselves as a society and points a path to improvement.

I don’t know the answers for financial problems in media transformation but I know that the bottom line is really democracy. Our interest should be providing the journalism that serves civic life in a democracy.

I know that we need to involve people as citizens in transforming the news.