Civic Journalism's Imapct on American Journalism
...m, which has fostered the civic journalism experiment for the past ten years, will have ended its experiment by the start of 2003. The Pew Center has described civic journalism as “a broad label put on efforts to overcome people’s sense of powerlessness and alienation by using their voices to shape coverage. Civic journalisms broader goals are to fight cynicism about politics and government institutions, and recognizing that a news outlet must be an active player in the community that it serves. Cross explains that “We all have a Code of Ethics, but all of us are also citizens and should subscribe to a Greater Ethic – that members of a community should try to understand and care for each other, and participate in community affairs. Cross is however somewhat skeptical of civic journalism and is afraid that it raises some of its own ethical questions. Cross explains that with civic journalism, journalists may not always act independently which is an important ethical code according to The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). Cross says that civic journalism often involves conveying the community to address an issue chosen by one or more news organizations, which then have to cover further developments around the issue and its players, some of whom have been involved in t...