{"id":3603,"date":"2026-08-18T19:34:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/?post_type=pew-projects&p=3603"},"modified":"2026-08-22T23:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T23:04:27","slug":"we-the-people-wisconsin-madison-wi-1994-partners","status":"publish","type":"pew-projects","link":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/pew-projects\/we-the-people-wisconsin-madison-wi-1994-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"We the People\/Wisconsin, Madison, WI 1994 Partners:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin StateJournal<\/a>
\nWisconsin Public TV<\/a>
\nWisconsin Public Radio<\/a>
\nWISC-TV (CBS)<\/a>
\nWood Communication Group<\/span><\/p>\n

Pew support helped “We the People\/Wisconsin,” one of American journalism’s first and most enduring civic journalism coalitions, use innovative techniques to engage citizens in election coverage. The Pew support helped the partners measure whether the effort had an impact on public participation in the elections. The experiment showed that a planned, coordinated, multi-media civic journalism effort can interest citizens and draw them into the public sphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

For coverage of the fall 1994 elections for governor and U.S. Senator, the media partners used the techniques they had been fine-tuning since coming together in 1992: Broadcast town hall meetings and debates where citizens were the key participants – identifying and discussing issues and asking questions directly of the candidates. The project organized three town hall meetings and a debate among gubernatorial candidates and one town hall meeting in the senate race.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the Wisconsin State Journal published a voter education series called “Armed and Dangerous,” just before the November election, about how candidates and their campaigns try to manipulate public opinion through advertising and calculated debate responses. The information was also compiled into a booklet and 300 copies were distributed just before the election.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surveys measured voter awareness and connectedness before and after the civic journalism effort. A random sample of 230 adults was interviewed in September, before the coverage, and 141 of that group were interviewed after the election. Among the findings: public interest in and knowledge of the election was higher. People felt encouraged to vote and they had a more positive attitude toward participating news organizations. The findings were published in “Civic Journalism: Does it Work?” a Pew publication written by State Journal editor Frank Denton and Esther Thorson, Associate Dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Deborah Still
\nProject Director
\nWe The People\/ Wisconsin
\nPO Box 5534
\nMadison, WI 53705
\nPhone: (608) 833-8545<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas W. Still
\nPresident
\nWisconsin Technology Council
\nPO Box 71, 615 E. Washington Ave.
\nMadison, WI 53701-0071
\nTEL: (608) 442-7557
\nFAX: (608) 256-0333
\nEMAIL:\u00a0tstill@wisctec.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Bier
\nGeneral Manager
\nWISC-TV
\n7025 Raymond Rd.
\nMadison, WI 53719
\nTEL: (608) 271-5171
\nFAX: (608) 271-0800
\nEMAIL:\u00a0tbier@wisctv.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

David Iverson
\nExecutive Director
\nBest Practices in Journalism
\n2601 Mariposa St.
\nSan Francisco, CA 94110
\nTEL: (415) 553-2489
\nEMAIL:\u00a0iverson@wpt.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

James B. Wood
\nPresident
\nWood Communications Group
\n700 Regent St.
\nMadison, WI 53715-1233
\nPhone: (608) 259-0757<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"pew-categories":[138,126,181],"class_list":["post-3603","pew-projects","type-pew-projects","status-publish","hentry","pew-categories-138","pew-categories-elections","pew-categories-wisconsin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pew-projects\/3603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pew-projects"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pew-projects"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"pew-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev-testinglink.com\/projects\/civilorg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pew-categories?post=3603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}