Civic Strategies urban journalism ranking has Chron at #19
Banjo Jones calls attention to the fact that an organization called Civic Strategies has issued its rankings of 22 urban newspapers, and that the Chronicle is at #19.
So, what is Civic Strategies and why should we care what they think about our newspaper?
Here's the group's self-description:
Civic Strategies is a strategic planning firm that structures public policy solutions for cities and regions. We do this by helping our clients make the right decisions in the right ways....
[snip]
At Civic Strategies, we bring a unique set of strengths to this work. First, we understand cities and what makes them tick. (In fact, Civic Strategies publishes a widely read newsletter on urban issues.) Second, we are deeply experienced in managing decision processes. Third, we know how to engage the public in constructive dialogues on important issues. Finally, we understand public policy — and which decisions are sustainable in the long run.
Well, they certainly make themselves sound important enough to critique my local newspaper. Let's see how they went about it:
All right. But how do we judge journalism? When we say that the New York Times produced 100 examples of good urban journalism in 2003, how do we know that? Simple answer: We clipped 100 articles from the Times and stuck them in our files for use in understanding urban trends in general or the New York area in particular.
Specifically what are our criteria for clipping an article? In general, we ask:
* Does this article help us understand this city or region?
* Does it point to an emerging urban trend?
* Is it so bizarre or funny that Tom Wolfe might work it into one of his novels?
It's not at all clear to me that these criteria really establish whether a newspaper is doing what we here would think of as quality urban journalism, but then again, we're just lowly local bloggers and not bigshot urban trends consultants (although we do like Tom Wolfe). For what it's worth, five Kristen Mack articles have been "clipped," and two Matt Stiles articles have been "clipped." Perhaps if the newspaper devoted serious coverage to Harris County government, that beat writer could get some clips and boost the Chron's ranking, but alas, that beat goes undercovered.
The New York Times, Washington Post, and LA Times finish at the top of the ratings, no doubt because those places have lots of urban-trendy things going on. Some might even say they're world class!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/17/06 09:57 PM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.