At a time when media coverage of political and social issues is often superficial and shallow some newspapers are trying to make amends. They're getting involved in community affairs. In the following story, contributing editor Paul Malamud reports on the rationale of this involvement and some paper's experiences with listening to the community.

A new movement, called "civic" or "public" journalism is sweeping through U.S. newsrooms. Journalists are being asked to spend more time listening to the problems of ordinary people, and trying to understand the basic forces underlying social change, rather than spending their time reporting only the day's political statements made by competing factions.

In addition -- having tried to figure out what is wrong in their local communities -- some newspapers are offering forums, even supporting civic action organizations where people can discuss solutions.

For example:

• In 1992, the Wilmington News Journal (Delaware) commissioned a poll to identify crucial issues for the state of Delaware. After reporting these issues, the newspaper called for meetings to identify barriers to economic growth. Following a series of local meetings where such issues were explored by citizens, the paper helped sponsor a two-day "economic summit meeting" of 25 local business leaders. Those who attended the summit vowed to undertake actions that would improve the Delaware economy.

A summarizing report stated that the project's goal had been "to identify, gain citizen input on, and track key issues" and to "provide a forum in which economic issues" affecting ordinary people "could be discussed" frankly.

• In 1993, the Des Moines Register (Iowa) instructed all its news reporters to conduct at least four face-to-face interviews with ordinary citizens to find out what was on their minds. These interviews -- which totalled 600 -- were supplemented by a telephone poll; and the results were published as a five-part series, "Voice of the People." The newspaper organized a public meeting to discuss the issues that had emerged, and has continued to organize meetings between citizens and newsroom staffs, in order to link its coverage more to the preoccupations of readers.

• In 1993 and 1994, the Indianapolis Star (Indiana) commissioned a major poll on racial attitudes of citizens in the region, and spent a week reporting on the results. The follow-up series of stories, according to a report on the project, "reflected citizen experience, rather than relying on expert opinion, a major departure for the newspaper." Subsequently, the Star sponsored a community forum to discuss racial attitudes, which drew 500 people, and planned several more follow-up forums.

• The goal was "to get members of the community talking about race relations issues." It was "not to advocate any specific action, but to encourage citizens of the community to seek solutions."

One impetus behind such projects is that newspaper readership in the United States is declining. Some journalists feel the best way to get people to read newspapers is to get them interested and involved, in significant community issues.

The American news media have always struggled against political influence and governmental pressure -- and have secured the constitutional right to report freely and impartially on all issues. To some, then, it seems a contradiction that some newspapers are now "getting involved" with local politics as quasi-actors rather than dispassionate observers.

However, proponents of "civic journalism" insist that the idea is not to advance a partisan political agenda; rather, the idea is to make news coverage less superficial and sensational -- to provide a kind of communications matrix where ordinary people are able to articulate and acknowledge the issues that concern them. Frequently, the second stage is a kind of forum (possibly electronic in the form of an Internet "chat," or real-life meetings) to discuss ways to grapple with these problems.

Those involved, doubtless, would acknowledge that such newsroom trends have not brought an end to America's many social problems. And, at worst, "civic journalism" practiced in this context can have the aura of a publicity stunt, or an attempt to give therapeutic expression to a public concern.

Nonetheless, Jay Rosen and Davis Merritt, Jr., in a series of papers, "Public Journalism: Theory and Practice," point out that in a nation segmented by race, class, and cultural barriers, and by a polity absorbed in the vicarious experience of television rather than community activity, "strategies to recapture readers will always be incomplete without another sort of strategy aimed at reengaging citizens in public affairs and the life of the community."

Journalists, they argue, must attempt to strengthen "civic culture" by helping citizens of a democracy realize that the "system" is "theirs" -- "public property rather than the playground of insiders or political professionals."

Noting that the American press "exhibits an aggressive independence," Rosen adds that the worst "political threat" in a democracy may not be government interference, but public apathy and cynicism that causes ordinary citizens to turn inward to relatively secure lives -- and distance themselves from community affairs.

The basis of "public journalism," Merritt adds, should be to provide "information relevant to the clarification of core values" and "write clearly about the competing beliefs and priorities that underlie each public problem.... The public journalist's newspaper," he adds, "would view a problem -- public safety, for instance -- not merely as an opportunity to report what is happening, but as an obligation to promote a discourse that leads to solutions, to act as a conscientious citizen would act."

Noble words. Much of this has always been implicit in the best American journalism -- which has often consisted of "muckraking" -- exposing social or governmental evils, and urging that corrective action be taken. And, of course, public opinion polls and focus groups are nothing new -- they've been a journalist's tool for years.

Nonetheless, in an age obsessed with superficial images -- the antics of celebrities, and the latest scandals -- a new focus on average people and their everyday concerns may well end up reinvigorating the press as well as civil society in America.

Issues of Democracy, USIA Electronic Journals, Vol. 1, No. 8, July 1996