The records of the Project on Public Life and the Press (PPLP), which was national in scope, document the project's role as a catalyst for the development of public journalism through its seminars, research, and discourse. The records also extensively document the history of public journalism itself. The materials date from approximately 1987-1998, but the majority of the documents were created and collected between 1993 and 1997, while the project was active. A large portion of the collection consists of published materials, including newspaper clippings, magazine and journal articles, and the occasional book chapter, all relating to public journalism. Unpublished materials include seminar applications, feedback forms, correspondence, reports, survey results, early funding materials, and publicity materials. Though strong in its documentation of PPLP's research and seminar activities, the collection is weak in its documentation of the project's internal workings and organizational structure, only containing a few organizational documents and little correspondence between project organizers. The collection is divided into eight series: Organizational Materials, PPLP Seminars, Editors' Explanations, Public Journalism Initiatives, Jay Rosen Writings and Speeches, Discourse on Public Journalism, Public Journalism Scholarship, and Teaching Materials.
ORGANIZATIONAL MATERIALS (1992-1998, but primarily 1993-1995) document the historical background of PPLP, as well as the ways in which this collection was configured and used over time. Included is early correspondence about the formation of the project, a copy of the project's grant proposal, reports, and publicity materials. The grant proposal to the Knight Foundation, which was approved in 1993, describes the social context in which the PPLP was conceived as well as the Kettering Foundation's background and its connection to public journalism. Reports include several documents in which PPLP analyzes its successes and failures in its first year, and collections of two-page progress reports, with abstracts, describe over thirty public journalism initiatives in a variety of newspapers across the country. Most of these progress reports correspond to clippings and other materials in the PUBLIC JOURNALISM INITIATIVES files; these reports were shared with interested news organizations as well as being used for publicity purposes. Many of these reports were later integrated into a website run by the collection's donor, Lewis Friedland, called the Civic Practices Network (CPN). The files are arranged chronologically.
The PPLP SEMINARS, which ran from November 1993 through June 1997 and lasted three days each, were the project's main focus of activity. Most seminars took place at the American Press Institute in Reston, Virginia. It was here that PPLP brought together members of the journalism community to discuss, evaluate, develop, and learn about public journalism. These materials document not only how the seminars were structured, but also who attended them, what was discussed, and how participants reacted to these discussions. Folders are grouped chronologically by seminar and broken down by activity within each seminar beginning with pre-seminar correspondence, applications, seminar schedules, transcripts, presentation materials and followed by participant feedback and post-seminar reflections. Additionally, there are some organizational materials from the January 1996 National Issues Convention (NIC), which was held in conjunction with a PPLP seminar. These materials include a parody written by Bill Moyers. At the end of the series is a group of folders containing comprehensive lists of participants and mailing lists. Pre-seminar correspondence mostly consists of invitation form letters and reading assignments sent to participants by Jay Rosen. Applications, which are quite complete, can be found in both the “Participants” folders, which are each separately labeled with an individual's name and affiliation; and in folders labeled “Member Backgrounds.” Evaluation forms and post-seminar reflections are varied and extensive, ranging from collections of one-minute workshop feedback forms to lengthy letters evaluating the project overall.
EDITORS' EXPLANATIONS (1988-1996, but primarily 1993-1995) consist of a few folders, arranged chronologically, containing newspaper clippings in which editors describe and introduce their public journalism initiatives to readers. The project solicited these materials from news organizations as part of its research and publicity efforts, and the clippings correspond to the PUBLIC JOURNALISM INITIATIVES files also maintained by PPLP.
Examples of PUBLIC JOURNALISM INITIATIVES (1989-1998, but primarily 1994-1996) make up the bulk of this collection. In its efforts to become a central source of information on public journalism, PPLP solicited news organizations, especially newspapers, for examples of their experiments in public journalism. This included newspaper clippings and any supporting documentation such as correspondence, project summaries, and reader survey results. PPLP then distributed information about these projects to other participants, creating a network of organizations engaged in public journalism. The bulk of the materials are photocopies of newspapers and newspaper clippings from around the United States, usually in the form of a series of articles, covering topics such as elections, education, neighborhood crime, sprawl, and race relations. Included are materials documenting initiatives conducted at the Akron Beacon-Journal, the Charlotte Observer, the Virginia Pilot, and the Wisconsin State Journal. Correspondence between PPLP and the projects' developers, internal memos from within the news organizations, external coverage of the projects, and project summaries are included in many of the initiatives' files. Many newspapers engaged in multiple projects; some of these projects have their own discrete files, while many others are all grouped together in files simply labeled with the name of the news organization or the location in which the project took place. Also included is one videocassette, produced by the Kettering Foundation and the Pew Center for Civic Journalism in 1997. This half hour video, titled The Maine Citizens' Campaign: Making a Difference, describes in depth a public journalism initiative conducted through a partnership of several news organizations in the vicinity of Portland, Maine. This initiative organized forums in which politicians up for election fielded questions from ordinary citizens; the video features interviews with project organizers and participants, and discusses outcomes of the project.
JAY ROSEN WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (1989-1997, but primarily 1993-1996) include writings, speeches, handwritten notes, and panel discussions by Jay Rosen, PPLP's director and the primary force behind the project. Rosen saw himself as a “public intellectual,” in the public journalism movement, and in the original project proposal, he gave himself the task of actively promoting public journalism as part of his work for PPLP. He spoke in both university and professional settings, including the Associated Press Managing Editors Association on such topics as his work with PPLP and with Davis Merritt, discussions of the practice or philosophy of public journalism, and historical descriptions of the development of public journalism through PPLP. Though not complete, this is quite an extensive collection of Rosen's published and unpublished works from that time, including the PPLP pamphlet, “Public Journalism: Theory and Practice,” co-written by Davis Merritt and published by Kettering in 1994. Also included are some of his PPLP seminar remarks.
The DISCOURSE ON PUBLIC JOURNALISM files (1988-1998, but primarily 1994-1996) consist primarily of writings and comments by members of the journalism community about public journalism, including editorials, professional and academic journal articles, book reviews, debate transcripts, newspaper articles, and conference papers. Many of these documents are quoted in Jay Rosen's writings; others contain quotes by Rosen and discuss PPLP's activities. Influential thinkers include Davis “Buzz” Merritt of the Wichita Eagle; James K. Batten of Knight-Ridder; and David Broder, a political reporter for the Washington Post. The documents are divided into Name Files, Transcripts, Elite Press files, Biographies of Journalists, Book Reviews, and Criticism which reflects the debate that arose over the topic of public journalism in the mid-1990s. The various arrangements and uses of these materials by the PPLP are documented in the indexes and outlines in the ORGANIZATIONAL MATERIALS. These indexes also reveal the incomplete nature of the Discourse files as only a fraction of these files are described in the indexes.
The PUBLIC JOURNALISM SCHOLARSHIP files (1990-1998, but primarily 1994-1997) which are arranged alphabetically by author, consist of conference papers, articles, and research on public journalism written by professors and post-graduate students. These include case studies prepared for PPLP, such as “A Public View of Public Journalism,” written by Cheryl Gibbs; original research, including a survey of newspaper readers conducted by the University of North Carolina for Buzz Merritt; and opinion pieces. Some papers are accompanied by correspondence between Jay Rosen and the author, and many of these materials were used as sources for publications by Jay Rosen in his work as PPLP's spokesman.
TEACHING MATERIALS (1992-1998) include a collection of public journalism bibliographies, a collection of syllabi from various colleges and universities, examples of public journalism at the high school and college levels, and other materials related to education and public journalism. Bibliographies, some of which are annotated, list books and articles pertinent to public journalism. These materials, along with the case study reports, were later mounted on the Civic Practices Network website.
