• Update 11/10/2009: JCCF's executive director Gena Fitzgerald responds

November 5, 2009—Are reporters interested in good news in the children’s arena? Or is the old adage true that “if it bleeds, it leads”?

One might think the latter, judging by the Journalism Center for Children & Families (JCCF) News Summary, a weekly newsletter containing links to stories from around the country. Generally, I’ve found less on what works and more on what doesn’t. Take these examples posted by the JCCF in October 2009:

• “Wasting Away: Staggering Need, Striking Neglect" (Washington Post)
  
• Foreclosures Force Homeowners to Turn to Shelters.” (New York Times)

Is the JCCF neglecting, in its story selections, the kinds of solutions-oriented ("good news") stories that we at Child Advocacy 360 think are so important to achieving greater public engagement—that is, stories on who’s doing what that works?

To find out, we spoke with Gena Fitzgerald, the JCCF’s executive director and a former NBC News producer.

Fitzgerald started by explaining that the JCCF is “the only journalism nonprofit that focuses exclusively” on children and families at risk. Located at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, it helps news professionals with training programs and informs them with the newsletter, which services around 4,500 subscribers per week, many of them journalists.

The day starts early for Jennifer Dorroh, the JCCF’s public media editor. She searches the Web for stories to highlight in the newsletter and on the Web site, then writes summaries. Editorial assistant Renee Davidson does the posting, and sometimes covers for Jennifer. The purpose of this work? To support—and inspire—journalists.

A reporter might see a “a story that’s exceptionally well written or reported and say, ‘Gosh, that’s a good story, I could do that here,’” Fitzgerald says.

Context versus Sensationalism

Fitzgerald acknowledged the “age-old issue in news,” that journalists “accentuate the negative and never the positive.” But she added: “There’s a need for both.” There are of course important issues of concern to be reported on. Bad news may grab the reader’s interest, but articles on programs and systems that work can serve as an example to other communities, and help combat apathy generated by a sense that failure is inevitable.

The staff looks for such articles—and does find them.

“A lot of the stores we classify as ‘positive’ tend to be about education,” Fitzgerald said. “Most news organizations still do a pretty good job on that.”

They have also seen solid pieces concerning housing and homelessness.

Safeguarding Space for the 'Children's Beat' in Media

Is the group’s largest funder, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, interested in who’s doing what that works? Yes, especially programs, system reform and approaches that empahsize permanence—a lifelong connection to a safe, stable home—for children, public affairs manager Sue Lin Chong told me.

But the Casey Foundation isn’t trying to dictate positive coverage; quite the contrary. The Foundation started the JCCF in 1993 as the Casey Journalism Center, at a time when children’s issues “rarely made the news in the consumer press, and when they did it was often on the women’s style page or in a light column,” Chong said. “It was not hard-hitting.”

Shaping the News?

Many journalists believe that news cannot be dictated by personal preference or metrics. There is plenty of "bad news" on the child/youth front, and how it is covered has a direct bearing on what happens in communities. That’s where the JCCF plays a critical role.

For example, it recently conducted a two-day conference on early learning, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with additional support from the Casey Foundation. Over 50 people applied for 20 open slots. And the JCCF Web site contains a major training resource—a section on how to cover child sexual abuse and look beyond the salacious headlines.

“You see the mug shot and you see the arrest story, but you never hear what happened to the child or the molester,” Fitzgerald explained. “In one recent story, a reporter looked not just at the arrest, but at the history of abuse in that molester’s family. He talked to psychologists. It was a deeper way of looking at a story.”

Journalists need this support because newsrooms have been downsized and the survivors have had more work dumped on them. A reporter who is sent out on a one-shot assignment about children is “not going to come back with the depth and understanding a beat reporter has,” Fitzgerald said.

Even seasoned reporters turn to the JCCF for backup, including those still battling deadlines on dailies and those who have left their jobs and started independent Web sites. Need ideas, and even sources? Email the JCCF. Want help with the angle? Ditto.

“In a larger sense, we have become a catalyst,” Fitzgerald said. “Any nonprofit can have a blog or a Web site. But when a reporter or a news organization focuses on an issue, that’s when you raise public consciousness.”

The training provided by the JCCF carries over to “good news.” Dorroh said in an email that learning about successful programs is an important part of each seminar.

What’s Next for the JCCF?

For starters, it has a new look and name—it’s no longer called the Casey Center. And that is in line with changes in its funding apparatus.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the charitable group for children founded in 1948 by UPS co-founder Jim Casey and named in honor of his mother, will contribute half of the JCCF’s $500,000 budget for 2009, compared with 100 percent a few years ago. That’s part of a planned phasing-out of the grant that is standard practice with Casey initiatives and other programs, Sue-Lin Chong said.

In 2009, the JCCF also received funding from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Challenge Fund for Journalism, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, the Ms. Foundation for Women and individual donors. And it has started soliciting individual donors via direct mail and phone calls. The first campaign raised $20,000, which was matched by the Challenge Fund for Journalism.

In addition, the JCCF is working with America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit partnership for children founded by General Colin Powell, on journalistic awards.

Two winners of the Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism, a program administered by the JCCF and funded by the Anne E. Casey foundation, received America’s Promise Alliance awards worth $5,000 apiece for stories that resulted in “significant action on behalf of young people,” said David Park, senior vice president, communications and marketing of America’s Promise Alliance.

One winner reflected the kind of progress we like to see—the America’s Promise awareness award went to WNYC Radio Rookies, a group of young people who had themselves been in foster homes.

And on the journalistic front? The JCCF has broadened its subject area. The focus remains at-risk families and children, "but ‘at risk’ can be defined so many ways now,” Fitzgerald said. “It can mean low income, but can also mean pre-adolescents with health issues and kids with autism.” Fitzgerald also wants more content on juvenile justice, teens and military families.

That isn’t all. “We’re just starting to do our own reporting,” Fitzgerald said. And, taking a page from FDR’s Works Progress Administration, Fitzgerald hopes to provide an outlet for “awfully talented reporters” who are no longer working.

That’s good news.

Child Advocacy 360 blogger Ray Schultz has edited several marketing publications, including Direct, DM News, Promo, Chief Marketer and Circulation Management. He has also written for the New York Times Sunday Magazine and other publications.