A Case Study of The Cincinnati Enquirer
Threads of Influence: The Underground Railroad Freedom Center
and Mayor Charlie Luken's Vine Street Project
By Jaclyn Giovis and David Greber
Introduction
The stories involve power, money and race. It does not get more
complicated than that. Or perhaps, it does, if you are a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter
covering the $110 million-dollar plan for Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center or Mayor Charlie Luken's Vine Street Project.
Each time a journalist sits down to write a story, threads of influence may affect
him or her, that in turn, work to frame a story. The same is true for editors assigned
to review stories. At least this is what editor William Serrin suggested in his introduction
to The Business of Journalism.
Everyone is in on this: the reporter, the editor, the producer, the anchorperson,
the advertising sales-person, the journalism educator, the publisher, and, increasingly
today, the market analyst. The rules go something like this:
Watch out when doing stories on people with money or position or about businesses,
meaning large businesses (small businesses don't matter much); be careful, especially
about going too far with a story. Similarly, don't push too hard for stories on the
poor, the homeless, the labor movement, or the working class. These, in most cases,
go against a journalism corporation's demographics, because journalism increasingly
wants to attract only upscale readers or viewers. Be careful when covering matters
you know are of interest to the publisher...including their friends in the social
world, charitable world, or corporate world... (viii).
Given Serrin's "rules" The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
may have been difficult to cover. After all, The Enquirer's publisher, Harry Whipple,
is co-chair on Center's Board of Trustees and the Freedom Center's office is located
in The Enquirer building.
Similarly, a reporter or editor assigned to cover or edit a story on Mayor Charlie
Luken's Vine Street Project could have been ethically challenged or intimidated on
the issue. In this case, reporters used to covering city council as on their regular
beats may have had a difficult time showing a community perspective on issues of
poverty, gentrification and local culture.
To the average reader, The Enquirer stories written about the National Underground
Railroad Freedom Center and the Vine Street Project may be considered typical and
complete. But, as Serrin suggested, when a reporter is assigned to cover a story
of such parameters, and an editor is assigned to edit the story, the "rules"
have the potential to frame a story before it is even reported (viii-xx).
The Miami University student-initiated journalism capstone that
provided the forum for this research, titled, Threads of Influence, explored ideas
such as collective conscience, story framing and ethics, and required the student
to inquire how such ideas develop and exist in an actual newsroom. More important,
it demanded that the student explore, through theoretical application, empirical
analysis and interviewing, a specific topic or event covered in a newspaper and define
if it is a thread of influence in that newspaper's community and if so, how.
After one month of initial study, we choose to examine The Enquirer's coverage of
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Vine Street Project, so
as to determine whether or not the stories written on each subject were affected
by definite threads of influence.
Methodology
Our research of The Cincinnati Enquirer aimed to discover a link between
the story's prominence in its own right and the paper's coverage of it. We have been
most concerned with answering the questions:
* How has The Enquirer's covered the project? Compared to other local papers?
* What effect has their coverage had on the project and the parties involved? In
other words, did coverage influence decision-making or economics, or vice versa?
* How does The Enquirer view its role in society? How did it determine its role?
What practices or policies define that role?
However, the first month of research was spent learning more about Cincinnati demographics
and the local economy, city government, The Cincinnati Enquirer, its coverage area,
readership and circulation and Gannett Corp., as a corporate owner. After this preliminary
research was conducted, we identified our specific research issues. Click the links
below to view the results of our endeavors.
A Case Study of The Cincinnati Enquirer
Threads of Influence: The Underground Railroad Freedom Center and Mayor Charlie
Luken's Vine Street Project
By Jaclyn Giovis and David Greber
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