Political and Non-Political Civic Engagement

When we speak about civic engagement, we're usually talking political civic engagement.  But not so fast, argues this paper.  What about non-political civic engagement?  They are conceptually distinct, the authors argue. 

Okay, before you give a huge duh, let's consider this for a moment.  According to the abstract:

Both TV news and newspaper use contribute to an increase in political and nonpolitical engagement, but fail to affect trust building in politics and among people in general.

Unfortunately I can't call up the entire article, at least not easily, but they rely on American National Elections Study data, a source I often use as well, so I'm assuming the quote above includes the traditional newspaper and television news exposure items.  It's hardly surprising that media consumption is associated with, or contributes to, increases in both political and non-political engagement. 

But you may be surprised that these media exposure items are unrelated to trust.  It's not surprising.  Greater media use tends to be found among those with greater motivation to keep up with, or be involved in, public affairs.  These folks are often quoted, or know others who are quoted, by the news.  Or they're deeply involved in topics that the news media cover, so they see all the nuances and therefore see how the news, especially TV news, often tosses out nuance in order to explain what's happening to a general audience.  The result?  Less trust, or enough so that an expected positive association becomes no association between consumption of the news and trust.

Knowing Your Town

I had my public affairs reporting students read this article about how disconnected many journalists are from the places they live and cover for their news organizations -- and how the news they produce can suffer as a consequence. Then I rattled off in class some places in Athens and asked if they'd visited or knew where they were, like Memorial Park, which sits less than a mile off the edge of campus. Only about two of 16 knew where the park was.

In a society where people move around a lot, that sense of place can suffer, especially if you don't join community organizations and link yourself up somehow with where you live (ala Bowling Alone and the whole social capital argument).

My point? What people know about their homes, their neighborhoods and their communities, must somehow ring true in the kinds of stories we craft as journalists. That's damn hard to do as a reporter if all you know is where you live, the concrete-and-brick buildings of your beat, your news organization's office, and the bar with the cheapest drinks at happy hour. I worked for three daily newspapers in three different states, and I admit to not being a joiner, not knowing much about the places I covered beyond my beat. Yeah, I could tell you which local politicians hated each other, or where most crimes happened, but I didn't know the places. I suspect my stories suffered as a consequence. And what people knew was, my stories -- good as they were technically -- didn't always ring true.