Civil Insider

October 2016

This newspaper front page from 1932 illustrates the ugly racial overtones of the Massie Affair and trial, which are the subject of the first season of our new Civil Beat podcast project, Offshore. Image: via Reddit

Civil Beat is constantly looking for ways to engage readers and keep them interested in the important issues facing Hawaii. One way more and more people are tuning in to news, events and issues is through podcasts.

Nearly 40 percent of people in the U.S. age 12 and older say they are podcast listeners and 21 percent report listening in just the past month. More and more millennials are downloading podcasts on all sorts of topics and younger readers are certainly a group we are hoping to encourage to become engaged in the community.

So we’re launching a new podcast on Thursday, Oct. 13 that uses stories from Hawaii as a lens through which the entire country can look at issues important to us all.

Our first season of “Offshore” explores race and power through two killings in Hawaii, nearly 80 years apart. The death of Joseph Kahahawai in 1932 at the hands of a Navy officer, Lt. Thomas Massie, and his mother-in-law has long been seen as an assertion of military and white influence over less politically powerful Native Hawaiians. In 2011, a white federal agent shot and killed a local man during the APEC economic conference. Christopher Deedy has gone to trial twice for the killing of Kollin Elderts, and could face a third.

Our 10-episode season uses those two cases to reflect on how ethnic unrest is still playing out in Hawaii, the most multicultural state and a place President Obama has called a “post-racial” melting pot. It directly relates to the issues of race and power we’re seeing on the mainland with what seem like a continual stream of police shootings of people of color.

“Offshore” is a production of Civil Beat and PRX, the nation’s largest public radio distribution marketplace whose projects include the National Public Radio hit series The Moth Radio Hour. Upcoming seasons are expected to look at the clash of science and culture through the Mauna Kea telescope dispute and how hard it has been for Hawaii to solve the lack of a sustainable food supply.

This is a new way of storytelling for Civil Beat, which has always been primarily a print operation. We’ve learned how to report, write and produce long-form audio stories and we’ve invested in new equipment, including a portable sound studio (let us know if you need a place to record!).

Jessica Terrell, our education reporter who caught the podcast bug when she produced an audio report for her project on the Waianae homeless camp called “The Harbor,” has been doing double duty as our podcast reporter, producer and host of the show. April Estrellon, who has produced Chad Blair’s Pod Squad for the past year or so, has become a full-time audio and visual multimedia producer who works on “Offshore” as well as other projects.

But the success of the show will depend in large part on how audiences respond to it. So on Thursday, Oct. 13, please go to your favorite podcast channel — iTunes, Stitcher or Google Play, for instance — and subscribe to “Offshore.” You can also find the podcast at www.offshorepodcast.com but we really could use your help with downloading it and sharing it so others will download it too. Please rate it and write a review! Those are both important in the podcast world.

We always like to say “thanks for reading Civil Beat.” But now we’re saying “thanks for listening to Civil Beat” too!

Patti Epler
Editor & General Manager
Honolulu Civil Beat

P.S. – If you haven’t already made a donation to support our nonprofit newsroom, please consider making a small gift. Every little bit helps!

The Big Swell

President Obama addresses Pacific Island leaders in a special gathering at the East West Center on the eve of IUCN's World Conservation Congress. Image: Cory Lum/CivilBeat

IUCN's World Conservation Congress Focuses Spotlight On Hawaii

Editor’s Note: In The Big Swell, we explore coverage from the previous month that had particular impact and captured readers’ attention.

More than 10,000 scientists, environmentalists, political leaders and policy makers from around the world gathered in Honolulu in September for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Conservation Congress.

IUCN, the largest conservation organization in the world, drew public figures such as President Barack Obama and anthropologist Jane Goodall to Hawaii, as well as the attention of readers throughout Hawaii and beyond. Thousands turned to Civil Beat for coverage of the most significant parts of the sprawling, 10-day event.

Nearly 1,000 readers liked and shared Civil Beat’s story on the overwhelming proportion of native plants in Hawaii that face extinction. Thousands more took in a story on commercial fishing interests “infiltrating” the IUCN and becoming a voting member of the World Conservation Congress.

When President Obama addressed Pacific Island leaders the evening before the conference kicked off, hordes of readers turned to Civil Beat not only to learn what he had to say, but for a distinctly Hawaii perspective on his appearance at the East-West Center and the president’s other activities during his 48-hour visit.

Civil Beat’s daily focus on public policy and investigative reporting were reflected in our coverage, and readers noticed: A steady stream of new members joined the Civil Beat family during IUCN and in the weeks following the event.

To read our more than 30 stories and commentary pieces leading up to and during the conference, just type in IUCN on the Civil Beat search box.

Social Media: Civil Beat’s Lifeblood

When Civil Beat launched six years ago as an entirely online news outlet, it did so amid explosive growth in another fledgling digital sector: social media. Our rise as a Hawaii news operation is inextricably linked with the growth and use of such platforms as Facebook and Twitter and is being shaped further by newer names and social media services.

Facebook provides the most salient example. It is the dominant source of Civil Beat “referral traffic,” meaning that promotion of our stories on our Facebook wall and via individual users brings more readers to Civil Beat than anything else.

At the beginning of 2016, Civil Beat’s main Facebook account had 41,400 user “likes.” By Oct. 3, that had grown to 54,855, which doesn’t include scores of followers of our other Facebook presences, like the Civil Beat: Hawaii’s Cost Of Living group (2,191 members) or Civil Beat Politics (671 members).

But Facebook’s hardly the only way Civil Beat gets social. We have 31,300 followers on Twitter — where they can read stories built around curated tweets in our new Moments tab — and about 4,000 more on Instagram.

The biggest growth for Civil Beat lately, though, isn’t confined to those now well-known platform names, it comes from their video streaming services. Some 19,000 users, for instance, watch our videos on Periscope, Twitter’s video app, while thousands more take in Civil Beat video on Instagram’s new Stories feature.

And when we stream or post a video on Facebook, look out: More than 500,000 users have viewed, reacted to, commented or shared a 4:35 video of the infamous Chelsea Lyon Kent, who drew national attention when she gave the finger at the Democratic National Convention as Hawaii delegate totals for Hillary Clinton were read out loud.

While that’s the biggest number we’ve recorded yet, it’s indicative of the enormous traffic we see on virtually any video we post on the giant of social media platforms, which has about 1.5 billion users around the world. That total has tripled in the six years since Civil Beat was launched.

For Engagement Editor Anthony Quintano — who joined us last December after serving as community manager for NBC’s The Today Show — the growth in all these platforms represents welcome and ever-changing opportunities to bring Civil Beat’s special brand of journalism to new and larger audiences.

“Maintaining a consistent presence on existing platforms and experimenting with new ones is a must for any news outlet. For instance, we are the first news organization in Hawaii to create its own Twitter Moment. Each new tool and platform gives us new opportunities to engage readers, so look for us to continue learning, innovating and growing in these spaces.”

Encore

Little Nelly enjoys a moment with her mom, Lori, on a typical day at the Waianae Boat Harbor Camp. Image: Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The Harbor

Editor’s Note: Each month in Encore, we reintroduce special editorial projects that have had significant impact in exploring and bringing attention to Hawaii’s most pressing issues. This month, we shine the Encore spotlight on The Harbor.

The idea sounded intriguing: What might reporter Jessica Terrell learn about community and homelessness in Honolulu by becoming part of one of Oahu’s largest and most interesting homeless camps?

But the rich, often poignant, stories she brought back from several months spent almost entirely at that Waianae camp surpassed everyone’s expectations.

The multi-part series that she developed from those stories, “The Harbor,” was a hit with Civil Beat readers, not to mention with critics: It won one of journalism’s most coveted prizes earlier this year, first place in the feature category for small news outlets from the Online News Association. And that was just one of four regional and national awards from multiple news organizations.

Its impact went beyond that, however. The series helped created a new dialogue between members of the camp and local community leaders. The Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board even passed a resolution calling on state leaders to give camp residents a lease on the public land where the camp is located.

If you missed it when Civil Beat first published The Harbor last November, check out the series installments, the profiles, the photos and the multimedia pieces, all of which are archived in our Special Projects tab.

Civil Beat Member Shaunagh Robbins, Editor Patti Epler and News Editor Richard Wiens take part in Conversation and Coffee in the newsroom. Image: Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Conversation And Coffee 2.0 – A Morning with Civil Beat Supporters And Staff

For the second straight month, Civil Beat recently welcomed a few dozen of our supporters for an inside look at Civil Beat and an up-close-and-personal chat with editors and reporters.

Known as Conversation and Coffee, these monthly get-togethers are an opportunity to discuss coverage and reader interests and a benefit for Civil Beat members. It is also our opportunity to say thank you in person to our supporters.

The group discussion touched on ways Civil Beat is experimenting with new platforms to better disseminate information, so that our readers can stay informed while navigating hectic and information-saturated lifestyles. Talking about her personal experiences with information overload, one member noted, “Civil Beat helps us work through the massive clutter.”

Editor Patti Epler shared points of recent progress, including development of our internship program and our new podcast initiative (Offshore, debuting Oct. 13). Epler also announced national recognition for our five-part series, The Harbor — a first-place award from the Online News Association.

Invitations to these events are a member benefit, so if you would like to join us for coffee, pau hana and a really good time, please consider making a gift today.

Team Civil Beat

Jessica Terrell, second from right, in action as part of a Civil Beat podcast training session earlier this year. Image: Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Staff Profile: Jessica Terrell

Jessica Terrell has only been at Civil Beat for 1½ years, but she’s packed a lot of impact into those 18 months.

The former education reporter for the Orange County Register in California brings a wealth of award-winning experience to her work in Honolulu. In addition to her service at the Register, Terrell worked for the Tribeca Trib for two years in New York City, focusing on topics as diverse as the Occupy Wall Street movement, national political conventions and power struggles at the Nixon Presidential Library in California.

She brings to her work the broad perspective of a world traveler. As a child, she and her siblings roamed North America with parents who understood the value of those experiences for the way their children would see the world throughout their lives.

Terrell brought that perspective to her work on The Harbor (see the Encore section in this issue of Inside Civil Beat), which earned a first place prize in Hawaii’s annual Society of Professional Journalists awards — one of four recognitions in journalism contests around the country.

Catch another dimension of Terrell’s work when her multi-part podcast on the Massie Affair debuts this month as part of Civil Beat’s new Offshore project.

Donor Spotlight

Barbara Tanabe appreciates Civil Beat as both as an independent public affairs news organization and as an outlet committed to public policy and critical issues.

Barbara Tanabe

Among her countless other roles, Barbara Tanabe is the owner and manager of Ho‘ākea Communications, a local public affairs company. Her career includes award-winning stints as a broadcast journalist in Seattle and Hawaii, as a communications maven who once led the state’s largest public relations company.

During it all, she’s been a community leader, actively involved in several civic and government organizations, such as serving as founding chair of the Hawaii Institute of Public Affairs.

Civil Beat is honored to have Barbara’s strong support. After all, her life and career has been dedicated to ensuring that her community remains well-informed and engaged in public affairs.

“Unfortunately, because civic studies in public education is not considered a high priority, today there is an alarming lack of understanding of how policy is formed and its impact on our lives,” explained Barbara. “Civil Beat is among very few news groups that focuses on public policy and critical issues.”

She continues, “In the digital age, there are so many sources of news and information that it is difficult to find a profitable business model that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the news content. So for Civil Beat to exist as an independent public affairs news organization, the nonprofit transition was a necessary step.”

It has been nearly four months since our nonprofit transition, and to-date Civil Beat has received hundreds of donations from people like Barbara. The average gift size is $110. Every single dollar that we receive gets plowed back into our mission of local journalism for the public good.

Thank you, Barbara, for your lifelong commitment to educating and informing, and for your support of Civil Beat.