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Sunshine Week 2006 Online Gallery Two

Published: March 27, 2006
Last Updated: March 27, 2006

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The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City once again used Sunshine Week to demonstrate how many stories in the newspaper are developed because of open records or meetings. By placing the Sunshine Week icon next to the start of each item—and explaining to readers what it means—the newspaper made its point visually more than 100 times during the week, on roughly 7 in 10 articles it published.

During the week, The Oklahoman also ran the house ad featured here to explain Sunshine Week and the newspaper's use of the icons.

Of course, the newspaper couldn't just promote coverage, it had to produce it as well.

During Sunshine Week The Oklahoman wrote about efforts to curb excessive fees for copying records, it looked at stories published over the past year that relied on open records, explained pending open government legislation, discussed how citizens use open records, interviewed the state attorney general about the importance of protecting open government, discussed different kinds of records and whether they should be available to the public, and summarized its coverage at the end of the week.

Click here to download a very large PDF file of pages from The Oklahoman.

The results? According to Staff Writer Bryan Dean, Oklahoma City officials pledged to review their fee structure, the mayor of Muskogee said he'd follow up on an article about records and meetings access violations, and officials at Oklahoma State University will explore open records training for employees. The paper also received phone calls and e-mails from readers not only thanking the staff for its reporting, but also recounting their own problems with getting government information.

Writing for Poynter Online, Boulder-based content strategist and "info-provocateur" Amy Gahran provided an interesting look at some the Sunshine Week online resources.

"Despite its ephemeral reputation, online media can vastly extend the life and reach of a time-focused event like a one-week campaign. By today, most print newspaper subscribers have tossed out their Sunshine Week papers. But those Sunshine Week links live on, continuing to attract visitors and discussion," she wrote.

Earlier, on her Web site, Gahan offered six ways to make the most of Sunshine Week online. She also offered some examples, including the NOW Web site, the efforts of newspaper sites and the Mercury News's Sunshine Law proposal.

In his March 9 editorial in advance of Sunshine Week, Editor Ethan Dezotelle of the weekly County Courier in Enosburg, Vt., made his point both visually and with words.

By redacting portions of the text, Dezotelle showed clearly what happens when information is presented, but key portions are withheld.

"It seems odd that we need such a thing as Sunshine Week in 2006, but we do," he wrote, in part. "At times, it feels that we're just a few steps away from state-sponsored censorship, scary as that is to imagine."

Dezotelle explained to readers that Sunshine Week "isn't about journalists and their gripes, although such things do play a role. Rather, next week is about each and every American—conservative or liberal; Republican, Democrat or Independent; old or young; hard-working or Paris Hilton—speaking up and ensuring that their government does not become an instrument of oppression and tyranny."

"There's always room for more sunshine in our lives. When it comes to government, we just have to be willing to stand up in the darkness and demand it," he concluded.

To see a PDF version of the entire editorial, click on the image at right.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services offered a special OnePage for use during Sunshine Week.

The page was based on a longer online quiz of First Amendment knowledge developed by the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.

Jody Mitori, managing editor for KRT Special Sections and KRT Campus, said the page, which appealed to a range of reader ages, did well and she expects that it will be offered again next year.

The quiz, which featured a picture of First Amendment author James Madison, explained some of the history behind the Bill of Rights. "The 45 words have been the basis of some of the most important court decisions in the United States from flag burning to school prayer, from song lyrics to hate speech," the OnePage explained. "And while the First Amendment was established to protect many of our basic freedoms, few of us know much about it."

The multiple-choice questions ranged from the relatively simple—"The Bill of Rights is"—to more complex scenarios and, in the opinion of this quiz-taker, trick questions.

Hawaii again proved its love of sunshine—in government—with extensive coverage of open government issues and public forums hosted by the state's Office of Information Practice.

The Honolulu Advertiser kicked off a week's worth of news, features and opinion pieces with a look at how Hawaii ranks against other states in terms of openness (not so good).

Included in its online coverage, the Advertiser asked readers to weigh in with an online poll. The results pictured here, though unscientific, clearly show respondents overwhelmingly believe they have less access to state and county information than they did a year ago.

To help student journalists mark Sunshine Week, the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., produced a series of articles to help high school and college students understand what is available to them and how they can get it.

In addition to the coverage, which kicked off a month before Sunshine Week with an article explaining why open government is important to students, SPLC's Web site includes tools to help student journalists understand their right of access to records, meetings and places and an open records request letter generator.

The Heritage Foundation hosted a Sunshine Week panel discussion titled, "What if the Answers Don't Add Up? Transparency and Government Data," which examined trends in government data collection and what happens when that data is withheld from the public.

Panelists included two senior policy analysts in The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis, Kirk Johnson, who discussed education data, and David Mulhausen, who explained trends in crime data collection; and Heather Boushey, an economist at The Center for Economic and Policy Research, who explained why some social science data is at risk.

The moderator was Mark Tapscott, director of Heritage's Center for Media and Public Policy and the Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi fellow.

Audio and video recordings of the discussion are available online at The Heritage Foundation Web site.

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