In 2019, media trust projects and engagement initiatives continued to proliferate across the world’s newsrooms, especially here in the United States as we approach the 2020 presidential election. New nonprofit newsrooms are emerging every month, such as the new Oakland newsroom from Berkeleyside. The for-profit engagement consultant firm Hearken is thriving, expanding in Europe and growing revenues by 40 percent, according to the co-founder and CEO Jennifer Brandel.
I see these trends continuing, and as a result, I predict we’ll see a different kind of primary and election coverage than in previous election cycles. Horserace coverage will still be the bread-and-butter of certain national outlets such as CNN and Fox — but at the local and mid-sized outlet level, engagement will be the name of the game.
Get ready to answer your door not only to campaigns’ canvassers but also to a local or regional reporter — especially if you live in a rural area or are a member of a marginalized community. Newsrooms of any size looking for support in this work should check out the free Citizens Agenda, a step-by-step guide for a different kind of election coverage driven by “regular people” (as we say in the newsroom) as part of a partnership between Hearken, Jay Rosen’s Membership Puzzle Project, and Joy Mayer’s Trusting News project.
My concrete predictions:
Sue Robinson is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin.
In 2019, media trust projects and engagement initiatives continued to proliferate across the world’s newsrooms, especially here in the United States as we approach the 2020 presidential election. New nonprofit newsrooms are emerging every month, such as the new Oakland newsroom from Berkeleyside. The for-profit engagement consultant firm Hearken is thriving, expanding in Europe and growing revenues by 40 percent, according to the co-founder and CEO Jennifer Brandel.
I see these trends continuing, and as a result, I predict we’ll see a different kind of primary and election coverage than in previous election cycles. Horserace coverage will still be the bread-and-butter of certain national outlets such as CNN and Fox — but at the local and mid-sized outlet level, engagement will be the name of the game.
Get ready to answer your door not only to campaigns’ canvassers but also to a local or regional reporter — especially if you live in a rural area or are a member of a marginalized community. Newsrooms of any size looking for support in this work should check out the free Citizens Agenda, a step-by-step guide for a different kind of election coverage driven by “regular people” (as we say in the newsroom) as part of a partnership between Hearken, Jay Rosen’s Membership Puzzle Project, and Joy Mayer’s Trusting News project.
My concrete predictions:
Sue Robinson is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin.
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