(2018-11-07) Rosen Election Coverage The Road Not Taken

Jay Rosen: Election coverage (Campaign Coverage): the road not taken. There was a path the American press could have walked, but did not. This alternative way was illuminated as far back as 1992.

One of the problems with election coverage as it stands is that no one has any idea what it means to succeed at it.

In 1992, the The Observer in Charlotte, NC teamed up with the Poynter Institute to pioneer a different way to cover elections. The idea was very simple: campaign coverage should be grounded in what voters want the candidates to talk about. Which voters? The ones you are trying to inform.

This came to be called the “citizens agenda” approach to campaign coverage.

It revolves around the power of a single question: “What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes?” From good answers to that everything else in the model flows.

Here’s how the alternative style — the citizens agenda in election coverage— works. First you need to know who your community is.

The key is to pose this question in every possible form and forum

then you can ask them the question at the core of the citizens agenda approach. “What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes?”

The product is a ranked list, a priority sketch. The top 8-10 issues or problems that voters most want the candidates to be talking about.

But you have to get the list right

The citizens agenda approach in campaign coverage was first tried at the Charlotte Observer in 1992.

You can’t keep from getting sucked into Trump’s agenda without a firm grasp on your own.