Seeking your elections take, as students discover "the root of all politics" in coverage
News doesn't take long to move into the rear-view mirror these days: while we're still counting votes from the midterms, the political press is quickly moving on to 2020.
Amid the analysis, it's worth stopping to consider what people need from independent reporting and what North Carolina might add between now and 2020. For instance, we know early voting surged (and will continue to do so) — what does that mean for coverage and how to help people inform themselves ahead of voting, versus predicting outcomes?
A widely cited Elon Poll from September told us that voters were confused by constitutional amendments on the ballot. Did that improve by the time they had to decide? With national partisan politics driving so much of the election discussion, did the people and concerns of North Carolina and specific communities get enough attention?
Send your election thoughts here: What coverage did you like (your own included) or admire? What did you miss? What could be added or built for 2020, for voters, for news organizations or for individual journalists?
North Carolina saw some new collaborations in 2018. For instance, UNC-TV's two Black Issues Forum election specials from early November were scheduled to be aired simultaneously or rebroadcast on radio stations in Durham, Fayetteville, Livingstone College, St. Augustine's College, Elizabeth State University, Winston-Salem State University, N.C. A&T State and the HBCU Channel on Sirius, according to UNC-TV.
WUNC-FM and WFAE-FM in Charlotte coproduced two pre-election specials that aired on public radio stations statewide, and WRAL and The News & Observer both participated in the national Electionland project reporting voting issues.
Another collaboration helped Wake Forest University students contribute audio to WFDD's public radio election coverage in the Triad by talking to people in Winston-Salem who did not plan to vote, a "vox pop" piece with three non-voter voices that aired during All Things Considered on Election Day.
The students were part of a class taught by Wake Forest journalism director and associate professor Phoebe Zerwick, and are reporting all semester on downtown Winston-Salem.
Emily McCord, WFDD news director, worked with Zerwick and her students to turn their interviews into audio that could go on the air. Along with the educational experience, McCord said the class found an angle — the significant proportion of people who don't vote — and the voices of people who offered a view that WFDD's other coverage hadn't explored.
On election night, Zerwick's students worked out of the WFDD public radio studio on campus, producing stories for their "Heard it Here" class blog and also getting a chance to see the station's staff in action doing live updates and covering election news. (And, of course, to share the election-night pizza).
College students dug into local elections elsewhere across the state. Some examples: UNC's new Our Chatham blog and newsletter, student work at Duke's Reporter's Lab and in the 9th Street Journal blog covering Durham, from Bill Adair's advanced reporting class. The Daily Tar Heel continued its long tradition of covering local and state election angles.
The Elon News Network produced a 2 1/2-hour live broadcast focused on local races in Alamance County and updated results on-air and via a live blog, according to reporter/anchor Alex Hager, who added that students also produced a local voter guide and election preview podcast on local races.
Along with providing some news to local communities, the election coverage gave students a taste of journalism in real time, in the field. No class or exercise provides that same magic, which has hooked people on the news business through the ages.
Afterward, one of Zerwick's Wake Forest students, Katherine Laws, wrote that covering the election initially "seemed daunting to me, and if I'm being honest, boring and aggravating.
"I hadn’t thought about how the root of politics really is people; decisions that we make in government affect people and their stories directly," she reflected in an essay after the election. "I loved getting to hear people’s stories as we covered this and learn how politics intersected with their stories.
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Worth reading
Takes on local newspapers' crisis and strengths
- Ken Doctor's new Nieman Lab piece won't reassure anyone worried about local newspapers. Under the headline, "Newspapers are shells of their former selves: So who's going to build what comes next in local?" Doctor offered his latest take on the murky future most media experts see for newspapers and explores possible directions for local news. A former news editor and executive, media analyst and Newsonomics author, Doctor has reported and consulted on these issues for decades, so his opinions are grounded in deep experience. Asking whether the next year will see a surge in public and private money aimed at the local news crisis, Doctor described several big efforts but noted that most focus on state politics and policy versus news at the town and city level. It's a sobering piece even for those well-steeped in these issues, and I'd love to hear what you think —does his analysis hold up in North Carolina? What should our conversation and efforts tackle here in a state where community newspapers (as we've seen with Hurricane Florence, local elections and more) still serve crucial roles and, where they fail, leave big gaps? Reply to this email with your thoughts.
- At Poynter, Rick Edmonds wrote about a new marketing book from the News Media Alliance, making the case for advertising and for news media's breadth of offerings. According to a news release from the alliance, formerly the Newspaper Association of America, "the 78-page News Advertising Panorama includes compelling research and statistics from a wide range of sources, including Nielsen Scarborough, comScore, Kantar Media, the Alliance’s own research and more, to paint a comprehensive picture of the value of the news audience for advertisers." Edmonds wrote that the book sets out benefits of print and digital advertising, drawing on industry research, media trust studies and other to make a case based on the quality of newspapers' print and digital audiences, brand credibility and other points. The book is available to News Media Alliance members through digital download, and unfortunately isn't yet offered for general readership.
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Use This
Tips/tools on content sharing, newsletters
- If your organization is sharing news and information with other publishers, check out "Four SEO Questions to Ask When You're Co-Publishing With Another Newsroom" from the Single Subject News Project at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics & Public Policy. The ongoing Single Subject research project focuses on nonprofit news organizations but has produced ongoing learning for everyone on audience, revenue and digital publishing.
- If you're sending out newsletters using MailChimp, Single Subject just shared a free open-source tool to benchmark important newsletter metrics to get the most out of that effort. Look for more newsletter resources soon from the project, which is funded by the Knight Foundation.
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Bulletin board
People moves, recognition for food journalists, RTDNA awards, a media law event and EdNC does sports
- Elizabeth Cook will retire as editor of the Salisbury Post at the end of 2018, the Post reported Sunday. Cook took over as editor in 1993 as the paper's seventh editor in chief, and is the only woman to have held the job in the Post's 113-year history. She served as president of the N.C. Press Association in 1999-2000.
- WRAL anchor David Crabtree has postponed his retirement, however. WRAL announced last week that the veteran newsman will stay in his anchor role "at least through 2020." Crabtree and the station had said in September 2017 that he'd step down at the end of this year after 24 years; the announcement says he was "re-energized during coverage" of Hurricane Florence.
- Sex and the First Amendment" will be the focus of an all-day symposium Friday in Chapel Hill, hosted by the First Amendment Law Review at UNC's Center for Media Law & Policy. University of Chicago Prof. Geoffrey Stone, author of the book, Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and the Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century, will be the keynote speaker. The symposium is free for UNC students, faculty and staff and $35 for others, including lunch. Details here.
- North Carolina food writers Debbie Moose, Kathleen Purvis and Jean Anderson are featured in a new project, "Women Food Journalists," from the Southern Foodways Alliance's Oral Histories program. The project explores the careers of more than a dozen women who "were on the front lines of history," covering culture through food. Moose, former food editor at The News & Observer, is also an author and independent journalist; Purvis is The Charlotte Observer's food editor and has published three books. Anderson, a Raleigh native who worked as an Iredell County home demonstration agent after college before earning a master's degree at Columbia, built her career in magazines and as the author of more than 20 cookbooks.
- EdNC has launched statewide high school sports coverage with an experiment called GameTimeNC. Nation Hahn, EdNC's chief growth officer, shared details in an interview with the online publication SportsChannel8. Described as an "intense 8- to 10-week prototype," GameTimeNC has hired several former newspaper staff or freelance writers to provide coverage. EdNC launched in 2015 with a focus on education policy and on involving teachers, staff, parents and communities in discussion of education issues.
- North Carolina's best broadcast journalism of the past year was recognized by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas during the group's annual convention in Concord last weekend. Find a full list of winners here, and congratulations to all.
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Correction
Media lawyer C. Amanda Martin of Stevens Martin Vaughn & Tadych wrote a summary of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling lifting a gag order involving federal lawsuits against hog farms in Eastern North Carolina. Last week's NC Local incorrectly identified the author of the summary, posted on the SMVT blog. Apologies for the error.
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Visitors are shown touring the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park during the North Carolina Whirligig Festival in Wilson Nov. 4. The park, not far from The Wilson Times' new offices, features 30 of Simpson’s kinetic sculptures, and the annual street festival draws an estimated 50,000 people to the downtown district surrounding the park. (Wilson Times photo by Drew C. Wilson)
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