Yesterday, I joined the North Carolina News & Information Summit. The day included sessions ranging from recruiting and retaining journalists of color, countering common First Amendment violations in accessing public records and meetings, and audience engagement tools.
My favorite conversation was on reclaiming election coverage, in which by Melanie Sill challenged participants to define what their election coverage needed to include and what they wanted it to include. With those Post-it commitments in hand, we discussed how to plan and publish election coverage, with examples including KPCC’s “Make Al Care” campaign in the run-up to LA’s local elections, the Democracy SOS initiative to train on a Citizens’ Agenda approach, and Electionland’s coverage of polling place issues on Election Day.
Participants discussed their own successes and challenges. In 2020, Enlace Latino NC focused heavily on how to vote, recognizing that many of their readers needed information on the process of registering and getting a ballot. QCity Metro in Charlotte is exploring district-based coverage to better address the many different community needs throughout the Crescent.
The conversation included many illustrations of what covering elections from a “democracy-worthy” frame might look like. In 2020, the Election Coverage and Democracy network of communications scholars recommended putting voters and election administrations at the center of the election story, and covering uncertain or contested outcomes through a frame of “democracy-worthiness” and institutional integrity. Those recommendations remain deeply relevant in preparing for midterm elections, and it was exciting to see these principles in action across the state.
Publications and appearances
“The agreement is almost certain to provide momentum to foreign governments who want to do exactly what the United States is doing: require companies to store data within their borders.” Affiliate Matt Perault writes in WIRED about the dangerous precedent set by the TikTok-Oracle deal.
Coming soon
April 7, 3:30pm: The CITAP spring speaker series continues with a talk from Andre Brock, author of Distributed Blackness. RSVP and livestream links to come!
April 15: deadline to apply for the Cleary Prize for student research on media law and policy: https://medialaw.unc.edu/2022/02/james-r-cleary-prize-student-media-law-policy-research-2022/
April 21, 3:30pm: The CITAP spring speaker series will feature Jonathan Ong. RSVP and livestream links to come.
April 28, 5:30pm: MIT Libraries are hosting an evening with Tressie McMillan Cottom. The event will be hybrid, with a livestream available.
Rest of Web
The International Journal of Press/Politics issued a call for papers for its 8th annual conference this September.
Shiny new tech tools? Yes please.