Professor Jay Rosen from New York University presented what he describes as a more engaging and people-centric form of election coverage known as the “citizens agenda” model during the second day of programming Saturday, April 30 at the NENPA convention in Boston. 

Describing the problem that the citizens agenda model seeks to solve, Rosen said “Traditional election coverage, which starts just with the race and who is likely to win, is really focused on politicians rather than both voters…[and] viewers, and the campaign as it is traditionally reported kind of goes on without the voters until the very end when people vote.”

Rosen provided 10 key steps on how to effectively use this model for election coverage.

First, identify to yourself and your staff who you’re trying to inform – what voter base are you trying to give a voice to.

“If your audience is just ‘the public’ or ‘everyone’,” said Rosen “That doesn’t help you very much. But if you know who your audience is, you can more easily get a handle on what their agenda is.”

He also explained the importance of engaging a smaller community.

“If you take it seriously…you’re going to discover communities, or part of the community, that you don’t really reach but you want to reach,” said Rosen. “So, one way to do that…is to run a kind of ‘citizens agenda’ approach explicitly for that community…it’s a little different than the bigger or larger metropolitan agenda but…we’re going to be asking questions about that as well.”

The second is to ask those you identified what the most important issues are to them. What do they want political candidates to be discussing on the campaign trail? These questions are meant to replace the more traditional questions such as “who is going to win?”

Third, you should continue to ask these questions to everyone you encounter and engage with them as much as possible. Rosen also explained the importance of using every method at your disposal to reach your intended audience.

“You might have to do a great deal of work even to get this question to one part of the community or another,” said Rosen.

After you engage your audience, Rosen said you should then interpret the collected responses and priorities and synthesize them into a draft agenda.

“You’re going to start hearing patterns in the responses,” said Rosen. “It’s up to you to listen to those responses, hear the patterns, synthesize what you heard, and compose what you have heard into a kind of priority list.”

After creating this priority list, you should back into the field and test this list with the people you have been talking to. How accurate is this list and should you revise it? Only then should you publish your agenda as a “live” product on your site that can be available to candidates and the general public but can still be revised if necessary.

Rosen explains that your “citizens agenda” should guide your campaign reporting so that only the information the public cares about gets told. You should press candidates to speak on these issues and, whenever they do respond, report this information back to the voters.

“If these [for example] are the top five things that people…want the campaign to be about,” said Rosen. “Then we not only have to ask those questions…when we have an opportunity to interview the candidates, but we also have to do a lot of very detailed journalism about those things because we know people care.”

Towards the end of the campaign trail, Rosen recommends you build a voter’s guide for each candidate based on their responses and plans to tackle the issues most important to the people you talked to. Rosen advised that if the candidates are from smaller positions or positions that don’t typically receive much press attention, then you should describe and explain the roles of these positions to the people your list is based on so that they can provide issues to those candidates they can act on the most.

Until campaigning season ends and voting begins, you should constantly be revising and updating your “citizens agenda” to accurately reflect what voters feel is most important.

For a review of all 10 key steps to effectively use the citizens agenda model for election coverage and to download a copy of The Citizens Agenda guide visit https://www.thecitizensagenda.org/.

By Samuel Elwell, RWU Class of ’23, Managing Editor | The Hawks’ Herald

One of the biggest stories of our time is climate change and the struggle to reverse its human-caused effects. On April 30, 2022, during the NENPA Convention in Boston, five panelists sat down and discussed the issue of climate change and related reporting.

Convention attendees heard from The Boston Globe’s David Abel, Society of Environmental Journalist’s president Sadie Babits, Frank Mungeam from Covering Climate Collaborative, and Leslie Garrett and Jamie Kageleiry from Bluedot Living about how journalists and newsrooms can be more effective in their climate reporting.

According to Mungeam, local news outlets are much more effective, personal, and best situated to be the messenger for affected communities.

“At the national level, it’s easy to turn climate into a political issue,” said Mungeam. “Locally, it’s personal, not political. You go out your door and you experience the effects.”

Abel explained how over the past ten years, science has become much clearer, and that the climate crisis has become the most important story of our time. He said that journalists must play a more active role in reporting climate threats.

“It reflects…this conversation about the urgency of what we as journalists should be doing if we’re covering climate change,” said Abel. “And that is to make this issue front and center, to make it clear that it is not a distant, abstract issue, but one that is affecting people now and is likely to affect people in much greater ways in the coming years.” 

Mungeam said that, among young people, the climate crisis is not a partisan issue. Younger generations from across the political spectrum are expressing their concerns over climate change and believe action must be taken to combat it. Babits agreed that younger generations are at the forefront of the climate movement, and she said the climate crisis is one of the most popular beats among student journalists.

“This younger generation of journalists coming up,” said Babits “they see this completely different because they do feel like they have to say something and do something.”

Babits praised this new generation of journalists saying, “They give me so much hope of where our profession is going, and how we’re going to cover climate change stories.”

She also explained the importance of solutions journalism reporting.

“I would strongly encourage you to bring the solutions piece in and…keep it centered around people,” said Babits.

The panelists also discussed common obstacles to climate coverage, such as misinformation and climate change deniers, and they offered suggestions.

“If they seem to have a point of view that just lacks any coherence or semblance of proximity to facts, I try to, as gently as possible, steer them to ‘what is the evidence?’” said Abel when discussing his approach to those misinformed on climate science.

Mungeam chimed in that by reporting on, engaging with, and questioning climate deniers, journalists could actually be “getting oxygen to the rumor.” 

“How do we get in front of all the audiences that experience this issue? How do we reach them? How do we communicate effectively?” asked Mungeam. “How do you take a planet-sized problem and report at the local level?”

Abel explained that journalists don’t need a degree in environmental science or sustainability to report on the topic.

“You assume you know nothing, and you ask often the most simplistic questions. Try to understand things from the ground up,” said Abel. “That’s what journalism is all about. It’s not making assumptions but trying to vet what we’re looking at.”

Lastly, when asked how to deal with the bleakness of climate change while reporting, Abel advised that while there is a lot to be concerned about, there are still ways to remain hopeful by reporting on possible solutions.

Frank Mungeam has provided his slides from the presentation with the resources he referenced.

Download Climate Resources Slides

By Samuel Elwell, RWU Class of ’23, Managing Editor | The Hawks’ Herald

On April 29, 2022, during the NENPA convention in Boston, attendees were introduced to the concept of Funding Journalism with Innovative News Labs and how they work to provide greater focus on specific communities and local issues that many news outlets overlook.

The panel included Frank Mungeam, Chief Innovation Officer, Local Media Association, Liz White, Publisher and EVP, Record-Journal Media Group, Terry Williams COO and President, Keene Sentinel, and Carlos Virgen, Digital News Director, The Day. They discussed news labs they have developed, the communities they focus on within that lab, and funding models used to develop and sustain the labs.

As chief innovation officer for the Local Media Association, Mungeam has experience working with many news organizations to successfully develop reporting projects that are funded through philanthropy.

Virgen discussed The Day’s news lab and its focus on the housing crisis in southeastern Connecticut. The primary issues the Housing Solutions Lab covers are affordable housing, zoning laws, and homelessness. 

“Identifying the communities that need the information, that need to be connected with the resources, that need their stories to be told,” said Virgen. “Ultimately our goal is to tell the stories from their perspective, to put a human face on the issue so that the discussion moves from being a discussion about it being their problem…to becoming an issue, a problem of our community.”

The Housing Solutions lab currently has three reporters and hopes to expand into other issues such as healthcare and criminal law.

Williams talked about the Monadnock Region Health Reporting Lab and its mission to provide a solutions journalism approach to healthcare reporting. He described some of the stories they had worked on, including a feature on EMTs and ambulance drivers and how healthcare centers are caring for and treating coronavirus patients.

With strong connections and partnerships across New Hampshire, Williams believes the news lab approach makes way for more in-depth reporting on pressing issues and solutions and focusing on the community’s needs.

“They appreciate that you’re listening to them. Their information is invaluable in terms of guiding them,” said Williams. “Our belief is if we do this work right, we would save some lives.”

Lastly, White discussed the Latino Communities Reporting Lab that launched in March 2021 and whose mission is to amplify the voices of Latino communities. The team consists of six bilingual journalists, two bilingual reporters, and one bilingual editor, in addition to freelancers and interns who have produced over 200 stories and videos so far on a multiplatform model in both English and Spanish.

White also discussed some of the difficulties in receiving funding for news labs.

“Every no leads to a yes,” said White. “You’re going to have to talk to a lot of different people for funding, or a lot of different businesses for sponsorships.”

Closing out the panel, Virgen had a message regarding the importance of community-focused news labs.

“It’s that model of community listening and centering the community’s needs,” said Virgen. “Allowing that opportunity to inform our coverage.”

By Samuel Elwell, RWU Class of ’23, Managing Editor | The Hawks’ Herald

On April 29, 2022, during the NENPA convention in Boston, the keynote session was presented by two top Boston Globe executives. Brian McGrory, editor, and Linda Pizzuti Henry, chief executive officer, sat down for an informal discussion with convention attendees.

The pair did not prepare a formal presentation, instead they opened the session by tossing questions to each other about their experiences and views on the state of the industry, then they opened it up to the audience for discussion.

A 27-year veteran of the Globe, McGrory spoke on the state of the industry today including its challenges and potentially innovative opportunities. 

McGrory started off by asking Henry what surprised her most about newspaper ownership.

“We knew going in, in 2013 that the Globe was going to take a lot of work,” said Henry. “It was a turnaround situation, and we knew it was going to be hard work. It was harder than we anticipated…we’re really looking forward to the future and investing and contemplating and preparing ourselves for what media is going to be like going forward.”

McGrory explained that, when he came in as the editor for the Globe in 2012, the paper was in a dire position with declines in advertising. He explained the most shocking part of taking on this position was the human element and having to deal with layoffs and taking on business matters more than necessary.

McGrory also discussed his goals when he became the editor at the Boston Globe.

“I had two challenges, one was to continue to produce great journalism at the Boston Globe and the other was, as we’re trying to do this, to figure out a business model that would be sustainable, and that has always been the more vexing part,” said McGrory. “The real goal was to tie the two together. To make good journalism good for business.”

McGrory and Henry also brought up the challenges of keeping the newsroom together during and after the coronavirus pandemic where Henry praised McGrory’s leadership in keeping the newsroom together during this time.

“One of the things that makes the pandemic story unique is that it’s a story in which the journalists are actually as affected as everybody else,” said McGrory “Part of the challenge for me in the newsroom, for [Linda Pizzuti Henry] company-wide, was being as empathetic as humanly possible.”

Speaking on freelance journalists versus staff reporters, McGrory explained how, over the last nine years, the Globe had cut its freelance budget by about 90% as a way to hold on to as many “Globe quality journalists” on their staff as possible and allowed them to hire more staff positions.

McGrory and Henry also spoke on future business ventures such as expanding readership across New England especially after launching “Globe Rhode Island.” They talked about the success of this initiative feeling that it was able to increase the quality of news in the state.

When asked about advice for up-and-coming publishers, Henry explained that while producing content is important, you should also focus on building a strong community. 

They also talked about the transition from print to digital and how there is a balance between the two in order to appeal to those still averse to technology and noted that print subscribers are loyal to the Globe.

Lastly, McGrory gave some hopeful advice to aspiring student journalists.

“It is really challenging. It’s also a really appealing time to break into the business,” said McGrory. “The public needs us and I think there’s an inherent understanding that they need us now as much as ever.”

By Samuel Elwell, RWU Class of ’23, Managing Editor | The Hawks’ Herald