TODAY'S TIP:
As the November election approaches, concerns are growing over absurdly high numbers of rejected ballots due to errors, late postmarks and mismatched signatures.
Consider hosting a live “Ask Me Anything” event focused on the election on Facebook, Reddit or any social platform where your audience is engaged. Make sure the session includes specific and concrete information about how to vote correctly and how to make the vote count.
Here are some tips for success that we gathered from this Medium post:
If you get complaints, ask for specific examples Acknowledge we (journalists) aren’t perfect Answer all the questions you receive Show some personality! Promote the session ahead of time Set a time limit of one hour up front.
After the event, take the responses and publish an FAQ or a follow-up to an Elections Basics story, like the one we produced for our partner stations.
America Amplified To Produce 6-week National Talk Show Highlighting Local Communities
What’s on the minds of voters as they head into the election in November? What challenges are people facing every day in America? What stories are missing from the conversations taking place about the future of this country?
A new America Amplified: Election 2020 weekly talk show will dive into these topics and more starting October 10. The one-hour national call-in show will air Saturdays at 3 p.m. ET and run for six weeks, though November 14.
The show will explore local community perspectives from across the country, with a mission to foster dialogue, not debate; share experiences; and elevate diverse community perspectives.
Last spring, we produced a six-week run of “America Amplified: Life, Community, and COVID-19.”
We will once again work with stations from different parts of the country to co-host each show. Guests and topics will be drawn from ongoing engagement work — from our national listening sessions to coverage of rural communities in the Mountain West, coal country and Kentucky, to engagement with communities in Atlanta, along Florida’s I-4 corridor, and across small towns in Pennsylvania.
The program will air nationally on NPR member stations (and potentially elsewhere) and there is no carriage fee. A non-live version also will be shared each week for later broadcast or on-demand sharing.
Please contact Donna Vestal, executive director, for questions about carriage at " style="font-weight: normal;font-weight: normal;color: #535353;text-decoration: underline;color: #535353;text-decoration: underline;color: rgb(214, 73, 77)">[email protected]. For questions about production, contact Andrea Tudhope, senior producer, at " style="font-weight: normal;font-weight: normal;color: #535353;text-decoration: underline;color: #535353;text-decoration: underline;color: rgb(214, 73, 77)">[email protected].
We're Engaged!
A quick look at community engagement efforts around public media.
Erie's Black Wall Street
Erie, Pennsylvania, consistently ranks as one of the worst metro areas for Black residents based Ed Mahon hosts a Facebook Live conversation with a on racial disparities in income, founder of Erie's Black Wall Street and two local business owners. education achievement gaps and other factors.
Reporter Ed Mahon of PA Post and StateImpact Pennsylvania has been regularly visiting Erie as part of an embedded reporters effort, and he discovered how a grassroots group of Black residents are trying to change that narrative. Listen to his story here.
Mahon's engagement included a Facebook Live video session with one of the founders of the Erie's Black Wall Street, Rhonda Matthews, as well as two business owners.
Matthews talked about the power of the business directory to inspire others: "The history of the United States, for me, in terms of representation of people from various ethnic groups is really about erasure, right? Or at the very least, if it’s not about erasure, it’s about ignorance.”
She said the creation of the Black Wall Street business directory is one way to ensure the contributions of Black people are not ignored.
‘It’s reimagining what policing is.’
Roxanne Scott at WABE reached out to a community in southwest Atlanta that was the focus of a great deal of media attention after the June shooting death of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta police. She wanted to know what residents thought of policing in the neighborhood. What she found was surprising. Read and listen to her story here.
“No one ever said to get rid of the police department,” residents told her. Police are important, but there is money the neighborhood needs for other resources.
“It's not defund... it’s just not. It’s reimagining what policing is.”
KUNR hosts Facebook Live in Spanish In collaboration with Latinos de Nevada and the Mountain West News Bureau, our partner station KUNR in Nevada is hosting a Facebook Live in Spanish later today to answer questions about reopening schools and precautions for COVID-19.
It will start at 5 p.m. PT. See the event link here.
Side Effects launches “Because of COVID-19” Facebook Live show The pandemic has revealed and magnified deep public health disparities, and Black and Latinx communities have been hit the hardest.
Side Effects Public Media is launching a series of panel discussions on Facebook Live to engage these communities and find resources and solutions. Once a month, these events will explore topics ranging from loss of insurance to evictions and more.
Resource center
PRPD/PMJA Collaborative Public Media Summit
The virtual conference will take place the week of September 21. A few early schedule announcements include: Super Practical tips for Editing Scripts with Korva Coleman, Phyllis Fletcher and Rachel Lindley and Programming for Kids!
Register for the summit here.
The full summit schedule will be announced on Thursday, August 27.
How We Save Our Body Politic: Just….listen. Listen to America.
Farai Chideya -- formerly of NPR, WNYC and FiveThirtyEight -- has written a provocative and revealing essay about her experiences with racism and discrimination in journalism.
In the piece, she talks about the privilege of protection she’s seen for her white counterparts, about how her professionalism has often been questioned and about the personal impact racism has had on her life.
She calls on America’s white and non-white communities to look ouside the “psychic privacy fence” created by race and caste to see what is really hurting their country. Isn't it time to get to know America, she asks? "Just….listen. Listen to America."
Chideya will be launching a podcast called Our Body Politic, centering on women of color in politics, in September. Read her essay here.
What Would Anti-Racist Journalism Look Like? What is “neutrality” in journalism? How do journalists tell stories that root out racism in society?
Moderator Juliet Beverly of BrainFacts.org and panelists Leah Donnella of NPR’s Code Switch, Cassie Haynes of Resolve Philly, and Robert Samuels of The Washington Post explored how journalists can practice anti-racism in their everyday work at a Journalism Institute program. Read or watch the recap.
Nieman Foundation offers remote fellowships Nieman is offering remote visiting fellowships around projects that address racial justice and public health in the U.S. Applications are encouraged from journalists, publishers, technologists, entrepreneurs, programmers, designers, media analysts, academics and others who want to make an impact on journalism. There is no age limit or academic prerequisites and a college degree is not required.
Applications are due September 25.
Report for America seeks host newsrooms and seasoned journalists Report for America is taking applications for host newsrooms for 2021-22. The fellowship covers half a reporter’s salary, up to $25,000. The newsroom and/or local donors split the rest. Newsrooms make the final reporter selection. Applications are due Sept. 30.
RFA also recently announced that it is looking for seasoned journalists (at least 10 years experience) that will be placed in newsrooms, supplementing salaries at $30K/year.
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