Make your political coverage stand out
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By Massarah Mikati
As 2024 election day fast approaches, it’s hard to not fall into familiar patterns of political coverage: horse race stories that focus on polls, campaign strategies and the back-and-forth of political theater.
But how can you make your political coverage stand out amongst the noise? Don’t make it more salacious — make it more useful.
We talked to two journalists, Kira Lerner, deputy Washington editor for The Guardian, and Ryan Sorrell, founder and executive editor of The Kansas City Defender, for their top tips on making your coverage connect with readers. Here’s what they had to say:
1. Know your audience, and strategize your coverage accordingly
Working at an international news outlet like The Guardian means that most readers are not interested in inside baseball on Capitol Hill, Lerner says. Instead, her team focuses on the bigger picture: how what’s happening in D.C. affects people nationwide, and what’s at stake with policy battles.
The Kansas City Defender, on the other hand, makes it clear that all their reporting is for Black people in their locality. A voter guide they recently published, for example, was titled “The 2024 Black People’s Guide to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Race,” focusing specifically on campaign issues that would impact Black people.
“Electoral politics is not a top priority for our editorial strategy,” Sorrell explained. “We focus much more on covering the issues that directly impact our Black community, even if those issues aren’t necessarily tied to a specific election or candidate.”
🔍 Read: The 2024 Black People’s Guide to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Race
2. Shift your focus from horse race to impact
This is something you’ve heard from us time and time again. Lerner has always been interested in elections and politics coverage — but not in horse race coverage. She’s been intentional about writing about how policies will impact people, which she says will make your journalism more useful and relevant to your readers.
🔍 Read: If Trump wins the election, US protest movements could face serious crackdowns
3. Explore underreported policy issues that have significant impact on people’s daily lives
From reproductive healthcare rights to voting rights, there are policies that have constantly been front-and-center in news coverage. But what are the policies that have gone unnoticed? Lerner recommends looking at topics like the child care crisis, rising housing costs or inflated grocery prices — all of which have serious impacts on the daily lives of your readers.
🔍 Read: Where do Harris and Trump stand on the key election issues?
4. Center the people most impacted by these policies
“All those [policy] stories can best be told by talking to people,” Lerner says. “Not just experts or economists, but people actually going to the grocery store.”
🔍 Read: ‘Don’t be scared of beans’: how readers are handling US grocery inflation
5. Experiment with different styles of communication and story formats
From series to Q&As, ask yourself what format makes the most sense to deliver the information you’re sharing. Interactives are great for more complex issues like gerrymandering, for example.
Knowing that their audience is predominantly young, urban Black residents, for example, the Defender leans into social media platforms to share stories, and pays homage to old school hip-hop with their aesthetic.
“We’re using language and aesthetics that resonate with our community, whether that’s on Instagram, TikTok, or our email newsletter,” Sorrell said. “It’s about making sure the information is digestible and actionable, not just impressive-sounding.”
6. Don’t write about every poll, especially because readers have lost trust in them
Every time I see or hear a story about polls, I have to wonder: how is that at all useful to me as a voter? A lot of readers feel the same way, especially as polls have proven to be… unreliable. But if you have to write about polls, consider Lerner’s team strategy of writing a weekly wrap-up looking at and analyzing an aggregation of polls.
🔍 Read: Trump makes gains as poll figures trigger anxiety for Harris campaign
7. Avoid getting caught in daily grind
Prioritize stories that resonate with your audience, and take a step back to focus on the bigger picture instead of covering every minor development. 💡Management tip: Know your reporters’ skills and passions, and delegate and put them to use accordingly!
🔍 Read: ‘A different level than 2020’: Trump’s plan to steal election is taking shape
8. Stay involved in your community to know what’s important to them
How can you know your audience and the information they need? You guessed it: community engagement. It’s something The Defender has mastered, especially because they don’t shy away from being community members themselves. One strategy they use is canvassing, where they do street interviews and ask people, “What do you think this community needs?” That direct feedback informs their coverage decisions.
9. Don’t just inform, empower your audience
“Our goal is to drive people to be civically engaged and to organize,” Sorrell said. “That’s the kind of journalism we believe in — not just informing to inform, but equipping people with information to help them fight for the change they want to see.”
The choices you and your newsroom colleagues make for what to cover and how to cover it this election season, has a real impact on our democracy. So we encourage you not to fall into old habits and archetypes, but to get conscious of just how useful a story may be for your community members, and how to ensure you’re focusing on their needs, rather than the politicians trying to manufacture attention.
Check out these related pieces from us for more ideas:
- Engage communities of color with your election coverage by Massarah Mikati
- Which style of election coverage is your newsroom voting for? by Jennifer Brandel
- Moving the needle: Use engagement to inform your post-election coverage strategy by Bridget Thoreson
- Covering communities of color: A guide by Massarah Mikati
- Planning a town hall with candidates? Try a reverse town hall instead. by Jennifer Brandel
- Newsrooms should treat the electorate like the hiring committee it actually is by Jennifer Brandel
- How and why we should bring the living room into our newsrooms by Jennifer Brandel
- Make Your Voter Guide ICONIC by Jennifer Brandel