- This event has passed.
Speakers:
- Scott Klein, Entrepreneur in Residence at Newspack
- Brandi Swicegood, Executive Director of Sunlight Search
- John P. Wihbey, Associate Professor of Media Innovation and Technology in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University
In preparation for this year’s elections, the Center for Community Media will be producing a series of brown bag talks focused on tools to support journalists and newsroom leaders in their elections coverage.
In the first hour-long session, Scott Klein of the Knight Election Hub, an initiative focused on connecting more than 150 resources with local and community outlets, will give a demo of the hub, and walk us through some of the resources and how you can get access. Brandi Swicegood, of Sunlight Search, will talk about the research organization, which trains and helps journalists to conduct in-depth background research on candidates running for political office. John P. Wihbey, of Chip50, will speak about the value of ongoing efforts to get a comparative understanding of American public opinion in a more regional and local way; and explore the questions that newsrooms might want to insert in the upcoming survey waves.
What you’ll learn:
- How your newsroom can take advantage of available Knight Election Hub resources.
- How your newsroom can help voters make more informed choices with Sunlight Search candidate accountability research training.
- How your newsroom can potentially partner with survey researchers and leverage the final data and products.
The Knight Election Hub provides free or reduced-price resources and services to U.S. newsrooms covering the 2024 elections at the federal, state, and local levels. These resources help publishers serve their audiences by giving them the information they need to make informed voting decisions, have confidence in the election process and results, and understand the role newsrooms play in providing reliable civic information.
Sunlight Search is a nonpartisan research organization that specializes in accountability research on candidates for public office. Our mission is to strengthen democracy by providing voters information they need to make informed decisions.
Northeastern University has developed the capacity for conducting large-scale surveys, based on its experiences with the COVID States Project/Chip50. With the support of the NSF, NIH, and a handful of foundations, we have conducted 1,400+ state-level surveys since April, 2020, producing 100+ public facing reports and a wide set of “data dashboards.” We now seek to transform this effort, working with journalist stakeholders, into a stream of value for news. In partnership with news media outlets, we seek to craft state-level surveys that would be valuable to news outlets’ audiences.
Speakers
Scott Klein is an entrepreneur in residence at Newspack, helping publishers on any platform do great election coverage by building and adopting innovative tools and by working together. He was previously at ProPublica and at THE CITY. He’s also on the board of Muckrock. He’s based in Brooklyn.
Brandi Swicegood is the executive director of Sunlight Search. She is a veteran investigative journalist. She spent nearly two decades reporting and editing stories about issues ranging from politics and immigration to criminal justice and the environment. Brandi has worked for publications including The Texas Tribune, where she was a founding staffer, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News and USA Today.
John P. Wihbey is an associate professor of media innovation and technology in the School of Journalism at Northeastern University, a faculty researcher at the Ethics Institute, and a founder of Northeastern’s Internet Democracy Initiative. He has worked in print, radio, and digital journalism.