Whether it be the headline, who you interviewed for the story or the language used, when covering a controversial topic, it’s almost guaranteed someone will disagree with your coverage — or at the very least, make quick judgments about it purely based on the topic. In this training, you’ll learn strategies for how to cover hot-button issues without alienating or overgeneralizing segments of your community. We’ll talk about how to signal fairness and explain your work in a way that makes the coverage more accessible by people with different views on the issue. We’ll be joined by John Diedrich at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who will share his fresh approach to his award-winning series on guns and how he was able to find common ground across the political spectrum.
In this free training series, Trusting News is focusing on quick, actionable steps journalists can actually DO ahead of the 2024 election to help coverage feel credible and accessible to a larger audience.
Here’s what you can expect: Each session, we’ll spend 45 minutes focusing on how journalists can take action. We’ll include perspectives from partner journalists and show examples of how they’ve implemented these strategies in their own newsrooms. Then we invite you to stick around for another 15 minutes if you have questions or want help brainstorming.