Welcome to the on-demand course, “A Better Way to Cover Elections: Campaign Reporting that Centers Communities and Solutions,“ organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas in partnership with The Solutions Journalism Network. This is an on-demand version of a live course that was previously held from March 25th- April 21st, 2024.
In this four-week students will learn how to reinvent elections and campaign coverage to better serve communities and strengthen democracy. You will learn an effective and innovative alternative to the traditional horse-race approach to election reporting, which will help you better serve your communities and strengthen democracy. This course will provide materials and examples predominantly based on the context of US elections, with a commitment to ensuring their global relevance.
This course was designed for reporters, editors, students, and aspiring journalists around the world. It’s for anyone who is dissatisfied with traditional coverage of politics, elections and democracy and wants tools and strategies to increase trust and engagement, reduce polarization, and employ solutions journalism to help communities address problems and hold politicians to account.
NOTE: To enroll in the course, click on the ‘Add to Cart’ button on your screen’s right side and proceed with checkout process. The course is entirely free of charge, there won’t be any fees incurred during the checkout process.
This course is organized into five modules:
Jaisal Noor is Solutions Journalism Network’s Democracy
Cohort Manager. He leads the Advancing Democracy Fellowship, helping newsrooms reinvent how they cover politics, deepening their election c
overage beyond the horse race. Over the past decade, Jaisal has reported for Democracy Now!, The Atlantic, Bolts Magazine, The Real News Network and Baltimore Beat. He is also an organizer with US Democracy Day, a movement supporting pro-democracy newsrooms.
Lynn Walsh is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative, data and TV journalism for more than 15 years. Currently, she is a freelance journalist and the Assistant Director of Trusting News, where she works to help rebuild trust between journalists and the public. Lynn is also an adjunct professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA where she teaches journalism and communication classes. She is a past national president and Ethics Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists.
Jennifer Brandel (she/they) is Co-founder & CEO of Hearken, a company that helps organizations around the world develop and operationalize participatory processes. Brandel is an award-winning journalist, and founded and led the ground-breaking audience-first journalism series Curious City at WBEZ Chicago. She is also co-founder of Zebras Unite, a global movement and network of entrepreneurs, funders, investors and allies creating a more ethical, inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for mission-based startups. Brandel received the Media Changemaker Prize by the Center for Collaborative Journalism, was named one of 30 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business, is a Columbia Sulzberger Fellow, an RSA Fellow, a member of the Guild of Future Architects and the National Civic Collaboratory.
Julia Hotz is Solutions Journalism Network’s Fellowships Manager. She created and leads SJN’s LEDE Fellowship and Complicating the Narratives (CTN) Fellowship, and supports both colleagues and partners to create solutions journalism fellowship programs. She’s currently reporting “The Connection Cure” (Simon and Schuster, 2024), and has written solutions journalism about mental health issues for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Wired magazine, Scientific American, Bloomberg, Time magazine, and more.
Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
300 West Dean Keeton
Room 3.212
Austin, TX, 78712
Telefone: 512-471-1391
Email: journalismcourses@austin.utexas.edu
