Eight ways to improve your online political coverage
Steve Safran September 6th, 2007
(This article originally appeared in the Sept. 5, 2007 edition of the AR&D Media 2.0 Intel newsletter.) Most local media websites have “politics” sections. In these sections, we find whatever stories the TV station/newspaper has run related to politics. But this doesn’t begin to harness the real power of the Web - and it doesn’t reflect the shift that’s happening in the way the Web is changing elections. The electorate is talking politics online. They are debating issues. They are talking, shouting, fighting and arguing. It’s messy and it’s wonderful. For the most part, this is happening on national news sites and blogs. It’s not seen that much in local and state elections. This is a shame - our passions are just as strong, if not stronger, when it comes to whether that lot down the street is going to be zoned commercial. We can do better.
It’s not enough to have a politics section on a brand extension site. You need a politics site. (Maybe even more than one - a site for the statewide election and then one dedicated to local elections would truly capture the spirit of local politics.)
“But Steve… we don’t have the staff to run those sites!”
Sure you do. Once set up, the sites run themselves.
Once you enable the electorate to start sharing their ideas, they populate the site. Here are eight ideas:
Put your heads together and you’ll come up with a bunch of ways you can build a local politics site that is an attractive proposition all its own. We got into journalism to tell great local stories - and there’s no better story than this.
(Please add your own thoughts and ideas for great local political online coverage in the comments section.)
2 Comments Add your own
1. Z | September 7th, 2007 at 2:38 am
“Take a lesson from YouTube - people want to create their own homebrewed political ads
Invite voters to send in videos of themselves asking politicians questions. When you interview the politicians - include these in the questions.”
You know, I like these…but my market seems to have virtually no viewers who want to do this sort of thing. Just getting them to contribute photos to slideshows is like pulling teeth, no matter which station is doing it.
2. Brink | September 7th, 2007 at 5:27 am
“They are talking, shouting, fighting and arguing. It’s messy and it’s wonderful. ”
Wonderful? Does that include the name-calling, divisivness, mud-slinging, and general nastiness that appears every time these topics arise on internet forums?
Yeah, that’s wonderful. I’ll pass.
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