The American Press Institute is expanding its collaboration with The Associated Press to provide a series of monthly webinars to local media leaders and journalists in the months leading up to the 2024 U.S. elections.
The two organizations will also develop and share practical resources throughout the year to support news organizations’ evolving needs around local elections and democracy. The AP has played a crucial role in U.S. elections for 175 years, counting the votes, declaring the winners and covering races up and down the ballot.
API focuses on Civic Discourse & Democracy to ensure all people have the information they need to make decisions and thrive. API supports local news organizations by providing resources and training to cultivate productive community discussions and strengthen democracy.
“People need clear, truthful information from news organizations that are invested in the well-being of our communities,” said Michael D. Bolden, chief executive officer and executive director of the American Press Institute. “We want to help meet that need by providing journalists with the guidance they need to be effective facilitators of meaningful discourse in the places we all live and care about.”
“AP’s mission is to advance the power of facts, and one way we can do that is by equipping local journalists with as much information as possible about how U.S. elections work,” said AP Washington Bureau Chief Anna Johnson. “Because AP has counted the vote, called races and covered elections for over 175 years, we’re able to offer our expertise to news outlets large and small to help them cover the election for their communities.”
API kicked off this collaboration with AP last fall when the two organizations ran an election reporting survey to assess journalists’ and media leaders’ needs to inform future programming.
After gathering and analyzing more than 100 responses, API and AP will tackle the topics identified as the greatest needs.
The seven-part webinar series will run on the last Thursday of each month from March through September.
The webinars will focus on the following:
- March: AI, misinformation and other threats in the 2024 elections
- April: Frameworks to focus your 2024 election coverage
- May: Community engagement tools to inform election coverage plans
- June: Coaching reporters on election coverage
- July: Retaining and engaging audiences post-election
- August: Mental health and election reporting
- September: Pulling back the curtain on what happens on election night
All webinars will run from 1-2 p.m. ET.
Check API’s Eventbrite for the next webinar. Subscribe to API’s Need to Know newsletter and follow API on LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook and X to learn when the next event registrations open.
Last November, AP shared local reporting tips in API’s Need to Know Special edition series “Plan for Local 2024.” To build on this work, this September, AP will take over API’s Need to Know newsletter to reach and help local media strengthen their local election reporting ahead of the fall elections. The newsletter takeover will also be based on survey feedback to provide timely support to local journalists and news leaders nationwide.
As part of its Civic Discourse & Democracy work, API will host a Local News Summit on Elections, Trust and Democracy on April 3-4 in Akron, Ohio. During this event, API is bringing together around 60 local and community-based media leaders to help them plan for local election coverage that is responsive to their communities and continues effective community relationships well beyond the 2024 election cycle.
API and AP have a rich history of working together to meet the information needs of communities. As part of the Media Insight Project, a collaboration of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago, the organizations research news consumers’ attitudes to inform the industry and the public.
This spring the Media Insight Project will release the results of a nationwide survey on public attitudes and needs for the 2024 elections to complement this work. Subscribe to API’s Need to Know newsletter to receive the latest on the results when they are released.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE
API supports local and community-based media through research, programs and products that foster healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations. API envisions an inclusive democracy and society, where communities have the news and information they need to make decisions and thrive. API is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit educational organization affiliated with the News/Media Alliance.
ABOUT AP
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day. Online: www.ap.org
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We'll share some of the resources, tools and lessons learned from our training sessions and research help desk. We hope you can use these as you plan your continuing accountability coverage and start thinking about the next election on the horizon.
When community members are no longer voters, their needs become diffuse once again and there is no clear, focusing mandate. So many newsrooms slip back into the usual: politics coverage driven by politicians and press releases. How do we avoid that backslide?
How can we avoid that backslide this time?
What news organizations continue to do in the days and weeks ahead will matter more than ever. They will bring people into community conversations or exclude them. They will create understanding or sow confusion.
