Don’t use "trigger words" in your reporting.
Top Story: Don’t Call The Governor An Oligarch
But do read the below report!
Reporting on authoritarian creep is hard.
Reporting on it so less “news savvy” audiences don’t think you are fear-mongering is even harder.
I know it can be maddening. But we gotta meet our audiences where they are and produce work that doesn't sound like screaming.
Scream in your pillows, people! Then read these tips:
1. Do your own research (No, really!)
To be able to convey to your community why all this is so scary, you have to really understanding yourself what is going on, what are the systems and levers that have gotten us here, who is funding efforts to backslide us out of a functioning democracy, and what they get out of it.
SUGGESTED READING: True North’s recent primer
2. Make people care.
Tell stories that relate the complex systems that are being propped up to break down our democracy with real people, places and things that people on your beat care about.
SUGGESTED READING: Free Speech and DeSantis
3. If you broke it, you own it.
Keep the people on your beat who are aiding and abetting the current chaos attached to the chaos, so your audience knows who’s to blame/thank.
SUGGESTED READING: Maine police department joins ICE
3. Avoid tune-out terms: oligarchy, fascism, dictator, etc. in your stories
Not because our democracy isn’t generally being threatened. But because these terms can often de-sensitize people, and even confuse them…while not really informing them of the nature of real threats.
Instead…
4. Tell stories about local victims.
Again, proximity really matters.
SUGGESTED READING: Fearing for their safety, these folks are staying home…instead of going the doctor.
5. Offer hope.
Stories about efforts to preserve democratic norms are important.
SUGGESTED READING: Activists mobilize against rogue judge.
6. Help people protect themselves.
Let people know their rights.
SUGGESTED READING: This Kansas City Defender piece offers tips.
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Our Staff
Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Managing Editor Christen Gall
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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