On the Campaign Trail

-- From the Poynter Election Handbook: A Guide to Campaign Coverage, 3rd Edition.

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IF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS are an opportunity for voters to learn about and discuss issues that will affect their lives, there’s still the horse race. And that’s what drives the politicians and energizes their supporters. It’s what creates the day-to-day "news" of the campaigns. It provides the tumult and shouting that catches the attention of the casual voters.

So, where is the balance point as news organizations attempt to allocate coverage resources between discussion of the issues and vote-generating strategies of the candidates?

Most editors and producers who have been involved in citizen-based projects say that the best opportunities for issues reporting come early in the campaign; it becomes more and more difficult to get the candidates, and the reporters following them, to focus on core issues as the campaign nears a climax. Coverage plans and guidelines for story play tend to come undone in the heat of campaigns. The times when there are "legitimate news reasons" for making exceptions mount.

That said, here are some strategies that newspapers and television stations have used in that continuing effort to find the right balance.

• Anchor the campaign trail reporting. Put day-to-day coverage on a specific page of the newspaper or in a set segment of a newscast. Campaign events, speeches, charges and counter-charges, periodic poll results, and so on can be reported there.

• Ask if the "news" being weighed in some way advances the issues identified in your own attitude polling or the major issues raised by candidates in their campaigns.

• First-time announcements on key proposals qualify as breaking news. A candidate’s repeating of key themes should be reported, but not every time, and with less attention and play.

• Early planning should identify a range of potential, thematic special reports. Reporters should be instructed to "gather and save string," whenever they are with the candidates, toward those larger stories and profiles they’ll later do themselves or in collaboration with other reporters.

• Campaign Briefs/Briefings offer a good vehicle for providing routine information and reports on daily developments in a short amount of space or time.

• Create a Trail Watch column or segment to serve the same truth-telling function as Ad Watches --keeping citizens aware of targeted promises, shifts in position, efforts to attract special interests and support groups, new strategies, even the name-calling. Putting those reports in an analytical format allows the reporter to easily bring in critical background and context, to raise questions that don’t have immediate reportorial answers, and to comment when appropriate.

• Avoid idly reporting every time a candidate tosses mud, engages in name-calling, or makes some other form of personal attack that is not newsworthy in its substance. These incidents can be saved for use in a well-measured story that assesses mud-slinging and name-calling in the campaign. The goal is to be sure citizens know how the candidates behave and the style of campaign each is running, without reporting each and every incivility, piling up the mud, and compounding the nastiness.

• Give readers and viewers every opportunity to pay attention and get involved in the political campaigns. Publicize advance campaign stops and rallies, radio and talk-show appearances, rallies, debates, and forums in some kind of standing format. Remind them frequently how they might get involved with a candidate of choice and where they can get more information on the individual candidates.

• Remind them -- and not just once -- about registering and voting.

-- Special thanks to the co-editors of the Poynter Election Handbook, Deborah Potter and Pete Weitzel.

Deborah Potter is executive director of NewsLab, a non-profit television news laboratory that works with local stations to develop new ways of telling complex or non-visual stories. Deborah spent 16 years as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN, where she covered the White House, State Department, Congress, national politics, and the environment. From 1995 to 1998, she taught journalism at The Poynter Institute and also hosted the PBS program In the Prime.

Pete Weitzel is a former managing editor of the Miami Herald and visiting professional at Poynter. He's now a newspaper consultant and lives in Durham, NC.

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