Case Studies

We’ll be adding more case studies from the 2022 midterms in early 2023.

Alaska Public Media’s election resources section stemmed entirely from community listening sessions and outreach, including sessions conducted in rural communities. They also partner with local radio stations to help reach more Alaska Native and Filipino residents.

Black Iowa News created a voter guide (digital and print) that’s informed by community listening and mailed it to 8,000 Des Moines residents, as well as distributed it to local businesses, nonprofits and libraries in Des Moines.

Solutions-oriented, data-supported, justice seeking reporting from Southern California’s Inland Empire. With a focus on solutions-oriented and data-enhanced reporting, the Black Voice News addresses issues from disparities in health, education and wealth to police violence, social justice and civil rights battles.

Independent news from the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance seeks to invite a conversation on tribal community, culture, and communication. In the 2022 midterms they reported on how voting rights groups in Rapid City lobbied for a new voting district through a native redistricting strategy.

The Colorado News Collaborative is leading an ongoing COLab-led multi-newsroom project examining socio-economic and health equity among Black and Latino Coloradans over the last decade. The project traces back to I-News/RMPBS’ Losing Ground, which in 2013 tracked equity gaps in poverty levels, homeownership rates, educational attainment and median family income among Black, Latino and white Coloradans from 1960-2010. Chasing Progress examines the decade from 2010-2020, a period that saw a historically long economic expansion sandwiched by the upheavals of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. The ongoing series looks not only at what happened, but why and how and what comes next.

Conecta Arizona hosts horas del cafecitos on its WhatsApp channel to answer questions in Spanish about the upcoming elections and build engagement with the community.

Honolulu Civil Beat held pop-up newsrooms at state public libraries ahead of the midterm election.

LAist launched an email course that voters used to prepare for elections as part of their multi-dimensional Voter Game Plan.

Lookout is an emerging network of, digital-only, mobile-first, editorially robust, intensely local media outlets offering community-centric news and resources. Lookout Local is using SMS service Subtext to augment election coverage and engage new audiences.

The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. Its innovative data analysis and investigative reporting help pinpoint systemic discrimination that results from algorithms in such areas as housing, employment, school admissions and banking, which have inspired Congressional and federal regulatory agencies to take action.

The Marshall project works collaboratively with other news organizations to produce investigative and data-based reporting on the criminal justices system. This curated list of links on police data includes, for example, an analysis on local police reporting of incidents to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Outlier Media’s innovative and bottom-up voter guide is “written for Detroiters, by Detroiters.”

The Center for Public Integrity produced a 50-state look at how states are shutting people out of our democracy. Free for anyone to co-publish.

WITF was one of the few newsrooms to immediately understand the threat of the Big Lie and the need for journalists to preempt the speech of election liars with necessary warnings. It was imperative following January 6th that newsrooms get a handle on how to inoculate Americans against the Big Lie and WITF was an early leader.