We’re excited to kick off another year of the Advancing Democracy fellowship, a virtual fellowship for newsrooms to transform their political and election coverage. More than 70 journalists across 20 newsrooms will participate in this nine-month fellowship. The fellowship is run in partnership with us at Trusting News along with Hearken and Solutions Journalism Network. […]
Meet the 2024 Advancing Democracy newsrooms working to transform their political coverage
We’re excited to kick off another year of the Advancing Democracy fellowship, a virtual fellowship for newsrooms to transform their political and election coverage.
More than 70 journalists across 20 newsrooms will participate in this nine-month fellowship. The fellowship is run in partnership with us at Trusting News along with Hearken and Solutions Journalism Network.
Our team’s goal with the fellowship is to help reporter and editor teams experiment with and implement approaches to improve their journalism in this polarized, low-trust environment. Journalists in the fellowship will learn the importance of getting on the record about their goals and processes, and injecting those elements into daily coverage. They’ll also explore how people who see the world differently perceive their news coverage and how they can work to be found credible and relevant by more people in their complex, diverse communities.
Congratulations to the following newsrooms who were selected to participate. You can read more about the program and what each newsroom plans to accomplish on the Advancing Democracy website.
- Canopy Atlanta – Georgia
- Capital B News – New York
- La Opinión – California
- Live 5 News – South Carolina
- Missoulian – Montana
- Northwest Public Broadcasting – Washington
- NotiVisión Georgia – Georgia
- Planeta Venus – Kansas
- Reckon – Alabama
- South Dakota News Watch – South Dakota
- Star Tribune – Minnesota
- The Austin Common – Texas
- The Journal – Kansas
- The Kansas City Defender – Kansas
- The Oklahoma Eagle – Oklahoma
- Tucson Sentinel – Arizona
- Vallejo Sun – California
- VNN Oklahoma – Oklahoma
- WRAL – North Carolina
- Yakima Herald-Republic/El Sol de Yakima – Washington
Since 2020, more than 50 newsrooms have gone through this fellowship. Thanks to research by Professor Sue Robinson of the University of Wisconsin, we also know this program is working: Newsrooms that went through the fellowship had an increase of engagement, solutions reporting and trust-building coverage.
This fellowship is a joint initiative from us at Trusting News, as well as Hearken and Solutions Journalism Network.
At Trusting News we examine how people decide what news to trust and turns that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. In a continual cycle of research, learning and sharing with the industry, Trusting News explores how to incorporate trust-building into journalism’s standards and practices.
Solutions Journalism Network is leading a global shift in journalism, focused on what the news misses most often: how people are trying to solve problems and what we can learn from their successes or failures. Since its founding in 2013, more than 600 news organizations and over 27,000 journalists worldwide have engaged with SJN’s in-person workshops, online resources, collaboratives, fellowships and cohorts.
Hearken is a social impact consultancy that uses the power of community engagement to impact and influence systems for the public good. Hearken is an expert in deep listening, and their pioneering public-powered model and technology solutions have resulted in newsrooms around the world building listening and engagement into their strategies, workflows and bottom lines.
This fellowship is made possible with financial support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and Solutions Journalism Network.
At Trusting News, we learn how people decide what news to trust and turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter). Read more about our work at TrustingNews.org.
Project manager Mollie Muchna (she/her) has spent the last 10 years working in audience and engagement journalism in local newsrooms across the Southwest. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she is also an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. She can be reached at mollie@trustingnews.org and on Twitter @molliemuchna.
