When the heartbreaking photos of a young dad and his toddler who drowned trying to cross the border into the United States emerged, news organizations had to make the difficult decision of whether they would show the graphic photo alongside their reporting. When USA TODAY made the call that they would run the photo, standards editor Manny Garcia wrote a column explaining the reasoning behind the decision. “This is a story that must be told — fully and truthfully, with context and perspectives from all sides … Death is a constant along the border, but rarely is it captured in such a direct way,” Garcia wrote. It’s likely the column got much less traffic than the actual news story itself, leading to the assumption that a lot of readers didn’t see or know the level of thought the paper put behind this decision to run the graphic photo. To level up, we recommend including a sentence about their decision and linking to the column in the caption of the photo itself. That way the explanation would appear alongside the photo in every story it was attached to.
Asking for feedback can be a great way to let your audience know you’re working to provide them with the best information. During Hurricane Dorian, reporter Eve Samples with the USA TODAY Network sent out a weather newsletter to readers in nine markets in the southeast region. She included a survey in each newsletter and ended up receiving hundreds of positive responses from readers. Some of the feedback included: “What I am seeing here is very helpful” and “I feel a part of this community and your newspaper keeps me well informed. Thank you.” At the top of the next weather article, she reiterated the journalist’s commitment to the community and followed up by thanking readers for their feedback and comments. USA TODAY is a Trusting News partner but this work was done independently from Trusting News.
USA TODAY used Twitter to share links to two columns with opposing viewpoints. They shared the two links in a thread so they would be linked to one another.
USA TODAY used Facebook LIVE to bring two of their opinion editors with opposing views together to debate the president’s State of the Union speech. The also asked their users to ask questions during the live broadcast.
In response to comments from Dana Loesch, a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, who said: “Many in legacy media love mass shootings.” The USA TODAY Network reporters and editors recounted what it’s actually like to cover mass shootings and other tragedies in a column.
USA TODAY heard from readers on Facebook that they were not always sure when they were reading news and when they were reading opinion. Editors tried manually adding the word Column to some headlines for Facebook, and they perceived a lower level of confusion as a result. It seemed easier for readers to acknowledge that they were consuming a piece designed to have a certain perspective.
USA TODAY used Twitter to share how they are working to earn trust from users. While highlighting a timely stat about the spread of misinformation, the news organization included a link to a story they wrote about why earning user trust is important to them.
USA TODAY used a reader’s question to build a story. The news organization could have responded directly to the question on social media but decided to take it a step further and make the answer its own story while highlighting the user and their question. It allowed the reader to get mentioned and feel “really seen” by the news organization.
USA TODAY invited two people who commented on a previous Facebook Live, sharing traumatic stories involving assault and abuse, to join a Facebook Live via Skype, with a representative of the Women’s Center in Washington, D.C. Engaging with users throughout all aspects of reporting made this possible. While logistically challenging, USA TODAY was very happy with how it turned out, and so were users.
When the Olympics took place in a time zone 14 hours ahead of most U.S. audiences, USA TODAY faced complaints about “spoilers” in their coverage. This post explained why they prioritize sharing information as it happens, rather than waiting for prime time. Plus, they offered a few tips to help readers customize their notifications, good knowledge to share in many situations.
