During the State of the Union address, WUSA’s Verify team fact-checked the speech as it happened — on Facebook Live. People were able to watch the team of journalists reacting to the speech and checking the President’s claims.
WUSA took time to highlight their coverage of stop and frisk laws in Washington, D.C. in their on-air broadcast. In highlighting their work, they also asked people to contact them if they have been stopped and frisked and then reminded their users: “our reporting is only as strong as the community we’re honored to serve.”
When you bring news to people using many platforms, a best practice is to also share how users can contact you on all of those platforms. In a simple but effective move, WUSA created a full-screen TV graphic that tells users how they can contact the news organization. The graphic airs after every story in their “Verify” franchise. This has resulted in the newsroom receiving an additional 10-15 story ideas each day.
When faced with the question of whether or not to cover another school threat in the D.C.-area, WUSA decided to pose the question to their audience. “Should the media report on all threats targeted at schools? Tweet us your thoughts using #OffScriptOn9,” they posted on Twitter. In the Twitter thread, they discussed that they did not have a set policy about whether or not cover school threats and that the newsroom is often debating this issue internally.
In an on-air story, WUSA added language to highlight their commitment to following-up on stories. They discussed how following up on important stories is a priority and part of responsible journalism. Adding the language was easy to do and felt right, according to the news organization.
Throughout an investigative story, WUSA explained to its users how they produced a story. The reporter began by relating to the community by explaining his connection to the city of Washington, D.C. Then the reporter explained what questions they were trying to answer by doing the story and why they felt it was an important story to produce. Throughout the story they discuss their reporting process and invite feedback and questions. The reporter even offers his cell phone to users on-air.
After receiving a 911 audio tape close to air time WUSA found itself in a situation where it had to turn a story quickly. Like many breaking news situations, this means, information may come out in pieces and not all in one concise story. To explain this, WUSA let the user in on their reporting process by adding the following language on-air: “We have about a half-hour of 9-1-1 audio that our team is going through, right now — If there’s anything else in there that’s important to pass along — we’ll have it for you tomorrow morning, on Wake up Washington.”
Sometimes a story takes off on digital and social platforms. That’s what happened to WUSA when their reporter produced a story about domestic violence. There were so many comments and questions on the story content shared on Facebook that news management decided to give the reporter an entire day to respond and interact with the commenters. WUSA also did a Facebook LIVE with a local domestic violence expert.
