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Trust Tips: Use our audience survey to make national news more relevant
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This fast-paced national news cycle may have you feeling exhausted and stretched thin. I know I am feeling overwhelmed by it all, and I am not even in a position to have to make sense of it for a community on a daily basis.
The reality is there’s more news than any one newsroom can cover. And if you are a local newsroom, you might be relying on those on the ground to control what interviews are gathered, what topics are covered, etc. On top of that, if your goal is to be useful and helpful, it can feel frustrating and confusing to make a plan for your own work.
You know who has thoughts about how you can be useful to your community right now? Your audience! How about asking them?
Your audience is trying to make sense of a flood of information from countless sources, often without a clear sense of what’s credible or relevant to their lives. Many people feel exhausted by the constant stream of updates and are struggling to navigate what truly matters. But I do believe most want to know at least something about what’s going and definitely want to know how it will impact them.
Ask the public how you can be useful
So, let’s ask them how we can help them make sense of the flurry of news and headlines. Let’s ask them what would be useful for them right now. To do this, we’ve developed a survey you can use. The survey has questions to help you:
- Gain insight into how to focus your content (fact-checking, providing historical context, highlighting solutions, etc.)
- Understand how your community prefers to get national news updates (FAQ’s, daily summaries, quick social videos, etc.)
- Learn what questions your audience wants answered about what’s happening in Washington, D.C.
- Learn what policies and actions your community is most interested in learning more about
Take a look at the survey by clicking here. Then, if you’re ready to use it yourself, use this link to make a copy. Then customize the top and tailor the questions to fit your needs.
Not in the mood for a survey?
You could ask similar questions on social media or wherever else you engage with users and ask for feedback (in a newsletter, on-air or in person).
If you want to ask some of these questions on social media, here a couple of suggestions for doing so on Instagram, using a question box or a poll:
- What national issue is top of mind right now?
- What questions do you have about what’s happening in Washington?
- As your local news station, how can we be most useful to you right now?
With limited resources and endless directions your coverage could take, getting input from your community can help you prioritize what will have the biggest impact.
Let us know how it goes!
If you use this, we would love to hear what you learn and how you are moving forward with what your community told you. Send us an email at info@TrustingNews.org. And if you use the survey but aren’t sure how to move forward with what they have told you, send me a note so we can brainstorm ideas together. I’m at lynn@TrustingNews.org.
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. Learn more about our work, vision and team. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, BlueSky and LinkedIn.
Assistant director Lynn Walsh (she/her) is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has worked in investigative journalism at the national level and locally in California, Ohio, Texas and Florida. She is the former Ethics Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists and a past national president for the organization. Based in San Diego, Lynn is also an adjunct professor and freelance journalist. She can be reached at lynn@TrustingNews.org and on Twitter @lwalsh.
