EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: Doing election coverage, differently

Featured photo: Election Day at Warnersville Recreation Center, Greensboro, NC. (photo by Carolyn de Berry)

At TCB, election coverage and political reporting have always been a part of the mission.

And as we get into the 2024 election cycle, that remains the case. But in the aftermath of the 2016 election and even the years preceding it, newsrooms have been talking about best practices when it comes to covering politics.

The idea is that horserace reporting — poll-watching that tells you who’s up, who’s down and why — is becoming less and less popular.

Instead, there’s a shift in the model, a reframing so to speak.

In recent years, newsrooms across the country, and particularly local ones, have started to flip the focus from the candidates to the constituents. Rather than letting those running for office have their say and be the subject of reporting, journalists are pointing their notepads, recorders and cameras at the average citizen on the street. Because why wouldn’t we do that?

Elected officials are just that: elected by the people to represent them. And so it stands to reason that the people’s voices should be the loudest and most consistent when it comes to election coverage.

So we’re trying to do more of that here at TCB.

Next Tuesday, we’re hosting our first candidate forum of the year focused on Winston-Salem City Council races. And we want to hear from you. What do you want to ask your councilmembers? Get specific!

Do you want to know what their stances on the environment are? What do you mean by that? Do you mean their stance on fracking? On wastewater management? On leaf-collection? Ask us your very specific questions and we’ll try to get them answered!

You can start by filling out our online election coverage survey here. The survey applies to any of the races for this year, not just for Winston-Salem City Council.

You can also send me questions directly for our Winston-Salem Candidate Forum next week. Just shoot me an email at [email protected].

We can’t wait to hear from you.