| 
Guidelines we followed for
- Informational and useful
Political coverage should be
educational and informative. Information should be conveyed
in a manner that explains how the political process and
the election are relevant. For example: How will the state,
city or nation change if Candidate 'A' wins? What will
occur if a local referendum is passed? Focus less on the
political game and more on the repercussions.
- Substantive
Substance is the important information
that can help the electorate shape opinions and make decisions.
Strong political reporting should allow time for candidates
to explain points of view and rationale while keeping
expert and pundit analysis to a minimum. Our RR advisors
stress the need for the media to tone down pundit analysis.
- Compelling
Political stories should be clear
and concise and easy to understand, yet still grab a viewer's
attention. Stories that fail to attract the viewer and
neglect to explain the relevance to the voter will not
adequately educate the electorate.
- Factual
Political coverage should be
accurate and objective. Ad watch should be factual and
fair. Investigations should be balanced. Stories with
a cynical tone don't educate. Instead, they turn off the
voter and add to the vanishing voter effect. Heavy emphasis
on analysis is not journalism. Any such 'analysis' should
not be the focus of a story.
- Don't "recycle the message":
Ad watches and poll reporting
tend to reinforce the original message of the ad or the
poll. Studies clearly show ad watches leave viewers with
a stronger impression of the original ad (accurate or
inaccurate) rather than the story that tests the truth
of the ad. The ad watches are important to set the record
straight, yet reporting must be accurate and clear.
- Give the 'horse-race' its due,
but not more:
Reporting the blueprint and status
of a race is often newsworthy, but over emphasis on infighting
and internal strategy and name-calling between candidates
won't educate or inform viewers of the consequences of
a race.
The RR videotape guidelines were
created with guidance from members of the RR Advisory Board
including:
Randy Covington, WIS-TV
Elaine Kim, UC Berkeley
Jeff Greenfield, CNN
Thomas Mann, The Brookings Inst.
Marty Haag, Belo
Dan Rosenheim, KPIX-TV
Valerie Hyman, Better News
Thomas Patterson, Harvard University
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania
Larry Sabato, University of Virginia
Philip Seib, Marquette University
|
