Business Journal Partners with ‘Your Voice Ohio’ Election 2020 Project
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing protests for racial justice, concern for how the economic recession will affect businesses, families, communities and the overwhelming amount of misinformation circulating online about everything from vaccines to voting have already made 2020 a year unlike any other.
Not surprisingly, people are stressed as they sort through unprecedented volumes of information (some of it intentionally misleading), worry about how to be safe and healthy, and pay the bills.
Amidst this turbulent landscape, reliable information related to the 2020 presidential election has become increasingly urgent and important. In an effort to meet the information needs of Ohioans, more than 40 news organizations in the Your Voice Ohio media collaborative, including The Business Journal, will work together over the next five months to provide relevant, important information regarding the 2020 presidential election.
Your Voice Ohio’s Election 2020 project will explore the complexity of the state’s nearly 12 million residents through community engagement, data analysis and collaborative reporting. Media partners will engage the public to produce a series of stories focusing on the issues that matter most to Ohioans and present the platforms of presidential candidates so that voters can determine whom they believe provides the best path forward for our country.
“We’re pleased to join news organizations statewide in this effort to find out what is on the minds of Ohioans in the upcoming election, and to help craft stories that focus on the issues that concern them most,” says Andrea Wood, president and publisher of Youngstown Publishing Co., which publishes The Business Journal.
“The objective of this collaboration is to find out the issues of importance to Ohioans during this upcoming election season as determined by Ohioans, not dictated by politicians looking to secure your votes or by the narrative of the day as dictated by national news media coverage or the pundit class,” adds George Nelson, political editor at The Business Journal, who will oversee the partnership.
Your Voice Ohio is seeking volunteers for as many as 20, two-hour deliberative engagement sessions to be held online from July through November. These conversations will help to ensure that electoral coverage produced by the collaborative is shaped directly by Ohio residents. Participants will be selected from the volunteers in an effort to best reflect state demographics and will be compensated $125 for participating in a single engagement session. To volunteer, visit YourVoiceOhio.org/election2020.
The first digital conversations and package of collaborative stories will focus on the 2020 presidential campaign and election. In addition to the engagement sessions with journalists, Your Voice Ohio also will sponsor a statewide poll, to be conducted in July by the Center for Opinion and Marketing Research and co-authored with the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
Subsequent conversations and stories will focus on specific issues such as health care, the economy or education — which will be identified and selected through polling and engagement.
According to Kyle Bozentko, executive director of the Jefferson Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that coordinates Your Voice Ohio, media partners have successfully used deliberative civic engagement to produce innovative, community-centered coverage on issues such as the 2016 presidential election, opioids, addiction and recovery, and the future of the economy.
Previous community conversations sponsored by local news outlets showed a deep desire to rebuild relationships among people with different life experiences, to find common ground and work together to improve their communities.
The issues Ohio residents wanted to address were affordable housing in every community, jobs with living wages and benefits, affordable and accessible health care, access to mental health services without a negative stigma, accessible and quality education, safe neighborhoods, access to fresh food, accessible public transportation and inviting places to live, with parks, recreation and the arts. Racial and economic equity were top of mind for Ohioans prior to this spring.
Building on what’s been learned from previous experience, Your Voice Ohio media partners are uniquely positioned to engage with Ohio residents and collaborate on their coverage of the upcoming election.
“Local media outlets in Ohio are working together and being creative on behalf of their communities by inviting residents to play a fundamental role in shaping presidential election coverage and identifying the issues that matter most to them,” Bozentko says.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
