The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association with partners Google News Lab, UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and The Poynter Institute are offering an intensive day of training to help journalists cover the 2020 Presidential election. This training is led by Poynter’s Senior Faculty Al Tompkins.
All journalists, including members of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, are invited to attend.
In addition to Wisconsin being a toss-up state, nearby Milwaukee is also where the Democrats will hold their National Convention. We will be hosted at the University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The university has been doing national studies on voter behaviors and hot topics.
The workshop will be held Saturday, Jan. 25 at the University of Wisconsin -Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The day is aimed at helping journalists move beyond typical horse-race political coverage to deeply and meaningfully explore key issues that will shape the nation’s future.
The agenda will include:
How to cover big important election issues in a way the public will watch including:
- Immigration
- College debt
- Health care
- Tariffs
- Climate change
What journalists need to know about election finances including:
- PACs
- Super PACsDark money PACs
- Understanding the Citizens United decision
- How to track contributions from your coverage area
What journalists have to know about polling including:
- Margins of Error
- Sample Sizes
- The problems with “weighting”
- Reliability and Desirability Indexes
- Likely versus registered voters
How the American electoral system works
- the primaries and caucuses
- selecting delegates
- the role of super delegates
- the conventions
- the November election
- understanding electors
- the Electoral College in case of a tie
- why we have this system
- strengths and weakness if this system
