The project aims to cut through the typical rhetoric and expose the demand for news and views around problems that voters see as real and urgent. It tries to re-ground election coverage in the priorities of American voters.
The Guardian's commitment to an open and collaborative newsroom makes it a natural home for the "Citizens Agenda," which is being spearheaded by the Guardian US Open Editor Amanda Michel and NYU Studio 20 Director Jay Rosen. Three years ago, Rosen teamed up with Michel and the Huffington Post on "OffTheBus," a project to improve coverage of the 2008 elections. "OffTheBus" relied on public participation and pro-am methods to presidential campaign reporting and commentary. Rosen and Michel intend to apply the lessons they learned from OffTheBus as well as the Guardian's own experiments in pro-am and crowdsourced journalism to offer an alternative narrative to the conventional "Who's going to win?" frame that historically dominates election coverage.
"We're new in town. How could we possibly pretend to know what the US electorate wants to hear from its prospective representatives?" said Janine Gibson, Editor-in-Chief of Guardian US. "Best in that circumstance to ask the question: What do voters want the candidates to be discussing as they contend with one another in 2012?"
Students from the NYU journalism school's Studio 20, a master's level program with a focus on innovation and adapting journalism to the web, will work alongside the Guardian journalists to brainstorm, design and manage election-related features on GuardianNews.com through early May 2012. "We intend to address the frustration people have with campaign coverage by closing the gap between what editors think voters want and what voters say they really want to read," said Rosen.
"Together, we will arrive at the picture of how Americans want journalists to cover the election," said Michel. "We are excited to already have Journal Register Company Editor-In-Chief Jim Brady collaborate with us on this new venture and invite more collaborators to join us in the Citizens Agenda."
The Guardian US and Studio 20 will develop their editorial strategy for the 2012 election using a number of traditional and non-traditional methods, including sampling science, Internet polling, web forums, social media, traditional reporting, discussions and debates, experimental features and staff- and user-generated content.
To get started the Guardian US is asking the public: Where should we look for inspiration? What do you think are the campaigns' core issues? To join the discussion, visit GuardianNews.com or add #citizensagenda to tweets.
About Guardian US
The Guardian says: “Guardian News & Media (GNM) is the publisher of the US news website www.GuardianNews.com. It publishes the award-winning Guardian and Observer newspapers and guardian.co.uk website in the UK. Guardian US, the digital operation in New York, was created with the aim of combining the Guardian's internationalist, online journalism with US voices and expertise. Guardian US creates a hub for Guardian readers in the US, merging the innovation and energy of a start-up with ground-breaking journalism and the backing of the Guardian brand.”
