I think we have all seen political reporting that frustrates us.
Much election reporting seems focused on the internal wranglings and how we as citizens are in one camp or another. There are national media organizations who parachute in and oversimplify us and our values.
That’s why WCPO is joining forces with a locally based nonprofit and media organizations across Ohio in an effort to tell a more nuanced story about your views.
Ohio Values is a statewide, innovative, responsible journalism project. Reporters from partner news organizations will ask people in our communities about images that focus on their core values and how those values show up when they vote in 2020.
Reporters will be trained on how to use this storytelling method by nonprofit audio storytelling platform A Picture’s Worth.
Our hope is the project gives us powerful local stories that have more depth to them than typical political stories do.
At the same time, all of the audio recordings our partner news organizations create will be available for national and international media to use.
So far there are six confirmed partners in the Ohio Values project:
- WCPO
- Richland Source, Mansfield
- Ashland Source, Ashland
- Knox Pages, Knox County
- The Devil Strip, Akron
A Picture’s Worth will have a kickoff fundraiser for the Ohio Values project from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at New Riff Distillery in Newport. Visit A Picture’s Worth for details and tickets.
Mike Canan is the Senior Director of Local Media Content at WCPO. Contact him at mike.canan@wcpo.com. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram at@Mike_Canan.
