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Trusting News: Hey conservatives. Let’s talk.

Do you see your life and values reflected in local news? Are there issues you think journalists ignore?

  • Tim Lambert/WITF
FILE PHOTO: A protester holds an American flag during a May 15, 2020, rally outside the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. About 1,000 people showed up to protest Gov. Wolf's coronavirus shutdown order.

 Kate Landis / WITF

FILE PHOTO: A protester holds an American flag during a May 15, 2020, rally outside the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. About 1,000 people showed up to protest Gov. Wolf's coronavirus shutdown order.

If you identify as right-leaning or a political conservative, we want to talk with you about local news.

I realize you may not have a lot of faith in what you read or hear from the major news operations in the country. We know from experience that listeners and readers can apply the same criticism to us. But as the news director at WITF, I can tell you our team doesn’t have any say on how national news organizations operate — even NPR — but we do have a say over how your communities get covered.

Reporter Sam Dunklau records audio at the Rally to Protect Your Right to Keep and Bear Arms at the state Capitol on Sept. 29, 2020.

Kate Landis / WITF

Reporter Sam Dunklau records audio at the Rally to Protect Your Right to Keep and Bear Arms at the state Capitol on Sept. 29, 2020.

So, we can discuss our work right here in central Pennsylvania: how our newsroom operates, how our reporters cover the region and how we decide what stories to pursue.

After all, central Pennsylvania is considered a conservative part of the commonwealth. Do you see your own lives and values reflected in local news? Are there issues important to you that you think journalists ignore? Are there consistent things we do to lose your trust? Are we considering how issues of bias are perceived not just in political journalism, but in the ways we describe and reflect different perspectives on life in general?

To help us do our job better, WITF is one of 30 organizations participating in a national effort to reach out to people who consider themselves right-leaning or politically conservative, and talk with them about local news and local news organizations.

The initiative is being led by our partners at Trusting News — who work to help newsrooms improve transparency and develop strategies to build trust with their audiences — and the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas.

In normal times, we’d be more than happy to have this chat over a beer or coffee.

For now, fill out a survey and sign up to be interviewed. If you do, we’ll receive your contact information and our team will select three to five people to have a conversation with via Zoom.

Take the survey

Can we move past talk of “fake news,” and have an honest conversation about what you expect from a news organization and what our editorial standards are?

I hope so.

WITF takes pride in serving and engaging with the entire community.

So, let’s talk.

 

Tim Lambert is WITF’s Multimedia News Director

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