The 2024 election is fast approaching, and Ideastream Public Media wants to hear from our audiences about your questions and the issues you think are most important. Your input will inform our reporting on 89.7 WKSU radio, WVIZ-PBS television, ideastream.org and our social media channels.
Ideastream is gathering these questions because our newsroom is making audience-submitted questions central to our 2024 election coverage.
We are not doing this alone. We're partnering with other public media organizations across the country in an initiative called America Amplified Election 2024. The goal is to help Americans — in Northeast Ohio and all 50 states — navigate the voting process.
Submit your question here:
What issues are important to you in this election year? What should our newsroom be paying attention to? Your feedback will help inform our coverage.
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America Amplified is a public media journalism initiative that focuses on listening to the community before and during the reporting process and boosting election literacy. The goal is to combat the spread of misinformation and distrust in media and to share resources and voting information that Ideastream audiences need and want.
"We're not dictating what people need to know. We're asking people in communities across Northeast Ohio, and then committing to answering their questions and providing information that matters most to them," said Mike McIntyre, Ideastream Public Media's executive editor.
The goal is to gather story ideas and questions from the community in many different ways, including on social media, on our website and at a variety of in-person community feedback sessions, said Stephanie Czekalinksi, deputy editor/news, who is spearheading the project for Ideastream.
America Amplified prioritizes meaningful in-person and online engagement in order to build trust, expand audiences and deepen the impact of public media journalism.
This project is the latest example of what's come to be known as "engaged journalism," a model that seeks to produce journalism in concert with members of the community.
Ideastream's engaged journalism projects include the Sound of Uscommunity storytelling initiative; the Inside the Bricks podcast, which examined the experience of residents of the Woodhill Homes public housing complex and the changing Gordon Square neighborhood of Cleveland; the Connecting the Dots initiative examining racism as a public health crisis and, this year, gun violence and the Living for We podcast that illustrates the challenges facing Black women in Cleveland.
About America Amplified
America Amplified is based at WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with the aim of supporting community-engaged journalism in public media.
Originally launched in 2019, the initiative also helped shape public media coverage of the pandemic to include perspectives from communities across the country. In 2021 and 2022, America Amplified worked with 20 small and medium-sized public media stations across the country to expand the use of journalism practices that meaningfully address local information needs through active listening and engagement.
America Amplified's Election 2024 initiative will strengthen public media’s ability to address the information needs of unserved and underserved communities in the lead-up to the 2024 election.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services. For more information, visit cpb.org.
Editor’s note: In responding to questions from the community gathered via a platform called Hearken, Ideastream will be using an Election Information Portal, developed by America Amplified in partnership with a data and analytics company.
This tool uses generative artificial intelligence to gather verified information from state election offices to respond to questions posed by their audience and community. Responses will be drafted using, in part, the information gathered by this tool. They will be edited, revised and verified by American Amplified and newsroom journalists.