Ahead of the November midterm elections, news organizations are scrambling to produce content that accurately conveys the concerns of American voters. Sharp political and economic divisions fuel urgent social issues like inflation, healthcare, immigration and voting rights. And this drama is unfolding in an atmosphere infused with disinformation and the sophistication of AI.
On Sept. 14, National Press Foundation Widening the Pipeline fellows resumed their monthly virtual trainings with a series of conversations about building a midterm coverage strategy. “There’s a bit of a perfect storm of challenges out there for journalists with this election,” said Carmen Nobel, an editorial consultant for SciLine, based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Nobel is guiding the creation of evidence-based reporting guides to help local journalists identify key issues in their communities.
“Resources are a challenge as always, and we know that because of what’s happening to too many newsrooms out there. Issues that didn’t used to be controversial are now politicized.”
Nobel shared contextual insights about issues like voting machine security, election integrity disinformation, mail-in voting, redistricting and gerrymandering. And she stressed the need for journalists to build strong connections with researchers who can help them amplify these issues by highlighting SciLine’s I Need An Expert portal to connect with analysts who can strengthen their coverage.
“This year every story is arguably a science story,” Nobel said. “So even if you’re not on the science beat, you need to be thinking through a scientific lens.”
Nobel also urged journalist to remember that election coverage never really has a hard-stop ending—particularly in the run-up to the 2028 presidential election.
“I think just keeping in mind that the election doesn’t end on election day, one, because the counts take a while. But the impact of that election is going to keep happening. There are always political scientists out there who have more time on their hands than journalists do and are spending their entire life studying one tiny sector of one tiny topic and they know what they’re talking about, but they need the help of journalists to get the message out there.”
Access the full transcript here.
