Scott Blanchard and Tim Lambert

Better News: WITF uses democracy beat to restore trust and push back against political rhetoric

WITF, the NPR station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, recently started a democracy beat as a way to build trust, counter misinformation and tamp down political rhetoric.

Special projects editor Tim Lambert oversees the democracy beat and Scott Blanchard is WITF’s director of journalism. They talk to Better News podcast host Michael O’Connell about the origins of the democracy beat and how this new approach impacts the station’s election coverage.

Read the report that Tim Lambert wrote Better News: How WITF is using democracy reporting to build trust and tamp down political rhetoric.

The Better News podcast is a partnership between It’s All Journalism and the American Press Institute to a) showcase innovative/experimental ideas that emerge from the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and b) share replicable strategies and tactics that benefit the news industry as a whole. Sign up for the Better News newsletter to receive news about the latest resources, case studies, and insights. For more news about the IAJ podcast, sign up for the weekly IAJ newsletter.

More Episodes

Jason Fraley is the entertainment editor at WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C.

318. These may be the 750 best movies of all time

On this week’s It’s All Journalism, producer Michael O’Connell talks to Jason Fraley, the entertainment editor at WTOP Radio in Washington, D.C., about the Best Movies of All Time list he’s created. The multimedia project includes videos, an interactive blog and a breakdown of 750 great movies into 30 unique categories.

Listen »