EDITORIAL: Our view: Helping shape news coverage of governor's race

The Observer, La Grande, Ore.
·2 min read

Jan. 25—Voters, and Eastern Oregon voters especially, will be able to take advantage of an incredible opportunity to give feedback to media outlets regarding what they want candidates for governor to talk about through 90-minute virtual listening sessions.

The sessions, called "Let's Talk," will be hosted on a Zoom platform and consist of off-the-record input from voters about what they want to know about each candidate. The goal is for news organizations to furnish the public with viable reporting during the run-up to the election in November. Viable reporting means giving readers in-depth and useable information that serves the voters, not the candidates. The Observer will serve as one of the hosts of the events.

To get in on this opportunity, residents can go to "Let's Talk" at www.surveymonkey.com/r/8JV25WF to submit interest. The deadline, though, is Tuesday, Jan. 25. That means those who want to participate need to make sure they get their names in before the close of business Jan. 25.

The event is sponsored by Oregon Capital Chronicle, a nonprofit digital news service in Salem, Rural Development Initiatives, a nonprofit, and the Agora Journalism Center, part of the Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in Portland.

The "Let's Talk" initiative is a good one, and we hope that readers will sign up so they can get their opinions aired in a private way that will help all news organizations across the state. We in the news business like to pride ourselves on our ability to know what voters and readers want regarding coverage of events such as a governor's race, but the fact is the more input we can get the better job we can do informing the public.

This new effort will give all of us the needed direction that can help navigate through what issues are important for the voter and what one is not. We can write all the stories in the world but if the key, essential information needed by readers and voters isn't there then we are not going to be successful in our mission to inform the public.

The sessions are good in another way. They will provide a platform for people to voice their opinions and concerns in a low-key, non-confrontational way that will help move our job as journalists forward.

The "Let's Talk" meetings are a good way for the public to get involved and will help the media do a better job on this important matter.