RTDNA partners to bring election urgent care tools to journalists
Newsrooms can now sign up for free resources to enhance their coverage of the post-election period in the U.S. through Election Urgent Care from a coalition of organizations led by the Knight Election Hub, Votebeat, and Hearken.
Journalists covering U.S. elections may face unexpected challenges following the election. The Election Urgent Care team will help newsrooms continue to provide essential information to their communities during the post-election transfer of power.
Election Urgent Care will provide rapid access to resources in focus areas that support -
- confidence in the election process and results
- the information needs of communities
- safety for journalists and newsrooms
Newsrooms covering U.S. elections are invited to apply for access to the Votebeat Expert Desk/Election Urgent Care Slack.
Apply to join the Election Urgent Care Slack
You can also connect with Election Urgent Care at urgentcare@electionsos.org. This program is not for partisan organizations.
We are proud to partner with a number of journalism support organizations to connect newsrooms to needed tools, including the Center for Cooperative Media, Radio Television Digital News Association and Trusting News.
“We’ve learned a lot about how to connect organizations providing resources to help cover the election and newsrooms that need the help,” said Scott Klein, entrepreneur in residence at Newspack and program director of the Knight Election Hub. “We’re going to take what we’ve learned as well as the connections we’ve made in newsrooms to offer help to newsrooms in need during the potential tumult on and after Nov. 5.”
The Election Urgent Care team, which also includes representatives from Muckrock, Newspack and OpenNews, plan to provide rapid resource matching for election-related support services in the following focus areas:
- Safety, including digital defense from online threats, cybersecurity, and physical security.
- ● Legal assistance, both with advice on election law and legal representation where possible.
- Journalistic background advice on how to cover unexpected tactics and events related to election administration.
- Document and data gathering from states and municipalities
- Data wrangling and analysis for newsrooms that lack data journalism capacity
- Other services as needed.
Resource providers who will be available on-call from Election Day (Nov. 5) forward to offer assistance to newsrooms who need help. The program will not provide direct funding to newsrooms, or provide editorial content such as stories, graphics or visuals.