Using our guide
Follow this guide to decide how best to utilize the information on our site for your newsroom's specific situation.
1. Attitude – First and foremost, covering economic inequality must be a focus of all of the members in your newsroom. It must be a commitment.
2. Assemble- Decide how your newsroom will structurally incorporate coverage of economic inequality.
2. If you can’t create an individual beat, be sure your reporters are aware of how to incorporate economic inequality into their every day coverage.
3. Educate- Build your newsroom's literacy on economic inequality in order to be familiar with the jargon and begin to see where the issue affects your specific community. From the video on our homepage you can see that not everyone is an expert on this topic, but you can learn enough to report accurately.
4. Explore- Go out into your community and find out where economic inequality is most prevalent.
Do exploratory interviews to see how literate your community is on economic inequality and it’s effects.
2. Take surveys of where your community thinks the wealth lies.
3. Set up Google alerts to find new coverage and data on economic inequality, wealth gap, income gap, etc.
5. Create a community outreach plan –what will make this coverage engaging for your audience and how to get them involved.
6. As you’re writing, don’t assume reader knowledge - Make sure to retell what the issue is and why it’s important.
- Brainstorm a list of questions and curiosities in your newsroom. Think about what you want to know about economic inequality in general, in your community and what questions you have. This is an important step because as you learn more you will want to remember your original questions because they may be similar to those of your audience.
- Questions to answer: What is the mission of your coverage? Why is it important that your newsroom take on this task? Why is this important to your community?
- Discuss any potential sources of bias and prejudice against this kind of coverage you or your audience may hold. Be aware and transparent with your audience about these.
2. Assemble- Decide how your newsroom will structurally incorporate coverage of economic inequality.
- Create a coverage team with one full-time editor, lead reporter, graphics, photographer and computer-assisted reporter.
2. If you can’t create an individual beat, be sure your reporters are aware of how to incorporate economic inequality into their every day coverage.
- Check out our Connecting the dots page for examples of work connecting economic inequality to topics you cover every day such as crime, health and sports.
3. Educate- Build your newsroom's literacy on economic inequality in order to be familiar with the jargon and begin to see where the issue affects your specific community. From the video on our homepage you can see that not everyone is an expert on this topic, but you can learn enough to report accurately.
- Read the FAQ section then the Glossary of Terms under the Data and Resources tab to understand why we chose the term economic inequality as opposed to wealth gap, income gap, etc. and to get a solid understanding of the issue.
- Read History of The Gap to get a crash course in historic events that lead to this kind of inequality.
- Read History of Coverage page under the Analyzing Your Coverage tab to see how a large paper covered the issue over recent decades.
4. Explore- Go out into your community and find out where economic inequality is most prevalent.
- Experts: Find the experts in your community that see the effects, are part of the cause or work to find solutions to economic inequality.
- See Community Resources under the Data and Research tab to see example sources from Columbia, Mo. There will be similar sources in your area such as professors, economists and lawyers.
- Community: You must gauge what your community already knows.
Do exploratory interviews to see how literate your community is on economic inequality and it’s effects.
2. Take surveys of where your community thinks the wealth lies.
3. Set up Google alerts to find new coverage and data on economic inequality, wealth gap, income gap, etc.
- Data: Examine data to find out what economic inequality looks like in your community.
5. Create a community outreach plan –what will make this coverage engaging for your audience and how to get them involved.
- Be sure your community will be receptive to your coverage, engage them in the process. For ideas, read our Engaging your Community tab.
- Be aware of what types of coverage will turn certain groups away and the challenges you may face when interviewing sources.
- Be genuine, be transparent and be sure to tell your sources why they should talk to you.
6. As you’re writing, don’t assume reader knowledge - Make sure to retell what the issue is and why it’s important.
- Utilize Myths and Misconceptions to be sure your stories aren’t repeating common myths.
- Refer back to our FAQ and Glossary of Terms to be sure you are using the language you agreed on in the beginning.
- Reflect on your news organization's progress periodically.
- Ask fellow reporters what they’ve learned while covering this topic. What do they still want to know? Are you telling stories in new ways, or are you repeating coverage that’s been done before?
- Get audience feedback. Be sure you are answering their questions and writing stories the public understands and appreciates.