The HBCU Collaborative is pleased to announce the Voter Guide Workshop, a series of hands-on sessions designed to help HBCU student media leverage tools and services offered by the Knight Election Hub to cover the 2024 elections for their campus and surrounding communities. The program is open to HBCU Collaborative members who complete the Online Publishing Lab.
Members of the collaboration will explore resources available in the Election Hub and work on creating an editorial strategy with guidance from the HBCU Collaborative. This strategy will involve gathering important local information to create a voter guide for their communities. The guides should effectively present vital information that helps people make informed voting decisions and motivates them to participate in civic activities.
Students will gather detailed information about local elections and candidates, cite policies that affect Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and examine issues crucial to residents of urban and rural Black communities.
The Voter Guide workshop will direct students through tailoring voter guides to meet the unique information needs of their local communities in collaboration with a team of volunteer editors, web producers, and field specialists. Voter guides will include essential information like voter registration and procedures for absentee ballots and polling locations and offer various other resources to ensure civic participation in urban and rural communities that are home to and neighbor HBCUs. Students will also be trained in ways to counter election misinformation.
The guides will seamlessly integrate within their new CMS (Content Management System) platforms, enabling the efficient production of essential information to encourage voter participation.
“The Election Hub resources will help you give your audiences the information they need to cast informed votes, have confidence in the election process and results, and understand the role newsrooms play in providing reliable civic information.”
Scott Klein
Entrepreneur in Residence, Newspack
Collaborative Members who complete the Online Publishing Lab will immediately begin participation in the HBCU Voter Guide Workshop series.
HBCU student newsrooms spread across Southern, Southeastern, Midwestern, and Mid-Atlantic states have the potential to serve both urban and rural communities struggling with unequal access to information. The HBCU Digital Media Collaborative connects these newsrooms with industry experts, cutting-edge technology, and essential training. We foster collaboration between student newsrooms and local news outlets. Our mission is to build a sustainable future for campus and local journalism, ensuring a strong voice for communities most vulnerable to information inequity — especially during its election cycle.
HBCU Collaborative Membership opens access to the Online Publishing Lab and the Voter Guide Workshop Series. If you are an HBCU newsroom interested in participating, please consider joining the HBCU Collaborative.
