U.S. Democracy Day awards stipends to 17 pro-democracy reporting projects
Fellows will produce pro-democracy journalism about election processes, voter engagement, and threats to democracy
After reviewing more than 70 excellent applications for our first-ever pro-democracy reporting stipends, the U.S. Democracy Day team selected 17 proposals from newsrooms. These $2,000 stipends will support pro-democracy reporting projects in the months leading up to the 2024 election.
Each of the projects listed below will produce important journalism about election processes, voter engagement, and threats to democracy. Join us in congratulating the recipients!
NowKalamazoo (Michigan)
NowKalamazoo is planning a three-part election project: hosting “citizen agenda” forums, implementing an SMS service for underserved neighborhoods, and the hiring of a democracy beat reporter to produce content about democracy and elections. The project aims to engage both regular voters and those who have been less involved in past elections.
Mat-Su Sentinel (Alaska)
The Mat-Su Sentinel plans to create a robust digital election guide for local election races in the cities of Palmer, Houston, and Wasilla, with questions derived from a series of community surveys. Current voter turnout for these elections is below 9%. The project aims to provide information about candidates and voting processes, as well as provide non-governmental and nonpartisan election materials.
Louisville Public Media (Kentucky)
Louisville Public Media plans to produce a voter guide profiling local grassroots leaders. The project includes a multi-pronged digital engagement strategy, as well as a series of town halls moderated by community leaders across Louisville and Kentucky writ large. This project aims to target the media disconnection and distrust that can prevent voters from receiving crucial civic information.
Isthmus Community Media (Wisconsin)
In collaboration with WORT 89.9 FM, Isthmus Community Media will fund a reporting team to investigate the grassroots consequences of Wisconsin’s new voting maps. The team —consisting of a print reporter, an audio producer, and a photographer — will travel to newly competitive legislative districts to examine how the maps are influencing civic engagement in areas that were until recently uncompetitive.
PublicSource (Pennsylvania)
PublicSource’s newsroom-wide project will examine how Pittsburghers navigate trust and choice in the 2024 election by pre-bunking local misinformation campaigns across several beats, including health, education, the environment, and economic development. The project aims to provide context that empowers voters with the skills necessary to recognize and reject misinformation.
The Haitian Times (nationwide)
The Haitian Times plans to produce an in-depth series exploring what’s at stake for Haitian American voters in the 2024 election. Coverage will include an analysis of the Biden administration’s record, how misinformation campaigns have proliferated in Creole, how the right is targeting Haitian evangelical Christians, and how campaigns can more meaningfully engage Haitian voters.
Amplify Utah
Amplify Utah is spearheading the Utah College Media Collaborative, a cross-campus collaboration between student-led newsrooms at Utah’s public colleges and universities that will enable students to publish reporting about how the election will impact young adults in their communities. The project aims to boost youth engagement in local elections across Utah and create a collaborative model for college journalism that can continue beyond this election cycle.
Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative
The Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative will work with college reporters across the state to produce explainers on first-time voter registration and municipal election administration. They’ll also look at the issue of access to campus polling stations. These stories will be professionally edited and published in partnership with Connecticut Public Radio, the CT Mirror, and WSHU.
Atlanta Civic Circle (Georgia)
Atlanta Civic Circle (ACC) plans to host voter focus groups that will generate survey data for reporting on issues that are important to metro Atlanta. Focus groups will include voters in Cobb and Gwinnett counties who are considering opting out of the 2024 general election, with a focus on what information could get them to the polls for local races. This effort will be in partnership with local newsrooms, including Capital B Atlanta and Canopy Atlanta.
WITF News (Pennsylvania)
WITF News plans to produce a suite of stories that explain the different stages of the state’s electoral process with a focus on countering information gaps among Spanish speakers in Central Pennsylvania. The project — which includes a social media campaign and print zine — will be distributed through partnerships with 4+ Latine community organizations in Lancaster.
The Austin Common (Texas)
The Austin Common will work with local bars to incorporate local government and election-themed questions into weekly pub quizzes, which are immensely popular. The goal of this project is to serve those who don’t traditionally have a strong voice in local politics: young people under 40 and news avoiders.
Prison Journalism Project (nationwide)
The Prison Journalism Project (PJP) is planning to explore how felony convictions can impact voting rights — especially for Black Americans — ahead of the 2024 election. PJP will commission articles, essays, and opinion pieces from currently and formerly incarcerated writers in hopes of highlighting underrepresented perspectives on disenfranchisement.
Howard University News Service (Washington D.C.)
The Howard University News Service (HUNS) plans to enhance its 2024 election coverage by incorporating solutions journalism reported by students to address voter apathy, voter suppression, and misinformation in Black communities. As part of this project, HUNS will conduct community listening sessions across the DC-Maryland-Virginia region in partnership with The Washington Informer.
Signal Cleveland (Ohio)
Based on a series of conversations with local voter advocacy groups, Signal Cleveland plans to create multilingual multimedia voter education materials that demystify misconceptions around election terminology, voter registration requirements, and ballot language. With help from the Cleveland Documenters, this project aims to reach voters who have lost faith in the democratic process, bridging information gaps in a city with a high illiteracy rate.
Barn Raiser (nationwide)
Barn Raiser, which covers rural communities across the country, is proposing a series on how a second Trump presidency could impact rural America. The project will examine how Project 2025 could transform government agencies that have a direct impact on rural and indigenous communities, from the USDA and Bureau of Land Management to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Verified News Network Oklahoma
As a Native-owned newsroom, Verified News Network (VNN) Oklahoma is focusing on covering issues from an Indigenous perspective. The project aims to examine how previous presidential administrations have impacted Native American communities for better or worse and provide election information relevant to Indigenous voters.
Mississippi Free Press
The Mississippi Free Press plans to expand its “Trusted Elections” project, which has fact-checked every voting location in Mississippi for every statewide election since it launched in 2020. This stipend will help them analyze precinct data from previous elections. This analysis will set the stage for reporting on solutions to systemic issues in the state’s voting system, including addressing the problem of incorrect voting locations. MFP hopes to directly impact voter access while also serving as a model for other states in conducting thorough election integrity reporting.
These diverse projects represent a range of innovative approaches to strengthening democracy through journalism. We look forward to seeing the important work these newsrooms will produce in the coming months.
Learn more about U.S. Democracy Day and become a reporting partner!
Democracy Day began in 2022 to draw attention to the crisis facing American democracy, provide the public with the context and information they need, and bring all types of media together to sound the alarm collectively. We want to incentivize pro-democracy media coverage through a nationwide journalism collaborative on Sept. 15, one day where journalists across platforms and regions can come together to report on the threats to democracy that we’re facing.
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Joe Amditis is the assistant director of operations at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at amditisj@montclair.edu or on Twitter at @jsamditis. Some portions of this post were cleaned up or expanded using generative AI tools.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.