Carolina Public Press today announced it is one of 31 news U.S. news organizations that will receive support through the American Press Institute’s (API) Election Coverage & Community Listening Fund, an initiative aimed at empowering newsrooms to implement community listening in their election coverage.
The newsroom plans to expand its Democracy Day participation, as well as build on the NC Connection research project that is exploring news consumption in rural communities where broadband is inaccessible. CPP has already built a dedicated elections landing page, and produced election FAQs based on questions and topics from readers. All analysis and explainers will be available in English and Spanish.
“This funding helps us to fulfill the critical needs in our communities brought on by election misinformation and lack of access to timely, accurate, nonpartisan news,” said Angie Newsome, Carolina Public Press founder and executive director. “With this award, we’ll be able to create ongoing activities in our year-long work in underserved areas where news and information is hard to come by due to the decline of print-based media and the lack of reliable internet service.”
API said that the funded projects will start immediately and run through this election year, but they will also yield important lessons for 2023 and 2024 that can be shared through journalism networks and conversations facilitated by API.
Newsome said the organization hopes that continuing the work begun as part of the NC Connection research project will help news product development in order to better serve communities at the end of the “digital divide.”