THIS MONTH: Credibility update from Jody Calendar

Elections: APME's 'embedded' readers talk about election coverage

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Cooperation: Members cited for sharing news, photos

ELECTION COVERAGE GETS MIXED REVIEWS FROM READERS
Which media did readers rely on for election information this year? APME's National Credibility Roundtables project offers insights from our "embedded" who attended the October conference in Louisville, Ky. Each month, the Credibility Roundtables project will ask the embedded readers panel pertinent questions and share their responses through APME Update and APME News. You'll find their answers to this month's election questions below.

This month's questions are on the election season. The embedded readers answer:

1) What election coverage did you rely on most? Why?
and 2) What election coverage did you find least useful? Why?

The readers respond:

1) My main source of watching the election coverage was NBC, CBS and ABC. I stayed with the three stations that I've watched through the years, as well I believed they learned something from the last election, when they attempted and inaccurately called the race too soon. I thought they would be more in tune to be accurate about calling winners of states as well as overall winner.

2) I believe overall all the election coverage was useful. They all had pretty good analysis throughout and had mixed views regarding the election. I think if I had one area of the overall election coverage that I didn't like it was the fact that everyone built their candidate of choice up by knocking the other candidate rather than build their candidate up on his own merits, which really is what politics have come to. I do not think this is good and it really becomes a popularity contest rather than a choice being made on the ability to serve the best, which has lead to enormous division in this country.

1) As for the election coverage, the most useful was from my local paper, The Reporter, and talk radio, local station am 650. Michael Savage is who I usually have time to listen to on the way home from my job.

2) The least useful was just about everything I heard on television and from most news channels. It is an issue of trust for me and from what I gathered from APME, television news is not real journalism or reporting.

1) I relied on Internet coverage and news network coverage most because these were the most convenient for me. The Internet because it is always there, and CNN because if I missed it 10 minutes ago, I'll see it again in five minutes.

2) I don't believe I found any of the coverage to be useless.

1) It was a tie between my local newspaper, The Day, New London, Conn., and National Public Radio. The newspaper was the best and most complete source for all the local and state races. As the old cliché goes "All politics is local." NPR could provide faster and more up to the minute coverage on the presidential election.

2) I didn't refer to the television coverage much at all. I did get a few updates on the congressional races from the local TV stations. I wanted to know what the returns were showing for my congressional district. Once they showed that the incumbent was likely to win, I waited for my copy of the paper in the morning to find out how the vote was broken down.

1) Election coverage I relied on most – probably television, particularly Fox News Channel. I am particularly impressed with the people they assembled for their election coverage, especially Michael Barone, the veritable encyclopedia of politics.

2) Election coverage I relied upon least – in this case, probably my local newspaper. By the type of media that it is it lacks the ability to have the most breaking coverage of updated results, and thus was inadequate for my needs as an election consumer. I have to say that is not intended as a slight against them per se, just that in my context, the coverage was not as helpful as other media sources.

1) Newspapers and magazines. Most issue-oriented.

2) TV because it was too biased and personality oriented.

1) I primarily relied on cable television news. I watched Hardball MSNBC and Fox News. I also watched a little of CNN and NBC. I watched Fox news because of their conservative slant. I watched the rest because of the balanced reporting and I enjoyed the various personalities. (I am a big fan of Tim Russert and Chris Matthews).

2) I found newspaper coverage the least useful for the simple fact that cable television news is up to the minute. The morning after the election I watched CNN for a few minutes and I knew the status of the election. For the remaining part of the day after the election my coverage was the Internet. I visited the CNN site and the Washington Post site. After the dust had settled on the election, I found myself relying more on the newspapers. I find some of the newspaper columnists more knowledgeable than the TV hosts.

1) Radio and television programs that interviewed the candidates. Seeing the candidates respond "on their feet" gave a pretty accurate picture of who they are.

2) Probably newspapers. I usually suspect a reporter's or the paper's publisher's bias is involved in what is covered and "the slant" given to the facts. I feel like I might have to "read between the lines."

1) The night of the elections I watched ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Public Television to see who had the most current information (and was looking for a miracle)! Following election night, I watched the same channels and read the local newspaper and the Seattle Times to find out local elections, especially the governor's race ( which we won't know until Nov. 17th)!

2) I suppose the least helpful was CNN. I was getting the news secondhand and it wasn't as current!

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