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Description
Our observations show that election campaigns on the local level usually take place in the shadow of national ones. Small, independent editorial teams find it more difficult to organise independent election debates or fully cover the campaign life due to financial concerns, among others. As a country, we are at a very important moment now – a series of elections is ahead of us, including local ones, which is why with this project we intend to strengthen independent local media and potential election auditors. So far, similar projects have been targeted at young people, but local editorial teams also include older and experienced individuals, which is why we would like to fill the existing gap.Within the Auditor Academy, we will organise a cycle of training sessions for twenty local media editorial teams. Their task will be to build cooperation between their members so that they can together develop and implement a comprehensive election process control mechanism on the local level. Academy training will also cover journalist tools facilitating more complete coverage of election campaigns. Sixteen out of twenty editorial teams trained will be selected to implement the Election Auditor method, namely a joint initiative aiming at controlling the election process. With support provided by mentors, each team will prepare a cycle of twelve materials in various formats and journalistic genres covering the entire election process. Furthermore, each of them will organise a meeting with its readers to involve the local community in the debate devoted to local authorities and the role of independent media.During the project, we will run two open informational conferences that will summarise the outcomes of the Auditor Academy and the results of the entire project.
Summary of project results
Our observations showed that election campaigns at the local level tended to take place in the shadow of the national ones. It is more difficult for small, independent editorial offices, also for financial reasons, to organize independent election debates or fully cover a campaign live. When we started our project, Poland was facing local elections. So, we wanted to strengthen independent local media and potential election auditors. Until now, similar projects have been aimed at young people, but local editorial offices are also staffed by older and experienced people, so we wanted to fill this gap.
As part of the Auditor''s Academy, we organized a series of training sessions for 20 previously recruited local media editors. Their task was to build inter-editorial cooperation to develop and implement a comprehensive mechanism for auditing the electoral process at the local level. The training also familiarised the editors with journalistic tools to facilitate more complete coverage of election campaigns. We then selected 16 of the trained 20 editorial offices to implement the Electoral Auditor method, an inter-editorial collaboration focused on auditing the electoral process. With the support of mentors and mentees, each editorial board prepared a series of 12 materials in different journalistic formats and genres covering the entire electoral process. In addition, each editorial board organized meetings with its readership(s) to involve the local community in the debate on local government and the role of independent media (a total of 32 such meetings were held).
We have also published an Election Auditor''s e-Guide, which includes good practices for local journalists and instructions on how to organize a poll in a small town. We hope it will serve local media during the next elections in Poland.
During the course of the project, we also held two open information conferences to summarise the results of the Auditor Academy''s work and the outcomes of the project as a whole.
As a result of the project, we were able to improve the competencies of editorial board members in journalistic control of the electoral process at the local level. Further results were the building and strengthening of partnership cooperation between 16 editorial offices of independent local media and the improvement of the quality and strengthening of the transmission of reliable information on the control of the local election process. Around 70 journalists from 20 editorial offices participated in the project, and more than 2,700 residents attended local meetings.
It also resulted in the publication of an original series of 192 materials covering topics such as the process of electing candidates, analysis of election results in the local context, or verification of promises from previous elections with current candidates'' programs. The series reached 600,000 views on social media and 2.7 million paper newspaper readers.
As an additional part of the project, a pilot video was produced: ‘Can you imagine Poland without local media?’, which gave an accessible insight into the mission and work of independent journalists and journalists working in local editorial offices. The video featured publishers and editors in their natural surroundings.