Spring 1992 - Issue 1 - Five Ideas for Covering the Campaign

Oct 14, 2026

Spring 1992 issue of Nieman Reports examining how American newspapers and journalists can respond to political reality and newsroom challenges. Highlights include reforming campaign coverage by integrating voters through better sources, replacing entrenched “experts” with students and field practitioners, and expanding coverage methods beyond a single national lens. Features also address readers’ needs, newsroom stereotypes, and coverage themes spanning politics and sports.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages96

Reading Time34 min

AccessFree to download

Five Ideas for Covering the Campaign

Replace the experts

Who's running?

Vol.XLVI No.1 # How Can America'sNewspapers Be Saved? A Challenge to Journalists for Help Michael Fancher,Kathleen Criner and James Lessersohn...3 What Readers Really Want.........Reid Ashe.........7Tyranny of Apathetic.............Jim Willis... ...11For a New Nation,a New Press.....Jean Gaddy Wilson...17 Sports and Society Beyond the Games.....Tom Witosky.…....25The Home-Town Team..Douglas Lederman...29The Auburn Boycott....Jim Tharpe... .34Stop Gambling News ...Dave Kindred......36Sexism Still Rampant...Michele Himmelberg.38Just for Fun ..... ...Gene Policinski......42Why The National Failed.Vince Doria.......44 # Journalists as Fiction Writers CURATOR's CoRNER..2 BooKS… …81 RESPONSE…… …87 NIEMAN NoTES… …89 Spring 1992 China Beat Forget the Stereotype......Judy Polumbaum.48In Beijing's Newsrooms ....Liu Binyan......53Foreign Correspondents....Sarah Lubman...55 Political Campaign Five Ideas for Coverage.....Bill Kovach......2Dissecting the TV Image....Robert Deutsch...59White House Press Updated .Stephen Hess.....65 Anne Bernays and Others ..71 ## Five Ideas for Covering the Campaign By BILL KoVACH Locate retired journalists,journalismstudents or political science teacherswho can report on the mail and moni-tor the television.Real people whohavethe background and knowledge togather the materialand present it.Ifyouare running a television program thisapproach has the added benefit of a“best home video”approach to cover-age of the fragmented campaign. T WAS ALREADY clear in January that the resolutions to reform campaign coveragemade by journalists after the 1988 presidential election had faltered in the faceof the political reality embodied in the motto of Tammany Hall:“To Hell withreform." I Maybe George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany was right when he said:“Thefact is that a reformer can't last in politics.He can make a show for awhile,but he always comes down like a rocket.Politics is as much aregular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or thedrug business.You've got to be trained up to it or you'resure to fail.”Part ofthe problem,of course,is the economicdepression,which has severely restricted press coverage inmany areas.Whatever the reason,the early trends of CURATOR's CORNER ### 2.Replace the experts. coverage of the 1992 campaign make it clear that any change in traditional political We are relentlessly closing the circle.Politics increasingly belongs to an elitewith its own jargon and its own worldview.The people--the of,by and forwhom it is all done--are left outside.The“experts”who design campaignswill only give the same take on thestory.Find analysts who help bring thepeople into the loop--not keep themout.There are students of politics,po-litical science and political affairs atcolleges,universities and institutionsaround the country who could be used.There are also--at the philanthropic in-stitutions--experts workinginprogramsin the field that touch almost everyissue.These people who have little orno political orientation and the pro-grams they run could provide muchraw material for issues discussions.Forexample,the Edna McConnell ClarkFoundation has more solid informationbased on real life experience on alter-native sentencing and other prison re-lated issues than any politicalexpert.In1988 they might have helped put WillieHorton in a different context. | NIEMAN REPORTS
Vol.XLVI,No.1
Spring 1992
Nieman Reports(USPS\#430-650)is published quarterly by the
Publisher
Nieman Foundation at Harvard University,One Francis Avenue,
Bill Kovach
Cambridge,MA 02138.Copyright C1992 by the President and
Fellows of Harvard College.
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copies $4.00.Back copies are available from the Nicman Office.
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FAQs

What is the core proposal for improving campaign coverage?

Locate suitable retired journalists, journalism students, or political science teachers to report and monitor media coverage, and use real people with background knowledge to gather and present material for discussion.

Why does the document say to “Replace the experts”?

It argues that politics increasingly belongs to an elite and that the “experts” who design coverage often provide the same take. The recommended alternative is to involve students and field program participants who bring raw material and broader issue understanding.

How does the document suggest voters should learn about candidates?

It emphasizes helping voters come to know candidates in ways that matter to them as potential voters, including detailed campaign biographies and coverage that answers questions about character, experience, and how candidates think and work.

Oct 14, 2026

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