Election Day is seven days away. Every day of the countdown, Times Insider will share an article about how our election coverage works. Today, journalists from across the newsroom discuss how the political conversation affects their beat.
It takes a village — or several desks at The New York Times — to provide round-the-clock coverage of the 2024 election. But Nov. 5 is top of mind for more than just our Politics desk, which is swarming the presidential race, and our team in Washington, which is covering the battle for the House and Senate.
Across the newsroom — and across the country — editors and reporters from different teams are working diligently to cover all facets of the election, including how election stress affects prospective home buyers; what the personal style of candidates conveys about their political identity; and the strategies campaigns are using to appeal to Gen Z voters. Nearly every Times team — some more unexpected than others — is contributing to election reporting in some way, large or small.
Times Insider asked journalists from various desks about how they incorporate politics into their coverage, and the trends they’re watching as Election Day grows closer.
How a Critic Covers Politics on the Small Screen
By James Poniewozik, The Times’s chief TV critic
Covering politics is an essential part of my job. TV is a major arena of American life; it’s where politicians reach voters, develop personas and send messages on a cultural level. If you doubt its influence, I point you to the current Republican presidential nominee who — months before beginning his first campaign — was hosting “The Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC.
Covering politics as a critic is much like covering scripted TV: I ask what the subtext is and what the candidates are saying, not just in words but image, style and tone. I think Times readers understand this. I’m happy how many people tell me my coverage gives them insights they don’t get from straightforward politics coverage. (Which is also important!)
With Election Day fast approaching, my biggest challenge is simply keeping up: A lot happens in very little time. And, of course, there’s still plenty of nonpolitical TV coming out!
Where Misinformation Is Roiling the Election Cycle
By Stuart A. Thompson, a reporter on the Business desk
This year, I’ve focused a lot on how efforts to overturn the 2020 election have lingered, creating a movement devoted to voter fraud conspiracy theories. The biggest challenge this election cycle is the immensity of the misinformation problem. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
In 2016 and 2020, it seemed contained to major social networks like Facebook and Twitter — and those companies fought to contain the issue. Now Twitter, rebranded as X, is owned by Elon Musk, who has shared plenty of falsehoods with his more than 200 million followers. I studied a week’s worth of Mr. Musk’s posts on X in September and found that nearly a third were false, misleading or missing vital context. X is now overflowing with misinformation.
All this has created a wall of misinformation this election that is hard to get your hands around as a reporter. As soon as you spot one piece of viral information, another emerges. And it’s my job to put that into context for readers.
Why Clothing Conveys More Than Just Style
By Vanessa Friedman, the chief fashion critic
I focus on what politicians wear as a form of communication, and I look at the way they attempt to use image and visuals to shape opinions. I am particularly interested in the strategic choices the candidates make in moments of peak public attention. That is when they know pictures will be taken that will circulate widely, and that will often become part of history — even if the words they actually speak in those moments are lost.
I am also interested in patterns when it comes to dress; that is a clear sign of branding, one that communicates with the electorate and can influence voters. It’s part of what makes you think, “I like this guy; I recognize this guy; that looks like someone I can have a beer with; that looks like a commander in chief,” and so on — whether you are conscious of it or not.
What Reporters Are Doing on the Ground on Election Day
By Jia Lynn Yang, the editor of the National desk
We want reporters in towns and counties where the votes will be critical to either campaign winning the election. These could be places that are in the middle of demographic change. Maybe it’s a town that’s gained a large proportion of immigrants in recent years. Maybe large numbers of college-educated voters moved to a certain corner of a state during the pandemic because they could suddenly work remotely. We want places in flux that are also must-win communities for the candidates.
These also happen to be towns where we’ve already spent a lot of time talking with voters and local officials in preparation for the election, so that we’re not showing up cold. During the election itself, we’ll be on the ground in the days before and after talking with people about who they voted for and why.
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