Editorial Applications, Program and Story Selections

Code of Transparency

Editorial Applications:
Program and Story Selection

How we select programs for our schedule:
We select programs for broadcast that are consistent with our mission.

How we select stories for our news and public affairs programs:

The basic questions we ask:

  • Why is this story important and why now?
  • What do we want to learn from this story?
  • Is this story relevant to our audience? Will it be of high interest?
  • How will our audience benefit by our telling this story?
  • If this is a subject we have reported on frequently, what new developments make it worthy of additional coverage.
  • Is there something new or unique that our journalism can add to this story?

Other factors:

  • Immediacy: the story’s timeliness
  • Proximity: the story’s impact on our locale
  • Novelty: the story’s fresh or novel aspects
  • Impact: the story’s impact and emotional resonance
  • Conflict: the story deals with an important controversy where conflicting views exist.

Pragmatic considerations that influence coverage decisions

  • Can we interview the people we need to?
  • Do we have a reporter available to cover the story?
  • Are there union or overtime issues that will affect the cost of covering this story?
  • Is the cost of covering this story such that it will affect what else we are able to cover?

How grant funding can influence the stories we cover

  • The grant must be for a coverage area that we have decided is of importance to our viewers.
  • We would not accept a grant that would obligate us to cover a topic beyond what we think it deserves.
  • The funder does not decide or control how we select or report our stories.
  • The funder is featured only if in our reporting if there is a legitimate news reason to do so.

Three mechanisms to enhance public participation in our editorial process.

  • Twice a year we will webcast our story meetings.
  • Several times a year we will invite members of the community to the station to discuss specific topic areas that we plan to explore in our news coverage.
  • Our station participates in the Public Insight Network (PIN).