Your Voice Ohio is the largest sustained, statewide media collaborative in the US. It is coordinated by the Jefferson Center – a global leader in civic engagement.
Our goal is to build trust between local news media and their communities through deliberative audience engagement and collaborative reporting.
We aim to represent the diverse voices and interests of Ohioans so that they see themselves in local media and shape coverage of issues that affect them.
Your Voice Ohio was originally planning a series of community dialogues regarding the 2020 presidential election when in-person events were prohibited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once these orders came into effect we connected with media partners to better understand their needs. Based on these discussions we adapted our previous deliberative engagement practices in an effort to illuminate public concerns and priorities for Ohioans through 2020 election coverage.
As the largest sustained, statewide media collaborative in the nation, our goal was to ensure that media partners and community members were not separated – even when unable to gather in person.
To accomplish this we redesigned our traditional model of engagement to conduct a series of digital-first, online events.
We concluded four pre-election rounds of engagement (twenty online forums in all) in early October. Participants in these forums were concerned about issues with far more nuance and substance than what is typically captured in national political coverage. Ohioans recognize that complex issues require strong leadership and agree that concrete action will be required to provide a framework for moving Ohio, and the nation, forward together – regardless of who is elected president in 2020. Participants expressed deep concern about the role that media and social media plays in dividing the country and eroding trust but also highlighted examples of excellent local reporting on issues such as the Ohio’s COVID-19 response.
These sessions were, at times, deeply emotional yet always highly respectful. People were, in every session, supportive of one another and grateful for the connections they made with one another. They expressed gratitude for the opportunity to have a civil conversation with people with different life experiences and perspectives.
We are grateful to all the Ohioans from across the state who trusted us with their time and their stories by participating in and contributing to these conversations. We are also thankful to the journalists who worked with us throughout the project to turn these engagement sessions into coverage shaped directly by Ohioans themselves.
Stories by 4th Round Lead Reporter Amanda Garrett of Akron Beacon Journal:
Stories produced by our Regional Reporters:
Additional Coverage from Your Voice Ohio partners:
Stories from Round 1 – 3:
Many of the data for Your Voice Ohio is collected and produced by David Knox of the Paladin Report. His Election 2020 work can be found at this website.
After months of collaboration and teamwork, YVO media partners WKSU and Eye On Ohio have prepared this Ohio Voter Guide, a visual guide that includes information about local candidates on issues that matter to you!
Throughout our Your Voice Ohio Election 2020 engagement sessions, we heard regularly that Ohioans are eager to learn more about candidates for statewide elections from local media. These sessions allowed us to summarize a few key questions that residents identified regarding where their candidates stand on key issues.
You can learn more by checking out the guide and exploring the candidate responses. This blog features an explanation of how the Guide came together by Andrew Meyer from WKSU. Special thanks to Lucia Walinthus, Executive Director of Eye On Ohio, who worked with Andrew Meyer to prepare the Voter Guide.
We will conduct an additional post-election round of engagement to reflect on the campaign while looking ahead at what Ohioans hope to see from local media in 2021. This will result in a final reporting package in December. This package will also provide a roadmap for our continued engagement and collaborative activities in 2021.
Your Voice Ohio is managed and coordinated by The Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic engagement organization who’s been engaging with Ohioans since 2012.
The Jefferson Center for New Democratic Processes sustains the Your Voice Ohio’s work by securing funding, managing the day-to-day operations, designing and facilitating the engagement events, and coordinated media partner collaboration. Media partner collaboration is coordinated by Doug Oplinger, a former Pulitzer Prize winning managing editor at the Akron Beacon Journal.
If you are a member of the media and interested in joining this collaboration, please contact Doug Oplinger.
If you are an Ohioan and wish to stay up to date with YVO activities or you would like to participate in future events, you can sign up for the Your Voice Ohio newsletter below.
Subscribe to the Your Voice Ohio mailing list. We send 1 email every other Friday morning.
We’re a collaboration of news organizations across the state responding to the needs and aspirations of all Ohioans.