You know about what matters as you’re finding your way through the election season and making decisions on how to fill out your ballot, and KCUR wants to hear from you as we shape our Election 2020 coverage.
We learned a lot of lessons during the 2016 election season, most notably that we need to do more listening and hear from more diverse voices. And, we need to make it easier for you to connect with us.
So, we think we’ve found something super simple: A way to have a conversation that you can get to straight from your phone through texts. It's our "Here to Listen 2020" texting exchange.
To join, text HELLO to 816-601-4777.
Don’t worry, we know you get enough texts from your doctor, your child’s school, the weather service. You only participate if you text the number and opt in!
Here's what it will look like:
After you sign up, if you don't find our texts useful, you can opt out anytime by simply texting STOP.
If you decide to join, you’ll be engaging in a exchange that will help us tell more authentic and insightful stories this election season. At the same time it's another way to keep up with election news from KCUR.
The service is provided by GroundSource. Here’s what the founder, who’s holding our hand through this process, says about the potential of this tool. (By the way, he’s also a veteran journalist and promoter of a more equitable portrait of the population journalists serve).
“We believe that everyone deserves the chance to have their voice heard and understood, especially those who have been historically ignored or left out of the public conversations around elections,” says Andrew Haeg. “GroundSource removes many of the barriers to engagement through the use of text messaging to build and sustain two-way conversations with the public.”
We know voting patterns in certain parts of the Metro are changing, like in Northeast Johnson County. We’ll want to hear from the Kansans among us as we get closer to your primary in May.
But next Tuesday, March 10, is the primary in Missouri and there are shifting demographics and voting patterns in the Show Me state as well. We're reaching out to hear from Missourians as we cover these races.
In the past we’ve gone out to campuses, neighborhood meetings, houses of worship and barber shops to find folks to talk to.
We’ll keep doing that, because we love face-to-face interactions. But we’re really excited about this tool because it exponentially increases the number of people we can talk to and, more importantly, who can talk to us.
We're really excited to hear what you have to say.
Laura Ziegler is a community engagement reporter at KCUR 89.3. You can reach her on twitter @laurazig or by email at lauraz@kcur.org.
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