Audit your show, set goals

Audit your show

Pay attention to who you’re not talking to, but also pay attention to who you are talking to about certain topics. For example: If people of color are mostly appearing in stories about race, that’s a problem.

Audit your last 10 shows using the source diversity tracker.

Set specific goals for diversity in your coverage based on audit findings.

• Be proactive and look at those goals before you pre-interview potential guests, before you have your production meeting, before you finalize your lineup. For example: If your audit revealed you mostly engaged with sources who identify as men, you could set a goal to increase your engagement with women and gender non-conforming sources by 30%.

Read more about how to diversify your sources in this tip sheet from Source Matters.

Audit yourself with these diversity tracking tools. 

Learn more about assessing information needs from our training with the Founding Director of El Tímpano, Madeleine Bair.

Foster collaboration with the newsroom

Bridge the age-old newsroom/talk show divide.

• Ask the news director if you can sit in on newsroom meetings, if you’re not already. What are reporters hearing from the community that they don’t have the time to follow up on? Can your show tackle it? 
• And, vice versa, invite reporters to your talk show meetings.
• Solicit input from reporters about potential guests from their source pool who could diversify perspectives and lived experiences on your show. Are they hearing about misinformation in different communities that a talk show could illuminate and correct for?

READ: How to bust down silos in your organization and boost community engagement journalism

Develop a relationship with your station’s Community Advisory Board.

Stations are required to have a Community Advisory Board or Committee (CAB or CAC). Have a discussion with the members about what’s missing in your talk show coverage. What are they seeing in their own lives and communities that isn’t bubbling up in your station’s coverage? If your station’s CAB only meets once a year, set up another time to check in with them.