CHICAGO, IL — The University of Chicago Center for Effective Government (CEG) at the Harris School of Public Policy today announced its collaboration with The Associated Press (AP) to translate CEG’s Democracy Reform Primer Series into materials made available to journalists and newsrooms across the US. These materials will highlight what existing scholarship has to say about the likely effects of adopting prominent reforms to our political institutions, creating the opportunity for nuanced, empirically informed coverage of these policies in newsrooms across the nation.
Over the duration of this collaboration, CEG will participate in two existing AP programs: Campus Insights and Localize It guides. The Campus Insights program allows for the creation and proliferation of video content to newsrooms to inform their coverage. CEG will film short breakdowns of each Primer with the scholarly expert who wrote it, providing edited videos on reforms ranging from Term Limits to Public Funding of Elections. As part of CEG’s work with the team behind AP’s Localize It guides, CEG will help produce a targeted briefing for journalists on these Primer topics, helping to support coverage of the reforms. These Localize It guides will be distributed to nearly 2,500 journalists and newsrooms across the US.
“Through this collaboration, we’ve been able to utilize the strengths of both our organizations: AP’s experience delivering quality products to newsrooms across the US and the Center for Effective Government’s ability to provide accessible, practical resources based on scholarship,” said Katie Oyan, Deputy Director of Local New Success at AP. “Our work with CEG around AP’s Localize It guides provides local journalists with the tools they need to cover institutional reform issues in ways that connect with their audiences.”
All of the materials produced in this collaboration come directly from the Democracy Reform Primer Series. Launched in 2024, the Primers responsibly advance conversations and strategies about proposed changes to our political institutions. Each Primer focuses on a particular reform, clarifies its intended purposes, and critically evaluates what the best available research has to say about it. The Primers do not serve as a platform for either authors or the Center to advance their own independent views about the reform; to the contrary, they serve as an objective and authoritative guide about what we actually know—and what we still don’t know—about the likely effects of adopting prominent reforms to our political institutions.
“In launching the Democracy Reform Primer Series, one of the key audiences we wanted to reach was journalists. The media plays an important role in shaping the discussion about the future of our democracy, and by putting the Primers into the hands of journalists, we hope to enable coverage of these reforms that are based on scholarship,” said Sadia Sindhu, Executive Director at CEG. “With the information of the Democracy Reform Primers at their disposal, we believe that local journalists and newsrooms across the country can help the American public more deeply understand the potential and implications of various reforms. Catalyzing and informing those conversations is essential to paving the way forward for more effective governance.”
At a time when the future of our democracy is a pressing topic, this collaboration enables CEG and AP to uplift scholarship and faculty voices while also empowering local journalists and small newsrooms across the US to tackle the larger issues facing their communities through solutions-based journalism. By informing the public dialogue and creating the opportunity for evidence-based discussions of these pivotal issues, CEG works to incite productive engagement on potential reforms to our institutions.
Press contact: Megan Busbice, Program Associate, Center for Effective Government