Ross Barkan’s Notes on Election Coverage: Form, Function, and the Future

The Kicker

On today’s Kicker, what the media got right and wrong in the 2022 midterm election. Ross Barkan, a politics reporter for New York magazine, The Nation and more talks with CJR’s editor and publisher Kyle Pope about the media’s penchant for speculation in divisive elections.Also in the discussion: how the media grapples with writing about a democracy in peril. On today’s Kicker, what the media got right and wrong in the 2022 midterm election. Ross Barkan, a politics reporter for New York magazine, The Nation and more talks with CJR’s editor and publisher Kyle Pope about why the media’s penchant for speculation in divisive elections.Also in the discussion: how the media grapples with writing about a democracy in peril. “Is this the election that will determine the future of democracy?” Barkan questions. “Maybe, maybe not. But I have my own reservations about that kind of grandiose rhetoric.”