A movement has been under way for some time now, one rooted in what can be a hard truth for some news organizations: Traditional election coverage hasn’t been serving communities well. It’s been too driven by the horse race, by polls and pundits, by the competition to be first and by listening too much to candidates and not enough to you, the voters. 

We are breaking with that tradition. And here, we take another step. JTC420, the CSU class associated with the Deliberative Journalism Project, is joining newsrooms across the state in doing something that we all need to get better at: listening. 

Voter Voices 2024 asks Colorado voters what their priorities are in this election cycle so that we can report and write more responsive, representative and fair stories. We want to capture not simply the odds, but the stakes.

The heart of Voter Voices is a short survey built around a key question: “What do you want candidates to talk about as they compete for your votes?”  

As part of this project, student reporters in JTC420 took to campus to engage the CSU community, asking the same question. Those conversations were about food insecurity, concerns about cost of living ranging from tuition and fees to rental rates, and the security of our democracy. 

In this section of NoCoConvos, you will find stories in which student reporters flesh out the top concerns of their peers, and offer resources and advice related to those concerns.