Tracking Legislatures
Tracking the Press/Media
Most selections are recent votes that a staff member or intern was tipped off to by media coverage of the legislation. The following tools can be utilized to identify potential selections:
- The Republic (compiles AP articles by state, significantly useful)
- Press Links in the Wiki
- Google News Search
Remember that media attention isn't the sole method for locating potential selections. As mentioned in the selection criteria, a vote could be requested via the Hotline, and Key Vote advisers will sometimes recommend a selection following emails.
Press Links in the Wiki
There is a Tracking links resource page for each state that contains a number of links to media websites for that state. The volume of links for a given state and the value of each link varies. The value of a specific website will sometimes be noted next to the link. For example, if a staff member finds a specific source to be particularly valuable, they may include a note such as "(good)" or "(great)" alongside the link. For example, this is the list of links in the wiki for the state of Arizona in 2010:
Staff members or interns who do a lot of tracking should consider updating these pages when they have downtime. The value of sources may change over time, or new sources may become available.
News outlets generally have a specific page for legislative or political reporting, or at the very least a page for statewide news. This is the best place to locate articles on legislation and votes. Links in the wiki should direct you to the correct page, but often will only lead you to the homepage. The homepage is unlikely to lead you to information on legislation unless a particular bill is getting a great deal of attention. If led to the homepage you will need to poke around the site to find the appropriate page. For example, The Town Talk (a major newspaper for Central Louisiana) has a page specifically for the legislature within the news section of the website, as seen below:
If a state has several links listed in the wiki, it is not absolutely essential that you check each link when tracking the state. Use your discretion to determine how many links should be checked. For example, it is unnecessary to check all dozen links for California every week. North Dakota, on the other hand, has only 4 links, so it may be necessary to check each source to find legislation.
Twitter is an increasingly useful resource to stay up to date with both the official feeds of state legislatures as well as journalists that cover them. Staff may consider creating a 'work' Twitter account to manage the process.
Utilizing the lists feature is the recommended way of approaching tracking through Twitter. A list is a curated group of Twitter users. Staff can create lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Viewing a list timeline will show you a stream of Tweets from only the users on that list, as opposed to Twitter's normal feed which shows tweets of everyone that you follow. Instructions on how to create new lists or subscribe to others can be found at the using Twitter lists webpage.
Google searches are good places to start when looking for lists to subscribe to. For example, this Google search returns a URL that goes to this Twitter list.
The one disadvantage of lists created by others is that there simply may be too much information coming in to keep track of in a timely manner. Staff should consider curating their own lists in this case or if no existing lists can be found through a Google search.
Google Search
Finally, a quick method for monitoring legislative activity is a simple Google search. Google has a news feature that locates recent articles related to the content of your search. To track using Google, simply search for terms that would be present in an article dealing with a vote or legislation moving through the legislature. Generally, you will have to include the name of the state and word "legislature" or the name of one of the chambers (House, Assembly, or Senate). You can be creative in how to search for legislative activity via Google, but it's usually most effective to keep it simple. For example, the following search result appeared after entering the words "Michigan" and "Legislature" into the text-box on a day nearing the end of the legislative session:
Notice in the image that there is a link to the article and a separate link to additional articles on the Michigan legislature. Typically, the headlines will tip you off to a vote or legislation that might be worth keeping an eye on.
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