State of the Union 2007

Just about every news organization in the country is covering tonight's State of the Union address. So how do you differentiate your coverage?

Start with the headline.

Think you've got a creative one? One that really gets to the heart of the story? Something that's witty, serious or otherwise right on the mark? Share it here, and help us celebrate some of the unsung writing of journalism.

We hope this project will help folks who don't live in your area or your state to better understand the issues facing your communities -- and that the nuances, the consistencies and the striking differences will help facilitate better storytelling across the board.

And don't forget to share your best headlines with us when you're done! (Come back to poynter.org/sotu Tuesday night to add yours -- and see what others have come up with.)

By Meg Martin
Poynter Online Associate Editor

Tuesday will mark the 220th time a U.S. president has reported on the state of the union to the Congress and the American people.

What's on the mind of YOUR audiences?

Please let us know at www.poynter.org/SOTU. (Scroll down past the map on that page.) Help us learn about the major issues concerning your audiences. And take a look around the country to see what other folks are thinking, too.

That's a lot of reports since 1790. So, instead of proposing legislation and assessing the Republic, we at Poynter Online are proposing some new ways to cover this annual event -- and to engage your audience in the process.

Here are some suggestions to get you thinking about how you might bring your readers, listeners and viewers into your State of the Union coverage.

Invite them to write your headline. After a kerfuffle with the governor over a headline earlier in the Georgia Bulldogs' football season, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution invited its readers to submit their own headline suggestions for the team's final game of the 2006 season. The paper got 675 comments on its SportsTalk blog in response to the request. Editors chose one of the hundreds of suggestions and ran it in the next day's paper.

Deadlines will be tight Tuesday night, and the best headline available may be one written by your staff. But why not see what your audience comes up with? (It might be best to use a format that enables the audience to see what others are suggesting, too. So if you can enable comments attached to an article on your Web site, that's a better way to go than e-mail.)

Jeremy Gilbert/The Poynter Institute Check out the rest of Poynter's State of the Union coverage: Take a look at the issues facing viewers/listeners/readers across the country -- and add your own, too. (Click on the image above or visit www.poynter.org/sotu.

Ask them to [re-]write the speech. As soon as the text of the State of the Union Address is available, turn it into a wiki. Invite your community to modify the speech so that it reflects their needs and concerns. There are a number of sites that allow users to create free or inexpensive wikis (for instance: Wikispaces, Wikia, PBWiki.com or EditMe, which Poynter Online uses). You might also consider drafting a few guidelines -- or pointing wiki users to your Web site's established publishing guidelines -- for your wiki publishing. For an example, here's Poynter's wiki FAQ. If you're not inclined to try a wiki, you can always invite people to submit the first and last lines they would have used in the speech.

Invite them to share their own videos. ABC News gave its viewers this scenario: You've been given the chance to address the nation. You've got 45 seconds to name the Number One challenge facing America today. Go. It's all part of ABC's "Be Seen Be Heard" Web initiative -- a place that drums up user-generated content for posting online and broadcasting on the air. The network did the same thing for last year's State of the Union Address -- using a company called Neighborhood America to manage the submissions. Back in September, CBS used the company to solicit ideas for Katie Couric's new signoff.

Those are just a few ideas to kick-start some thinking about involving your audience in your coverage of this year's speech.

Now, Poynter Online would like to involve you in our coverage. We've created the package that this entry is part of, www.poynter.org/SOTU, to learn more about how you'll be localizing this story -- and to help journalists across the country better understand the public's concerns on a local level.

So, tell us: What are the most important issues facing your viewers, listeners and readers as the president addresses the nation on Tuesday? What's on their minds? What questions would they like to be answered? How are you planning to cover this annual story? Let us know by responding in the "add your comments" section attached to each state's entry.

And don't forget to check back with us. Once the headlines are written and the broadcast has signed off and the paper has gone to bed and the stories have been uploaded, come back to Poynter Online, and let us see your best headlines from the speech.

(This package continues here. Scroll down past the map for state-by-state listings.)

Stateline.org: Alabama profile

Stateline.org: Idaho profile

Stateline.org: Kansas profile

Stateline.org: Nebraska profile

Stateline.org: North Dakota profile

Stateline.org: Ohio profile

Stateline.org: South Carolina profile

Stateline.org: South Dakota profile

Stateline.org: Tennessee profile

Stateline.org: Utah profile

Stateline.org: Vermont profile

Stateline.org: Virginia profile

Stateline.org: Washington profile