If there’s one overarching theme to TV news organizations’ best-laid plans to cover 2024 election night, it’s “transparency.”

Wary of what happened four years ago, it seems every broadcaster is wondering how to best show not only the numbers, but how the numbers were arrived at, what they really mean and why they matter.

In a world where one phone call from a TV station can plunge a campaign into chaos, everyone involved seems to understand how high the stakes are.

The early call from Arizona from Fox News and the Associated Press in 2020 still looms large in newsrooms. Of course, both sides ultimately stuck to their calls, and in the end they were right, but according to executives and broadcast talent at multiple TV networks who spoke with them The Hollywood Reporterthe lessons of that call are still felt today.

For example, Chris Stirewalt was on the decision team that called Arizona for Fox News (the team is led by veteran consultant Arnon Mishkin). Stirewalt was fired from Fox in 2021 but now works at the Nexstar-owned cable news channel NewsNation, where he will appear on air as an analyst.

“There was a kind Wizard of Oz component, that in another room, in another place, there were magical beings doing this job of predicting the outcome of a presidential election,” Stirewalt says. “I don’t think that works in our fragmented and atomized media world, without giants still ruling the earth. I think you have to show people what you’re doing, and I think you have to be transparent about what’s going on.”

When viewers tune in tonight, the metaphorical curtain will likely be raised in two different ways: by talking to the data scientists involved and by using technology (and old-fashioned on-air storytelling skills) to make sense of the data a little easier. .

When it comes to technology, every network has a few gimmicks (Fox News has augmented reality graphics, for example, while NBC News has a CGI version of Rockefeller Center behind its anchors that glows red and blue), but there are also new table stakes in the form of data analysis tools with touchscreen. The “Magic Wall” pioneered by CNN in 2008 is now the norm: every network has one, and a data-focused reporter or anchor is on hand to crunch the numbers.

John King will once again be on CNN, as will Bill Hemmer on Fox and Tom Llamas on NBC. On MSNBC, Steve Kornacki will appear in court, and he will also have a “Kornacki Cam” in the form of a GoPro suction cup on his desk so Peacock users can watch it all night long.

“There is never an unnecessary live recording with Steve Kornacki,” says Meet the press moderator Kristen Welker. ‘Not an unnecessary word ever comes out of his mouth. When he gives information to our viewers, it is because he thinks it is crucial and that it highlights the main issues we are talking about in this election: whether it is the gender gap, whether it is the right number/wrong track number goes, or it’s how voters feel about these critical issues that, quite frankly, will determine who wins this election – the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, climate change, to name a few.

“So we love working with Steve Kornacki, and he makes it informative and also, I think, accessible, and that’s such a big priority for us, we never want to leave people out of the conversation that we’re having,” she adds to it.

At Fox, Hemmer’s ‘Bill-board’ will achieve the same, as will its augmented reality graphics.

“One of my favorite new toys from Bill Hemmer is the one that shows you, say, North Carolina, and how far blue it was in, say, the last four elections, and the two times it turned red, just barely over the line for Trump . Same in Arizona,” said Fox News host Martha MacCallum. “If you look at how small some of these changes are, Wisconsin has been decided by a handful, a few thousand votes in the last few elections. So I think this really shows people how tough it is in some of these states to get from one side to the other to win them.

“These days there are so many things to watch,” added Fox News co-host Bret Baier. “We want to make sure they understand what data is coming in, and do it in different ways that, in Bill’s sense with the augmented reality, can be a little bit more interesting to look at.”

As networks focus entirely on their TV productions, additional emphasis is also being placed on data-centric content beyond the TV glass. For example, CNN has a version of its Magic Wall in the CNN app so users can play with it themselves.

And at NBC News, there’s a plethora of explainer and additional content across various social and video channels.

“Steve Kornacki explains a lot on TikTok, we have voting cards that will immediately appear on social media,” said Rebecca Blumenstein, editor-in-chief of NBC News. “We know this is a time when people aren’t sure what to trust in terms of information, but we’re doing our best – whatever platform people choose to consume news on – to be there as that trusted choice.”

Perhaps most importantly, the networks seem increasingly inclined to highlight the people making the actual calls and turn to them directly for questions or clarification.

At Fox News, Baier says they’re willing to bring in Mishkin or other decision makers to explain why they’re calling… or why not.

“Especially when it’s close and it’s very late at night, and we’re waiting on some states, we plan to lift the curtain and bring them to the people who are looking at the data and have them on and say: ‘why can’t we make this call specifically?’ and then have that person say to Bill, ‘go to such and such a province,’ and then we can see it visually as the person from the data decision desk says, ‘here we are, we’re stuck with this,'” Baier says. “I think another thing we’ve learned over time is the more we show, the more transparent we are, the better it is for the viewer, I think.”

At NewsNation, meanwhile, the station is forgoing its forecasts altogether and outsourcing them to Decision Desk headquarters, with the station keeping cameras and reporters in the room in Georgetown. Stirewalt argues that outsourcing the call makes the news organization more independent because it avoids lobbying or pressure from campaigns, as Fox News saw in 2020 when the Trump camp made a concerted effort to pull the call in Arizona.

“I think this is better. I think it’s better because if you want to make sure that commercial, mercenary or partisan sentiments don’t influence how races are mentioned, it helps if you just keep it clean, keep it separate,” he says. ‘They’re there. They do their thing. We can talk to them. We can view them. We can ask them questions, we can do all those things, but they’re going to do what they’re going to do, and we’re going to report on it, and we’re going to try to provide context and explanation. .”

But all the data and transparency in the world won’t mean much if viewers don’t buy it.

That’s the $64,000 question news organizations are facing this year. Consumers are protected in a fragmented media environment, a true choose-your-own-adventure world, where reassuring data is always at their fingertips.

Half the country will be on the losing side in Tuesday’s elections. Will transparency reassure them? Or will it drive them further towards data providers that offer reassurances and a worldview that matches their own?