Workshop on covering local elections to be videostreamed live starting at 5 p.m. CT Thursday

It's a big election year in most of the country, from the U.S. Senate to local school boards, and it's time for news outlets to start planning their coverage. You can get some ideas online Thursday evening through noon Saturday by watching live videostreaming of the "Down-home Democracy: Empowering Citizens With Outstanding Coverage of Local Elections" workshop from the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism.

The workshop starts at 5 p.m. CT Thursday with a presentation about the importance of political coverage from Jim Pumarlo, author of Votes and Quotes: A Guide to Outstanding Election Campaign Coverage. The Friday program runs from 8:30 to 5:30 CT and includes Mark Horvit, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors; Hank Waters, publisher emeritus of the Columbia Daily Tribune; and Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues (publisher of The Rural Blog) and former political writer for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. For the full schedule, click here. For the videostream, click here.