The Detroit Agenda: WDET’s 2009 Election Coverage

Detroit’s 2009 elections will be remembered as a transformational election cycle.  The city will settle on the mayor who will lead the city into the post-Kilpatrick era.  There will be a historic level of turnover in City Council.  A Charter Commission will be selected with the charge of considering sweeping, once-in-a-generation changes.  The candidates running for the Detroit Public School Board will join a body struggling to maintain the slightest threads of popular credibility.

There is a visible, urgent need for an engaged, connected citizen response to the issues and the candidates; the public is agitating for change, but apathetic at the voting booth.  Participation in any of the 2009 special mayoral elections…and in the August primary did not reach 25 percent.

In this context, WDET is launching its 2009 Election Coverage and organizing a coordinated community reporting project:  The Detroit Agenda.

With The Detroit Agenda, WDET will mine the city’s deep expertise, but will also reach far beyond the conventional pool of political insiders, journalists and industry voices.  The goal of The Detroit Agenda is to provide Detroit radio listeners with an opportunity to encounter perspectives that extend beyond the conventional thinking, voiced by individuals who are traditionally underrepresented in the media landscape.

New voices.  Different views.  The real story.  The Detroit Agenda.