This election is unprecedented in how the pandemic has changed the way candidates connect with the public.
They’re no longer chapping on doors, but hosting video calls and other digital outreach to connect with potential voters.
We’ve been making one or two changes as well, in the way we tell the stories of Scotland’s fascinating political landscape.
For the 2021 Scottish Parliament election we’re launching Election Hub, a dedicated part of our websites where you can find the latest digital journalism about the campaign, a one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about the Holyrood elections.
And it’s easy to find – just click on the dedicated button on the home page.
At Election Hub you’ll discover all the latest daily news from the campaign trail that you might be expecting, but we want to give you more than that, and take a deep dive into our local communities to tell their stories as well – because we are part of those communities too. Their values are our values.
We partnered with Survation to carry out in-depth research to find out the issues that matter most to voters and it’s those results which underpin all our journalism.
So you’ll find stories about constituencies and candidates, features and investigations on subjects ranging from affordable housing to mental health care, broadband connectivity to jobs and regeneration.
We’re being bold in the scope of our ambition to cover this Holyrood election more comprehensively than ever before, and in an online world of misinformation and fake news you can trust our journalists, who put their names to every story they write.
Election Hub Live
This election period we’re taking our journalism into whole new areas, meeting the audience in the places they already are: social media.
That’s the ethos behind Election Hub Live, our daily interactive politics newscast, a first of its kind in Scotland, which brings the latest news streaming live on our Courier and Press and Journal websites, and Facebook and Twitter channels as well.
I’ll be hosting the shows with reporter Rachel Amery and producer Finlay Jack as we interview the top names in Scottish politics, and feature our team of expert political journalists to add more context and analysis to the big stories of the day.
We’ve got television-style video stories that allow us to explore issues in ways we haven’t done before, and bring them to people who might not have such a strong connection with politics.
And we’re giving the audience the chance to take part live as well, giving instant reactions to stories with emojis, and sending comments or questions that appear on screen.
Election Hub Live streams weekdays at 2pm and the beauty of the show is that we’re not constrained by being a legacy television channel or radio station, so if an interview is really fascinating we can just keep having that conversation.
And if you don’t manage to catch it live, there’s always the re-stream available anytime on all your devices.
We know this is a landmark election after an unprecedented year, but we’re bringing you unprecedented political coverage with exciting new journalism concepts, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy all the innovation we’ve got in store.