Ready to Depolarize? Try ‘Walk a Mile in My News’

Media habits are a big contributor to political polarization.

We at Talking Sense from MPR News are here to help you get out of your news bubble and try to understand someone else’s.

It’s a project called Walk a Mile in My News, a concept pioneered by Wynette Sills at a Braver Angels chapter in California. With Wynette’s blessing, we’ve modified her project a bit to fit our parameters. We hope you participate and let us know you are doing so!

Also, please tell us if you’d be willing to let us record your conversations with your news swap partner for possible use on air.

What ‘Walk a Mile in My News’ is:

This project aims to help Minnesotans build more positive relationships with people of differing political views.

Who it’s for:

People who are interested in understanding other people’s perspectives better by looking at the media sources that inform their views. Basically, people who want to help tone down the vitriol of political disagreements and try to have hard political conversations, better.

How to do it:

• Find a family member/friend/colleague who you disagree with on a particular issue. Ask if they’d be willing to swap news sources over the course of a few weeks. Maybe you do one or two swaps. You can do a general news swap or home in on a particular issue.

• Narrow the focus of your news swap. Will it be broad or issue-based? Will you share articles, podcasts, memes, opinion pieces or primary documents? A narrow focus might help, e.g. a particular gun law rather than gun rights writ large.

• Agree on the volume of material you’ll share and time expectations.

• Set a schedule for how many exchanges you’ll do and how often you will talk (in person or online).

Your first meeting session might include questions like:

• Tell me a bit about yourself — what should people know about you?

• On a scale of 1-10, how conservative or liberal are you? Have you always been conservative/liberal?

• What life experiences have shaped your political views?

• How strong is your “silo”? Do you have any interaction with the “other side” of the political spectrum?

• Who do you hope will win the presidency in 2024?

• What are your news sources?

• How would you describe your disagreement with me on the issue we’re going to swap news sources on?

• What do you hope to gain from this experience?

Things to mull when reading/watching/listening to your partner’s sources:

• What key facts were represented in the piece?

• Did you learn something new?

• Were the facts accurate in your opinion? If not, why?

• What facts do you think the piece should’ve referenced?

• Did you have any “aha” moments when consuming these pieces of media?

Subsequent meetings:

• Share your answers to the reading questions above

• Are you finding any areas of agreement?

• Where there is disagreement, are you able to resolve it? If so, how?

Questions? Please reach out to MPR News editor Annie Baxter at abaxter@mpr.org. And if you’re participating in the project, we’d love to know. Please answer this short survey:

• Divided over politics, a father and son in Minnesota sought a therapist’s help
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• Introducing Talking Sense: Have hard political conversations, better.