Spending every day covering campaign events or traveling on the bus with the other reporters can create a kind of tunnel vision about the campaign you are covering. Watching the same speech repeatedly and talking to other reporters may give you a unique perspective on the race, but at some point it can create a myopic view of the campaign. Below are some ways to break out of the campaign cocoon:

1. Identify the Meta-Narratives of the Campaign
Tom Rosenstiel, Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism
Each campaign takes on meta-narratives, or story lines. Al Gore is a liar. George W. Bush is dumb. Jesse Ventura can't win. Mike Dukakis is a competent technocrat. But are these meta-narratives valid? Or are they distortions? These story lines are the modern version of pack journalism, in an age when journalists spend a lot of time reading other coverage and synthesizing it. Was it true that George W. Bush is basically a pragmatist with no real ideological agenda? Sometimes, too, the meta-narratives change radically and make the press look foolish. In 1988, the early meta-narrative was George Bush was a wimp, and Mike Dukakis was a skillful pragmatist. Months later George Bush was thought to be a manipulative campaigner and Mike Dukakis a wimp.

2. Examine Your Own Biases
Paul Taylor, former Washington Post reporter
Periodically examine yourself for bias building up as campaign proceeds; do not deny that you have your own views but understand what they are and why you have them in order to keep them under control. Who do you personally dislike? Why? How might that be coloring your judgment? Is your reaction to a candidate on a more personal level influencing your reporting? Who do you disagree with ideologically? Understand who you are. Do it privately. But do it seriously. Don't pretend that your professionalism is protecting you. Don't be in denial. Don't, as Walter Lipmann once said, confuse good intentions with good execution. Good intentions are not enough. Create a discipline for coming to grips with your personal feelings and parking them in the back of your own head. Take stock of the total impression you have of these candidates or this race so far. Maybe even make a list of the stories you've done as you go through this process.
(FOR EXAMPLE: Many journalists simply didn't like Gore, who had a tendency to exaggerate, and this may have led to his being called a dissembler. Bush on the other hand was engaging and that skill, some suggest, led to more positive coverage.)

3. Modesty is the Key to Good Political Reporting
Marty Tolchin, New York Times correspondent, former editor of The Hill
If you come into anything with a preconceived attitude, whether it's liberal or conservative or something else, you're being lazy. It allows you to skimp on the hard work of reading and talking to people and learning everything you can about all the different ways to approach an issue. Understand that however long you've been covering your race or candidate, you don't know everything. Don't assume you know. Ask questions and report.

4. Your Reporting Might Also Benefit from Another Set of Eyes
Various Journalists
Remember that you are a very specific audience for the race you are covering. You come from a specific background and are focused intently on the issues at hand. If an ad or speech doesn't resonate with you that doesn't necessarily mean it is a failure. The speech or ad may not be meant for you. Run your ideas and reporting by a colleague with a different background or ask a voter what he or she thinks.

5. These Are Ordinary People You're Covering
Jack Germond, former Baltimore Sun columnist
Whatever office the candidate is running for, remember that he or she is in the end just a regular person. Don't be too impressed. Do not be intimated by them. Do not treat them as different or above regular folks. Most importantly, get at the real person. Not being awed doesn't mean treating a candidate poorly, it means treating them like a person, not a myth. It also means not cynically dismissing them.

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