Alex Eggerking: Let’s talk politics
Politics was never an easy side dish at the dinner table, but since the 2016 presidential elections, even close families get torn apart because of opposite political views.
At the canteen of the Cuny Graduate school of Journalism we meet Alex Eggerking. She is one of the CUNY Tow-Knight EJ 2018 fellows, in a program focused on entrepreneurial journalism. During the program she wants to build a media company exploring the American political divide.
“Conversations people are having about politics turned unpleasant since the 2016 presidential election,” Eggerking said, when asked about her project, A Civil Divide. It’s a media company that she is building to explore the political divide, and equip people with the capabilities to do something about it. “Instead of asking the reasons why somebody voted a certain way, people immediately assume they’re an idiot,” said Eggerking. According to her, this is shutting down conversations rather than opening them up.
The American political divide is the topic of the podcast show she’s working on now. It will explore questions like “why the USA is becoming more polarised,” and “what the cost of polarisation might be.” Like newsletters, podcasts have been a more intimate way to engage with an audience that newsrooms and media companies are exploring. Being closer to people might help to open up people to listen to each other.
She got her insights into the media business while working as a business consultant for media organizations, from ProPublica through to award-winning podcast Out There and daily newsletter startup Daily Pnut.
She builds, grows and monetizes media projects across podcasts, film, online sites, and email newsletters. In the film space, she is the Associate Producer for a new documentary film, Marieke: Death and the Racer. This allowed her to explore the media innovation space. “Video and audio interest me to connect in a deep and intimate way with an audience,” she said.
In a previous life, Eggerking lived and worked as a senior Mergers & Acquisitions attorney at a major international law firm in Sydney, one of the biggest cities in Australia. But two years ago, she felt her creative side had been in the backseat for too long, so she came over to New York and started working in media.
The podcast is only the beginning for A Civil Divide. “Begin small and doable,” Eggerking said. “It would be great to start with a newsletter, ten podcast episodes and ten short videos to get some market feedback. We’ll then have a better idea about what people are looking for, and what journalistic tools are best in engaging them.”
[This is part of a series of peer profiles introducing the 2018 class of Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism fellows at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.]
