You Decide: How-To

What is You Decide?

You Decide is an online devil’s advocate designed to challenge the audience’s point of view on issues facing candidates and voters in Election 2008. This online activity created by KQED asks users a question about an issue of national significance, and whatever their answer (yes or no), to consider the other side of the argument. After deliberating, users are given the opportunity to discuss their decision with others.

The activity does not try talk users out of their decisions, but encourages users to explore both sides of an issue and put their own critical thinking to work.

You Decide screen detail

Questions will cover topics such as:

Should the United States adopt a single-payer, universal health care plan?
Would Americans be safer from terrorism if we consumed less oil?
Do Americans pay too much in federal income tax?
Is torture a legitimate form of intelligence gathering?

KQED originally produced over thirty of these popular online “devil's advocate” activities between 2001 and 2004. In February 2008, KQED is launching a new series of questions related to the issues prominent in the 2008 election debate. The new series includes a number of enhancements, including a more robust discussion tool, Public Action from Public Interactive.

Awards

Grand Prize Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism	Winner Best Non-Commercial Online Journalism — Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet	Finalist, Creative Use of the Medium — Online News Association/USC Annenberg School for Communication Online	Nominee for Best Politics Web site 9th Annual Webby Awards

You Decide has won several awards including Grand Prize from the Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism; Winner Best Non-Commercial Online Journalism from the Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet; Finalist in Creative Use of the Medium from the Online News Association/USC Annenberg School for Communication Online; as well as a nomination for Best Politics Web Site from the Webby awards.

Want to feature the You Decide widget on your blog or site?

You Decide is built and maintained by KQED in San Francisco, CA. Anyone may add this module to their site at no cost, but we ask that you credit KQED as the activity’s creator.

You can link to the site directly by linking to www.kqed.org/youdecide or embed the question module on your site. Here’s how:

Copy and paste one of the three following javascript snippets into your page’s source code. Be sure to place the code within an <html> element where you want the widget to display. View examples.

Note: This code will update regularly as new topics are posted, updating your site with the latest question. If you need code for just one topic -- for example if you run a healthcare blog and you just want to run the question on healthcare -- please email the producer at mlaslocky[at]kqed.org.

Code for Large widget

Recommended Width: 275px–300px Height: ~130px

<script src="http://www.kqed.org/w/youdecide/widget/large.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Example

Code for Medium widget

Recommended Width: 200px–274px Height: ~130px–145px

<script src="http://www.kqed.org/w/youdecide/widget/medium.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Example

Code for Small widget

Recommended Width: 120px–199px Height: ~145px–200px

<script src="http://www.kqed.org/w/youdecide/widget/small.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Example

Frequency and term

A new You Decide question will launch approximately every two weeks from the week of February 18th through November 2008. Once added, the question module widget will automatically update with the latest question. Sites may also link to individual questions at any time.

To learn more about adding You Decide to your site, contact us at