The 2020 presidential election is less than a month away, with voting already underway in some parts of the country. Regina Lawrence, associate dean of the University of Oregon’s journalism school, specializes in political communication. She says the news media’s coverage of the presidential campaigns has improved compared with the 2016 election. However, she says reporters and editors are still grappling with the challenge of covering misinformation, propaganda and outright lies without appearing partisan. Lawrence is part of the U of O’s series of civic conversations leading up to the election. We talk with her about those hurdles, how COVID-19 and President Trump’s diagnosis is playing out so far, as well as which Oregon races she’s following most closely.