The Localore metasite uses an interactive map to direct users to pubmedia content.
The Association of Independents in Radio will launch a metasite April 22 that combines its 10 Localore multimedia projects on a single interactive platform, showcasing the results of a yearlong production to develop broadcast and web content in cities across the United States.
The website uses a map of the country to direct users to content that public media audiences first discovered on local stations. Designer Drew Schorno chose the map “as a way of representing the U.S. experience” of Localore, he said.
A half-hour documentary, This Is Localore, will accompany the launch of the metasite, which will be unveiled during an April 22 event at the Brattle Theater in Boston. Producers from each of the Localore projects will join Sue Schardt, AIR executive director, and Noland Walker, Localore executive editor, in a Q&A session moderated by PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan.
The production team will also appear at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York April 20, and present tours of their projects at TFI Interactive, a showcase and discussion of digital storytelling.
AIR is planning other Localore-related events and projects this spring, including a live edition of The Making Of… by the Kitchen Sisters, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, May 30 and 31. The Localore team will also produce a “bluebook” describing strategies for local engagement and for promoting innovation and new public media storytelling, Schardt said. A series of webinars sharing lessons from the project is also in the works.
Over the lifespan of 10 projects, each of which is based at a local station, Localore productions have drawn a cumulative audience of 27,562,166 across all platforms, according to AIR. The organization calculated audience usage by analyzing Nielsen ratings, website traffic, attendance at public events and other data.