People

PRNDI to honor John Dinges at June banquet

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Journalist and educator John Dinges will receive this year’s Leo C. Lee Award for significant contributions to public radio news. As head of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s radio curriculum, Dinges revamped the program to emphasize public radio journalism and helped launch the careers of award-winning pubradio journalists “from Wyoming to Washington, D.C.,” according to PRNDI’s award announcement. Earlier in his career, Dinges was a freelance correspondent in Latin America and contributed to Time, the Washington Post, ABC Radio, the Miami Herald and other news organizations. He became an assistant editor on the foreign desk at the Washington Post and later joined NPR to help bolster its foreign coverage. He was promoted to deputy foreign editor and later ascended to managing editor for NPR News.

Journalism

NPR’s Code Switch digs into racial discomfort

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When Southern country singer Brad Paisley shared his awkward view of race relations in his controversial song “Accidental Racist” last month, the team at NPR’s Code Switch couldn’t have asked for better timing. The unit devoted to multimedia reporting and opinionating on matters of race, culture and ethnicity had just debuted on NPR’s website and social media under the Code Switch banner April 7. Two days later, Paisley’s cringe-inducing tune, which also featured LL Cool J delivering the lines “If you won’t judge my do-rag / I won’t judge your red flag,” whipped up a frenzy of dumbfounded disgust on Facebook and Twitter. “It’s kind of a softball over the plate,” wrote Code Switch blogger Gene Demby in a blogged conversation with Matt Thompson, manager of the Code Switch team. Indeed, Paisley’s song pushed many listeners into the territory that Code Switch calls home — a zone where people of different races and ethnicities try to understand each other and stumble into sometimes uncomfortable conversations along the way.

Programs/Content

WXXI ends 54-year run of Assignment: The World due to lack of funding

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Assignment: The World, the longest-running social-studies instructional TV program in the country, broadcast its last episode May 23. WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., which produced the ITV series for 54 years, announced the cancellation May 20. “Assignment: The World has experienced an increase in news acquisition costs, which were unfortunately not offset by program funding,” said Elissa Orlando, WXXI v.p. for television, in the announcement. “WXXI is saddened by this decision, but will continue to discover new ways to serve the educational needs of students.”

Every season, students could watch 32 weekly episodes, 15 minutes in length, in classrooms, either on the air or on-demand over the Internet. Teej Jenkins, the last host to anchor the show, presented a roundup of news events from the past week; teachers and students often interact with the show through writing prompts, issue questions and polls.

Programs/Content

Alaska Public Media’s new web-first series is part of its ‘video renaissance’

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Alaska Public Media has introduced a new weekly web-first series in what promises to be its “larger video renaissance.”

Indie Alaska, a weekly YouTube series profiling unique Alaskans, is co-produced with PBS Digital Studios and partially funded with a $10,000 Digital Entrepreneurs Grant from PBS. The show launched May 6 with an episode about a ski train polka band. Producers will deliver 52 episodes in total, with new ones debuting each Monday. Patrick Yack, chief content officer at Alaska Public Media, said the dual licensee plans to eventually repackage the episodes in a magazine-like format for TV broadcast and may adapt some for radio as well. The network broadcast promo spots for the series in addition to promoting it through social media.

Quick Takes

Former Iowa Board of Regents head files open-meetings suits against IPR Board

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Michael Gartner, a former president of the Iowa Board of Regents, has filed a 41-page lawsuit complaining that the Iowa Public Radio Board of Directors violated state law when it conducted a closed meeting last December before terminating IPR C.E.O. Mary Grace Herrington in February, the Des Moines Register is reporting. The Board of Regents will next week consider a renewal of its operating agreement with Iowa Public Radio that includes a provision requiring it to follow state open meetings and open records laws, according to the Gazette in Cedar Rapids. This is Gartner’s second such lawsuit, the Gazette also notes. Herrington’s ouster was sparked at least in part by internal dissension over her decision last year to fire Jonathan Ahl, a respected news director at the station (Current, March 5).