
Local that Works spotlights innovative and replicable content, engagement and revenue initiatives at public radio and TV stations and nonprofit and digital news organizations in the U.S. LTW includes an annual contest and a database (below). LTW produces webinars that offer insights into projects and organizations that are reshaping local civic journalism.
Explore the database of 553 Local that Works projects. Check out Local that Works contest Winners, Finalists and Semifinalists by clicking on those colored tags.
Other tips on using the database: If viewing this on a computer, all projects are listed in the left column. Click on a project name and its longer profile will appear in the right column. If viewing on mobile, clicking on a project name will load the full listing on your screen.
Filter your results by selecting a tag or multiple tags in the categories drop down menu and clicking on search. IMPORTANT: Make sure to deselect your checked categories for subsequent searches.
79 results found.
Shaping Narratives
WGVU Public MediaOur Shaping Narratives leaders of color have produced stories with and for their communities that are being used to encourage change-based conversations.
Listen MKE
Milwaukee PBSA joint partnership between the local paper, NPR, the public library and Milwaukee PBS focused on listening and engaging an impoverished neighborhood that has been traditionally ignored by media.
Minnesota’s Diverse Communities – Survey and Listening Sessions
Minnesota Public RadioA series of virtual listening sessions with residents in greater Minnesota who identify as Black, Indigenous or persons of color (BIPOC) coupled with a statewide public opinion survey.
Southeast Alaska Storytelling: “Haa Léelk’u Hás Haa Éet Aawlitoo.át” and “Sitka Tells Tales”
KCAW-FM Raven RadioOur region is hungry for new narratives and contacts – KCAW responded by adapting regional storytelling. Our Grandparents’ Teachings and Sitka Tells Tales connects listeners to authentic local culture.
Conecta Arizona
Conecta ArizonaConecta Arizona is a multi-platform news-you-can-use service that serves Spanish speakers in Arizona with accurate and timely information about Covid-19 and a wide range of related topics.
Crossing the Lines: A Local Look at Regional Change
WDET-101.9 FMUsing voices of residents of all nationalities and age and census data, WDET looks at rapidly changing communities of southeast Michigan as part of our intermittent series called Crossing the Lines.
The Crosstown Neighborhood Newsletter
Crosstown LAThere is no one-size-fits-all news for Los Angeles, a sprawling city of four million. So we created 110 different email newsletters, one for each neighborhood.
Building a Faith and Religion Beat That’s Responsive to the Community
PublicSourceThis beat explores how issues of race, identity, and crisis have intersected with and affected faith and religion in the Pittsburgh region, both in the past and today.
“Living While Black”
Panhandle PBSPanhandle PBS’s “Living While Black” content initiative and outreach efforts asks Black Texas Panhandle residents to describe what “living while Black” means to them and how we can create change.
Shaping Narratives
chappels@gvsu.edu
https://www.wgvu.org/shaping-narratives/
The problem that our Shaping Narratives initiative is trying to address is that racial minorities do not have enough access to platforms where the issues that affect them are decided. The outcome we want to see is more action-oriented community engagement and a cohort of leaders, trained by WGVU, effectively elevating narratives of racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Over time this model will increase their capacity to shape and influence social narratives sustainably. The long-term goal is to build media, community organizing and civic engagement capacity into West Michigan’s racial minority networks so they can influence the structures causing racialized outcomes.
WGVU’s Shaping Narratives participants have produced five pilot programs, built from the ground up on the values of inclusion, community and equity. Our host/producers are leaders of color in West Michigan who designed their programs with their communities and for their communities. Shaping Narratives is more than broadcast content. We have wedded the production process to community engagement. Each of our participants has simultaneously developed a half hour pilot program, a local affinity group and a social media following oriented toward addressing issues they are passionate about.
(1)-Ngiiwe (TV) was produced by Lin Bardwell, a Native woman from Grand Rapids, who is searching for a way to reclaim the relationships and traditions of her ancestors as her life in the city presents contemporary dilemmas.
(2)-Color Out Here (TV), produced by Alice Jasper, a biracial woman raised in Brooklyn, reframes how you see the outdoors, the environment, and Michigan places you think you know, as she leads expeditions of urban Black and Biracial residents of West Michigan to the outdoors.
(3)-Meeting God (TV), produced by Rishi Makkar, a devout Sikh businessman in West Michigan, takes viewers on a journey to learn about humanity’s common values by exchanging immersive spiritual experiences.
(4)-The Black Honest Truth (Podcast), produced by Christine Mwangi, born in Kenya and educated in the US and England, explores the lived experience of blackness in America as both common and distinct between African Americans and African Immigrants and refugees.
(5)-Cultural Ingredients (TV), produced by George Walker, a chef and sommelier explores the geopolitical events that make it possible for us to taste food from around the world—one dish at a time, one ingredient at a time, one person at a time.
We have seen our goal to build capacity in communities of color come to fruition. We trained five leaders of color over 30 weeks. This training, in partnership with the GVSU Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies, covered decolonizing narratives, media and production skills and community organizing as a distribution strategy. This training enabled participants to design and produce TV and radio programs that addressed the needs they identified as impacting children and families of color in West Michigan. These programs were previewed at a large preview event in November 2019. The pilot programs then aired on WGVU. The community-support teams, created as part of the process, will be scheduling screenings throughout Grand Rapids and beyond. This community engagement is the key component we will build upon to spark change-based conversations as a method of increasing the impact in the communities we serve.
This initiative has thus far been funded through a grant and in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.