Arkansas PBS created more than 400 hours of content, 20 hours of original content and 24 lesson plans resulting in more than 300,300 video views – breaking all of our digital platform records – for schoolchildren in Pre-K through 8th grade. This daily and essential educational community service, especially critical for 42% of Arkansans who live in rural areas and may not have access to broadband, included five Arkansas Teachers of the Year as our daily hosts who provided a personal connection and daily routine kids were craving.
News for All ensures underserved and vulnerable populations have access to news and information in their languages, to connect them with the community at large, keep them up to date regarding critical resources available during the COVID-19 pandemic and envelope them in the democratic process.
In the wake of COVID-19, the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) partnered with PBS stations across Kansas to present the New Times, New Tools, New Teaching Virtual Conference to create better teachers. It sold out in two days.
The Pittsburgh region is run in large part by more than 500 unelected board members of authorities, commissions and other governmental agencies who often decide what does and doesn’t get built, who gets contracts and grants, what rates and fees we pay and more. This project sheds light on these panels and their roles, providing information about each member and inviting analysis of this important part of the region’s power structure.
In response to how the pandemic has changed our lives, WBGO created two new services, The WBGO Livestream Hub and the WBGO Education Hub, to connect our community to opportunities to experience live music safely, give local musicians a no-cost way to message out their online performances and connect area students and musicians for music education opportunities unavailable before the lockdown. We used social media and our community calendar, available to all NPR stations using Core Publisher, and other free tools to build this online resource.
Spotlight PA is a collaborative project that enhances the local journalism ecosystem and strengthens our democracy by enabling Pennsylvanians in all corners to have access to high-quality, public-interest journalism about statehouse and statewide issues. Its innovative partnership model – now the largest of its kind in the U.S. – and bespoke collaborative story sharing platform and Content Management System are replicable for newsrooms across the country.
The COVID-19 Brief is a weekly live, call-in show with the Homer Unified Command-The City of Homer, South Peninsula Hospital, AK Dept of Public Health and Kenai Peninsula Borough School District to update the community on the local covid-19 situation, allow listeners to call in and ask questions and allow community leaders and healthcare professionals to disseminate vital information to the community.
Since the pandemic hit Nevada, we have aimed to provide the most comprehensive COVID-19 data, infographics and informed context in the state. As the only major paywall-free news site in Nevada (excluding radio and television sites), all of our in-depth coronavirus reporting is accessible to all Nevadans regardless of ability to pay.
Series of one-minute interstitials (spots) featuring South Florida PBS KidVision’s Miss Penny providing information to families and children about the many changes in their lives due to Coronavirus, from practicing healthy habits to explaining why and how our lives and habits have changed due to the pandemic as well as preparing them for the new protocols they will see when they return to school.
Launched in March 2020 as the coronavirus threat began to surge, “The Daily Dose” podcast serves as a twelve-minute evening roundup of WYPR’s latest local and state reporting on Maryland’s COVID-19 response, as well as a forum for community members who want to share their stories about everyday life during the pandemic. This daily podcast fosters greater knowledge, connection and understanding for Marylanders navigating the ongoing public health crisis.
The NC Watchdog Reporting Network is a cooperative effort of investigative journalists representing seven news organizations across North Carolina. Participants include Carolina Public Press (CPP), the Charlotte Observer, the News and Observer, WBTV, WECT, WRAL and WUNC.
Reading Frederick Douglass uses new technology to capture a statewide virtual public reading of the famous 1852 speech in which Douglass asked, “What to the slave is your fourth of July?” His words are just as meaningful today as they were nearly 170 years ago.
WCNY created the TV Classroom Network in response to the educational needs of students, primarily the roughly 12,000 students in Central New York caught in the “digital divide” without access to broadband and therefore unable to participate in online learning offered by their schools. Beginning in March, 2020 WCNY produced and broadcast 45 hours per week of instructional television, preK-12 classroom lessons in key academic subject areas taught by local educators on a special set at WCNY. For those with Internet access the content was also livestreamed and available on-demand on the WCNY website.
Half of Alabama Public Radio’s audience is along the Gulf coast, which is suffering under a “news desert” due to the demise of the Mobile Press Register newspaper. APR instituted a successful program to recruit and train veteran print journalists still in the area to fill that void with radio content, including stories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inspired by the words of Fred Rogers, LPB’s “The Helpers” is a digital series that aims to help people cope with their negative feelings by showing them that good things are still happening in their communities as their neighbors find ways to overcome their own challenges and fears.
St. Louis Public Radio’s livestream on Twitch has transformed the way our journalists connect with our audience and gives both the space and support to examine challenging news thoughtfully.
Through its partnership with local government, WCTE was able to broadcast live emergency updates from inside Putnam County’s Emergency Operations Center just hours after an EF4 tornado struck Cookeville, destroying entire subdivisions and killing more than 20 people. This capability existed because county officials partnered to provide WCTE with studio space, audio and video equipment and a direct internet link between the Emergency Management Agency building and WCTE’s Master Control.
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, WKAR shifted resources to launch a new show “COVID-19: Answers and Insight,” a weekly series of roundtable discussions with experts to examine the health crisis and provide the public with the much-needed accurate, timely information. The program aired on PBS stations across Michigan, with the first episode airing on March 26 — just two weeks after schools closed in Michigan and WKAR employees were directed to work from home.
KPCC/LAist gave 12 Southern California parents cameras and asked them to document their lives. Over the course of a year, the “Parenting, Unfiltered” project captured the challenges and joys of raising young children during a pandemic, shaped our reporting and supported community members in telling their own stories.
