MPT’s Digital Studios partnered with the local NASA Goddard campus to create four digital shorts about Maryland’s contributions to space research, as part of the PBS Summer of Space programming, MPT held a public screening at the Old Greenbelt Theatre. The station’s digital team worked at Goddard’s social media staff to orchestrate cross-posting; NASA promoted the series to their 1.2 million on Facebook fans, and 543 thousand on Twitter contacts, resulting in 13,000 Facebook video plays.
Next City is a nonprofit news organization, founded in 2003, that believes in the power of journalism to amplify solutions from one city to the next city. Next City hosts live seminars, free hour-long webinars in which we ask practitioners to share lessons from successful projects in a 30-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of moderated questions. Access is “pay what you wish;” the highest response has been 539 registrants contributing $3,500.
Valley Sounds is an all-local show featuring original music from classical to rap to punk to country to gospel to electronica and everything in between, all performed in the Tennessee Valley. Artists are encouraged to submit their recordings to Valley Sounds online or at an in-person meet and greets. The meet and greets, held at local bars and music venues, act as a community producers meeting, where musicians and fans can share ideas about the show.
Pennsylvania Public Media stations WHYY, WITF, WLVT/PBS39, WPSU, WQED, WQLN, WVIA are collaborating to produce educational programming that focuses on the opioid crisis with the goals of increasing awareness, reducing stigma, aiding prevention, and helping people find treatment. This state-wide project included long-form documentaries, online features, educational interstitials, and strong social media support. Battling Opioids helped to direct more than 23,000 calls to the state helpline since the project started.
Over the course of 2018, the Richland Source has dedicated time and resources from its small newsroom to reporting on Mansfield as a Rust Belt legacy city. The staff’s reporting has focused on how Richland County has responded to its situation, what solutions other communities have implemented to move past their dying manufacturing legacies and how Richland County, specifically its county seat Mansfield, can learn from these places, move forward and rise from the rust.
Aging Matters is NPT’s landmark original series focused on exploring how an aging US demographic will impact life in our community and communities across the nation.
Insider Louisville created a database of local civic leaders to measure their community impact. Each individual was given a civic engagement score. Criteria included but was not limited to nonprofit board participation, founding a company, charity support, elected to office, networking group membership and media exposure. Insider Louisville published a report to honor the top 100 ranked civic leaders in a report: “Insider Louisville’s Top 100: Change-makers and groundbreakers.”
Community in Unity is a solutions journalism project and event series from Alaska Public Media to begin critical and thoughtful dialogue between different people. APM works with community partners to invite people inside homeless shelters, community centers, prisons, and TV studios for recorded conversations about topics that are affecting them. Topics have ranged from race and identity to mental health, immigration, and incarceration.
At its core, “Beyond the Ballot” (BTB) is a community engagement project.
With BTB, WPR is turning our traditional reporting process on its head. Instead of reporters and editors deciding what’s important to cover this election season, we’re asking hundreds of people what they think.
Sonoma County’s KRCB radio and TV is working with bilingual radio station KBBF in Santa Rosa to ask residents of one neighborhood how their annexation into the city of Santa Rosa may affect their health. The project includes English and Spanish news features and call-in shows about issues like housing, immigration, infrastructure, and parks, as they relate to community wellbeing, and interviews with residents and stakeholders.
Spurred by the voice of a community member, Capital Public Radio created the region’s first Tiny Desk concert, showcasing multiple local entrants who entered this year’s national contest and highlighting numerous others with promotional and follow-up blog content at capradio.org.
KPCC’s Human Voter Guide started in 2016 as a series of questions and answers on the radio and online. Its goal was to help Southern California residents navigate elections and voting through personalized research. Using the web-based engagement platform Hearken and the text-messaging engagement service GroundSource, KPCC is now able to track a larger volume of questions and offer election-related reminders via text message.
In order to expand the reach and impact of its health content to low-income and underserved audiences, ideastream partnered with a Federally Qualified Health Center to distribute ideastream’s locally-produced three-hour healh video compilation throughout the Center’s five clinics. The initiative is called the Be Well Health Network.
Side Effects is a public health journalism initiative of WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis, in partnership with the Indiana Minority Health Coalition, to explore the issue of the opioid epidemic being presented as a “white” problem and its implications, like disparities in access to treatment, criminal sentencing, and even the language used to describe the addicted. The project includes a documentary, a panel discussion, and more.
PBS KIDS Playtime Pad Research Project is a unique partnership connecting PBS and PBS KIDS content, researchers in the College of Education at MSU and teachers and families in the Lansing School District. The Project investigates the effectiveness of tablet-based learning initiatives in early childhood math literacy, while providing access to the latest digital learning tools for students, teachers and parents.
To reach a new (and younger) audience, WNED | WBFO converted its radio pledge room into a small studio this year. It’s used to create “community conversations” — interactive events on Facebook Live and other social media. The stations are hosting discussions on a wide range of topics — from mental health and racial equity to local theater and summer reads.
Rhode Island has one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in the country and over the last 18 – 24 months local thoughts leaders, experts in Opioid Use Disorder, as well as scientists, ED doctors, and politicians have formed a task force to address this issue. Due to the hard work of so many, R.I. has emerged as a leader in combating the epidemic. In a short period of time, R.I. went from having the 5th highest overdose rate in the country to the 10th. The Fix shines a light on the problem but also on the amazing work being done in R.I..
A collaborative project between WPT and WPR, Food Traditions explores expressions of identity through food. From the Mississippi River to lake Michigan, the Apostle Islands to Beloit, we learn about ingredients Wisconsinites choose to grow, collect, use and leave out, how they prepare a dish, whom they share it with and how these traditions construct their sense of identity. This project explores underrepresented identities, touching on topics like family tradition, food sovereignty, assimilation, integration, community building, health, immigration and sustainability. With popular shows like Wisconsin Foodie and Around the Farm Table and with the recent success of the Great Wisconsin Baking Challenge, food has become part of the WPT brand. This project is leveraging our digital community and asking them to engage with us around food in a more comprehensive way.
