“NEXT with Marcus Atkinson” on WQLN Radio 91.3FM/Erie began as a series of unscripted, unrehearsed interviews with the “next generation” of local voices, young leaders who are guiding Erie through challenges affecting the city’s minority communities, including an epidemic of gun violence, a scarcity of professional opportunities, a lack of safe and affordable housing and incidences of police brutality. The series has recently expanded to new platforms, reaching thousands of additional audience members, especially those outside of the public media “traditional” audience, and its focus has expanded beyond challenges that are specific to the city, touching on topics that are equally relevant to young residents beyond the city and county limits.
Out of the Blocks is an immersive listening experience built from a mosaic of voices and soundscapes on the streets of Baltimore. In each episode, producers Aaron Henkin and Wendel Patrick make it their mission to meet and interview everyone on a city block.
WYSO’s Peer-to-Peer Initiative is an innovative approach to story collecting that has grown organically out of the station’s Community Voices training project. With help from freelance producers, WYSO trains citizens to interview each other. These interviews became radio and web series and community engagement events. When their stories are shared on the radio, the storytellers are validated and the listeners meet people whose experiences are likely different from their own.
KUOW’s “Ask A…” project is a community engagement initiative to promote empathy and understanding with groups that have been “othered” by media or politics. It features person-to-person conversation events where a group of “askers” have consecutive eight-minute conversations with a group of “answerers,” followed by a group discussion and a shared meal. Events have included Muslims, Trump supporters, transgender people, journalists, foster parents, immigrants, gun owners, and Special Olympics athletes.
In a local take on the NPR series “Turning the Tables,” musician and staff writer at 90.9 The Bridge, Michelle Bacon, looked at gender, equality and the future of the Kansas City music scene. Her four part series “Turning the Tables: KC Edition,” published at bridge909.org, culminated in a live panel and showcase of women in music.
WETA Digital created the Historical D.C. Metro Map interactive by identifying quirky and interesting stories for the areas in proximity to each transit stop. The stories were then used to create a reimagined interactive map with new “historical” names for each Metrorail station.
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.”
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.
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.
As part of a digital initiative that coincided with a documentary of the same name produced by Arizona Public Media, reporters asked community members to share stories about how they or their families were impacted by the Vietnam War. Stories were archived online to be watched or read, and some were broadcast by Arizona Public Media stations. Stories were written or taped at live screenings.
Chronic childhood trauma, or what experts call adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can disrupt a child’s brain-building process. “Building Strong Brains: Tennessee ACEs Initiative” is a statewide effort to establish Tennessee as a national model for how a state can promote culture change in early childhood based on a philosophy that preventing and mitigating adverse childhood experiences, and their impact, is the most promising approach to helping Tennessee children lead productive, healthy lives and ensure the future prosperity of the state.
Writer’s Block is a station initiative that brings together local playwrights, poets, and story tellers to present their original work before a live studio audience.
100 Days in Appalachia is a reporting project created the day after the 2016 election that pushes back against parachute journalists’ and national narratives about rural America. It’s published at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media Innovation Center in collaboration with West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) and The Daily Yonder, of the Center for Rural Strategies, headquartered in Kentucky.
The Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) produced an Emmy-winning documentary on the rise and fall of Little Rock, Arkansas’s successful yet segregated African-American business district (1940-50’s), using a historic building in the district known as the Dreamland Ballroom as a focal point. AETN has built dozens of community partnerships; held educational screenings, panels discussions, and workshops; and conducted riveting community dialogues on diversity and race relations throughout 2018 that will undoubtedly continue.
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.
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.
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.
