Kansas City, Missouri, Feb. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the election season kicks off, the “America Amplified: Election 2020” initiative, led by KCUR 89.3 in Kansas City, is pleased to announce the eight public media networks that will produce innovative journalism from community engagement efforts.
Each of these collaborations will receive funding from the initiative, which is supported by a $1.9 million grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The networks and their commitments to “America Amplified” are as follows:
- StateImpact Pennsylvania: Working with Keystone Crossroads to embed seven reporters in Pennsylvania communities underrepresented in local media
- Side Effects Public Media: Building engagement strategies around health issues, with a Midwest emphasis
- Mountain West News Bureau: Organizing various initiatives to listen to the concerns of underrepresented rural, Latinx and Indigenous communities along the region's Great Divide.
- I-4 Votes: Engaging non-voters and underrepresented communities along the Interstate 4 corridor, from Tampa to Orlando to Daytona Beach, Florida.
- Ohio Valley ReSource: Connecting rural communities online and in person through events and web-based outreach.
- New England News Collaborative: Reimagining how talk shows can reflect the concerns of communities
- Harvest Public Media: Rethinking how we listen to and report on rural communities across the Midwest and Great Plains
- WABE, Atlanta, Georgia: Using community engagement to strengthen relationships with and understanding of issues important to diverse women voters in the South
The partner public radio stations will collaborate to gather data and engage communities in a variety of ways, including through listening events, public forums, texting clubs and social media. The stations will share insights, stories and content with national broadcast collaborators such as NPR, PBS, the BBC and podcast producers.
“We’re excited to see how these efforts will change the reporting narrative in the election 2020 season,” said Donna Vestal, managing director of the initiative. “Plus, we’ll be sharing what we learn far and wide.”
“America Amplified: Election 2020” is also pleased to announce that it is partnering with The Public Agenda/USA Today Hidden Common Ground Initiative, which is exploring where Americans stand on critical issues of the day through original research and creative communications. Through this partnership, “America Amplified” will explore how Americans across the country find themselves united and/or divided.
A team of seven is leading “America Amplified: Election 2020,” which aims to strengthen collaboration within public media, build trust in local journalism and deepen understanding of America’s needs and aspirations.
The team comprises Donna Vestal, Alisa Barba, Jennifer Tufts, Kathy Lu, Andrea Tudhope, Matthew Long-Middleton and Ann Alquist, who is on loan from the The Public’s Radio in Rhode Island.
Additional public media stations and journalists are welcome to participate.
You can follow “America Amplified: Election 2020” on Twitter at @amplified2020 or email the team at election2020@kcur.org.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,500 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television, and related online services. Since 2009, CPB has invested $35 million to develop regional journalism collaborations throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.cpb.org and follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia, Facebook, LinkedIn, and subscribe for other updates.
About the collaborative networks
StateImpact Pennsylvania: WITF (Harrisburg), PA Post (statewide), WHYY (Philadelphia), WESA (Pittsburgh) and The Allegheny Front (Pittsburgh)
Side Effects Public Media: Indiana Public Broadcasting; WFYI (Indianapolis, Indiana); WOSU (Columbus, Ohio); WFPL (Louisville, Kentucky); Iowa Public Radio (Des Moines, Iowa); KBIA (Columbia, Missouri); WILL (Champaign-Urbana, Illinois); WSIU (Carbondale, Illinois) and WNIN (Evansville, Indiana)
Mountain West News Bureau: Boise State Public Radio (Boise, Idaho); Wyoming Public Radio (Laramie, Wyoming, but statewide distribution); KUNR (Reno, Nevada); KRCC (Colorado Springs, Colorado); KUNC (Greeley, Colorado); KUNM (Albuquerque, New Mexico); and the O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West University of Montana.
I-4 Votes: WUSF Public Media (Tampa); WMFE (Orlando)
Ohio Valley ReSource: Louisville Public Media (WFPL and WFPK, in Louisville, Kentucky); WVPB (West Virginia); WOUB (Ohio); WEKU (Richmond, Kentucky); WKYU (Bowling Green, Kentucky); WMMT, (Whitesburg, Kentucky); and WKMS (Murray, Kentucky)
New England News Collaborative: New England Public Media: WFCR (Amherst, Massachusetts) and WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts); Connecticut Public Radio (Hartford, Connecticut); WSHU Public Radio Group (Fairfield, Connecticut, but serves Connecticut and Suffolk County in New York); WBUR (Boston, Massachusetts); Maine Public Broadcasting Network; The Public’s Radio (Rhode Island); New Hampshire Public Radio (Concord, New Hampshire, but serves statewide and parts of Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine); Vermont Public Radio (Colchester, Vermont).
Harvest Public Media: KCUR (Kansas City, Missouri); NET (Lincoln, Nebraska); Iowa Public Radio (Des Moines, Iowa); WILL and the Illinois Newsroom (Urbana-Champaign, Illinois); Associate Partners KBIA (Columbia, Missouri), KVNO (Omaha, Nebraska), Prairie Public (Fargo, North Dakota), St. Louis Public Radio (St. Louis, Missouri), KRCC (Colorado Springs, Colorado), KSMU (Springfield, Missouri), KOSU (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and the Kansas News Service (HPPR [Garden City, Kansas, serving western KS, the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle and eastern CO], KMUW (Wichita, Kansas), KPR (Lawrence, Kansas).
About KCUR
KCUR 89.3 is the flagship NPR station in Kansas City, exploring thought-provoking ideas and stimulating conversations through its daily talk shows, in-depth reporting and entertainment programming. KCUR shares news, art, music and life in a way that inspires, challenges and connects people. A charter member of NPR, KCUR holds itself to the highest journalistic standards in service to the citizens of Kansas, Missouri, the broader Midwest and the nation. The station also leads Harvest Public Media and the Kansas News Service, among other collaborations. KCUR’s live stream, local news coverage and talk show podcasts are available at kcur.org. KCUR is operated as an editorially independent community service of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.