Behind the Stories
How America Amplified stations turn engagement into content, and what they learned along the way.
Check out our archives to see what we learned in America Amplified 1.0
How KCUR added critiquing their own content into the newsroom process
Public radio stations produce a ton of local content on a wide range of platforms: news features, digital stories, videos, talk shows, newscasts, announcer breaks, promos. But it’s difficult to actually listen and read in real time to evaluate how well we are serving communities. News directors and other managers may carve out time to evaluate the work, but we really need more diverse observations to continually improve.
Ed Mahon of WITF on finding the ‘human element’ through engagement
Ed Mahon, now with Spotlight PA, was a legislative reporter for WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a partner station of America Amplified. His 2020 community engagement work centered around being embedded in Erie, a city in the northwest corner of the state.
At WITF, community engagement success is ‘absolutely critical to sustainability’
Cara Williams Fry has been the Chief Content Officer at WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, since 2010. WITF has a unique and successful culture of community engagement journalism.
Ariel Worthy on her lesson from Pittsburgh’s Hill District: Trust takes time
Ariel Worthy, a reporter for WESA in Pittsburgh, spent 2020 as one of StateImpact Pennsylvania’s embedded journalists as part of the America Amplified initiative.
How Side Effects Public Media plans its Facebook Live events
Brittani Howell is the community engagement specialist for Side Effects Public Media. She leads various community engagement efforts, from texting exchanges to hosting events. She shared this workflow with us.
Facing our ‘shameful truth’: KCUR's Celia Llopis-Jepsen on auditing her own stories for diversity
Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, covering health issues from a consumer perspective, as well as state education policy. She previously worked at the Taipei Times and Topeka Capital-Journal, and brings in-depth experience covering schools.
Ohio Valley ReSource use of Hearken: What was helpful, what was limiting
Jeff Young is the managing editor of Ohio Valley ReSource. He is an award-winning journalist and has reported from Appalachian coalfields, Capitol Hill, and New England’s coast, among other places. His book, “Appalachian Fall: Dispatches from Coal Country on What's Ailing America,” was released in August 2020.
Meet a community engagement manager: Robin Tate Rockel at Indiana Public Broadcasting
Robin Tate Rockel is Community Engagement Manager at Indiana Public Broadcasting. She spoke with Ann Alquist of America Amplified about her job and how it is integrated into the Indiana Public Broadcasting newsroom.
Why Mountain West editor is ‘addicted’ to community engagement after hosting listening sessions
Kate Concannon is the managing editor of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of public media stations that serve the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Montana and Wyoming.
WITF’s Toward Racial Justice — Conversations to educate, engage and inspire change.
Toward Racial Justice is WITF’s digital conversation series addressing systemic racism and injustice in Central Pennsylvania and beyond. To develop the series, we called upon the voice and perspective of a diverse organizing committee.
If you want to launch a Spanish language show, see these lessons from New Hampshire Public Radio
In 2020, New Hampshire Public Radio launched a concerted effort to meet the information needs of the state’s Spanish-speaking audience. The effort led by reporter Daniela Allee resulted in a daily newscast, translated into Spanish, that’s gaining audience via WhatsApp.
How Facebook posts led KOSU’s Seth Bodine to a community problem in Oklahoma
Seth Bodine covers agriculture and rural issues for KOSU in Oklahoma as a Report For America corps member. In December 2020, he published a story about the poor quality of water in Hobart, Oklahoma. Here’s how he discovered the story through Facebook.
Facebook Live en Español: KUNR’s efforts to fill a need and grow an audience
Text and audio reporting in Spanish are currently offered on the KUNR’s website. The station formalized bilingual reporting through a student internship program in 2016 with Noticiero Móvil, a student staffed bilingual newsroom at the University of Nevada-Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism.
‘When it works you just know it’: KOSU shares rewards of community engagement
Rachel Hubbard is an journalist with a track record of innovative collaborations during her 20-year career at KOSU in Oklahoma. KOSU is a small station that covers two-thirds of the state — with a news staff of only four — but have successfully integrated engagement into much of their journalism. We asked her to explain the process.