Southern California Public Radio to Develop and Execute New Program Focused on Engaged Journalism (October 27, 2021)
New Community-Focused Initiative Made Possible through Support from the Knight Foundation
Pasadena, Calif., October 27, 2021 —Southern California Public Radio (KPCC/LAist), in partnership with the Knight Foundation, American Press Institute, Chicago Public Media, WBUR, and Minnesota Public Radio, is launching a new program aimed at operationalizing the practice of engaged journalism in local public media newsrooms.
“Finding ways to increase engagement couldn’t be more vital for newsrooms today,” said Jim Brady, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism. “This initiative will help newsrooms build trust and develop a more inclusive dialogue with the communities they serve. We’re proud to support this effort, which will provide important lessons that can benefit the entire industry.”
Engaged journalism seeks to narrow the gap between newsrooms and the communities they serve by working in concert with community members to ensure that the news being delivered is relevant and useful. The practice is proven to build trust with community members, while helping to expand and diversify audiences.
“Many newsrooms around the country have community engagement strategies and donor databases, but few are equipped to identify or leverage the potential connection between the two,” said Kristen Muller, chief content officer, Southern California Public Radio. “We are excited to be collaborating on this project, which we believe will result in creating a template for not only better serving our audiences, but also expanding our reach to those traditionally excluded by local and public media organizations.”
With a $230,000 investment from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, SCPR will lead the creation and implementation of a year-long program that will support a cohort of public media organizations to initiate, develop, and deepen individual relationships through multiple points of contact, experiences, and ways of asking that earn an individual’s support. The newsrooms will form cross-functional teams to design workflows and technologies that accelerate the practice of engaged journalism and illustrate how a local news operation can deploy community engagement.
Together the participants in the program will produce case studies on how engaged journalism drives support from the community, as well as a roadmap for other newsrooms to use to mirror the program being stood up through the initial initiative. In the end, the program aims to gain the trust and support of audiences that have been traditionally excluded by the news sources available to them.
“The practice of engaged journalism is a key way for news organizations of all types to fulfill their mission because it forms stronger relationships with the communities they serve. Such ties are vital to the sustainability and health of both news outlets themselves and also to their communities,” said Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, executive vice president and chief of news transformation at the American Press Institute (API). “We are excited to catalyze this important work and learn alongside these four public media organizations.”
API will administer the cohort-based program and share out the lessons and findings from the news organizations through its various channels, including BetterNews.org.
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About Southern California Public Radio (SCPR)
Southern California Public Radio (www.scpr.org) is a member-supported multi-platform public media organization that has garnered more than 500 journalistic honors since 1999. Recognized as a national leader in public service journalism and civic engagement, SCPR’s flagship radio station, 89.3 KPCC-FM, reaches more than 900,000 listeners every week as the most listened-to public radio news service across Southern California. The network’s five stations (89.3 KPCC-FM, 89.1 KUOR-FM, 90.3 KVLA-FM, 89.9 FM, and 89.5 KJAI-FM) deliver award-winning local news coverage to the diverse communities of the region, including a robust slate of signature programs from NPR, APM, the BBC and PRI. LAist (www.laist.com) is a digital news site committed to in-depth reporting about life in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Its award-winning work reaches over seven million people per month, and in 2019, the brand grew to include LAist Studios (www.laiststudios.com), a dedicated podcast development and production studio. Furthering SCPR’s commitment to premium on-demand audio storytelling, podcasts from LAist Studios aim to reflect the ethos of Los Angeles — a forward-looking, minority-majority community built upon unmatched diversity, inclusion, and drive — going beyond geographical borders to connect with listeners around the globe who share the LA state of mind.
PRESS CONTACTS - The Lippin Group for SCPR
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