February 6, 2020

CPBs $1.9M America Amplified: Election 2020 initiative announces partner stations

As the election season kicks off, Side Effects Public Media will participate in the “America Amplified: Election 2020” initiative, joining seven 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.

Side Effects, working closely with WFYI and Indiana Public Broadcasting, will gather data and engage the community in a variety of ways, including listening events, public forums, texting clubs and social media to seek stories and perspectives about healthcare from diverse communities beyond the typical public media audience.

"We're excited to be part of this national initiative," said Side Effects Managing Editor Dave Rosenthal. "And the emphasis on community engagement will give us a much better sense of the healthcare issues that voters are worried about."

The project includes public radio collaborations across the U.S. and is led by KCUR 89.3 in Kansas City. 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 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 Side Effects Public Media

Headquartered at WFYI Public Media in Indianapolis, Side Effects is a health news service exploring the impacts of place, policy and economics on Americans’ health. Our award-winning reporting sheds light on root causes of community-wide issues, including mental health treatment in schools, health care challenges faced by immigrants and refugees and ways people work around the health care system as well as new efforts to solve them. Side Effects stories have been heard nationally on NPR and published in news outlets around the country. Partnering public media outlets include KBIA, Iowa Public Radio, WFPL, WILL, WNIN, WOSU and WSIU.

About WFYI Public Media

As a PBS and NPR member station that also produces local and original content, WFYI Public Media serves the public through six 24/7 digital broadcast services. WFYI Public Radio operates on two distinct stations – 90.1 FM and 90.1 HD2 The Point, while WFYI Public Television operates three DTV services (20.1, 20.2 and 20.3). Through intentional community engagement, WFYI has a strong education component, particularly as a hub for the public media Ready To Learn initiative, and an ongoing public presence as an organization that amplifies the voices of our community. Additionally, WFYI runs the Indiana Reading and Information Service (IRIS), a reading service for visually - and literacy-impaired people. Learn more at wfyi.org.

About IPBS

IPBS is a not-for-profit association of 17 public TV and radio stations which serve the state of Indiana.  Together they provide engaging, educational and informational programming for Indiana citizens. The best of PBS and NPR combined with award-winning local programs to meet community interests and statewide news are just some of the services delivered to Hoosier homes and schools by IPBS member stations.

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. For more information, visit cpb.org, follow us on Twitter @CPBmedia, Facebook and 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: WFYI and Indiana Public Broadcasting (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]).

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