Demonstrations on the University of Missouri campus in November 2015 re-kindled a national conversation about race in modern America. These are not issues that sprung up out of nowhere: these issues have been haunting the University of Missouri campus for decades. KBIA has been covering stories in this arena for years, one good example from late 2014 was an episode of our talk show “Intersection” where we spoke with (now UM System President) Mike Middleton and another guest about the history of civil rights at MU and in Columbia. http://kbia.org/post/exploring-columbias-civil-rights-history
Another is from early 2105, when KBIA’s story “How Columbia Could be More Segregated than Ferguson” used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, KBIA analyzed the racial dynamics of Columbia 10 months before the community and campus was thrust into the national spotlight.
We mention those examples to point out this is a topic our entire newsroom has covered for quite some time. However, we understand that our entry needs to consist of examples from the entry window to be considered. So, we ask that you simply listen to portions of the four pieces of audio strewn out on this page to hear how these stories were presented in our traditional medium, and inspect the 4 links on the main submission page to see the digital presentation of these examples. We have provided additional links in this document should you want to explore further.
The first part of our entry is a 15 minute summary of our breaking news coverage that aired within 24 hours of Tim Wolfe’s resignation on November 9th. The time codes below explain what you will hear, and we provide some links to the original stories posted online should you want to see more. You will hear short beeps to denote the separation between pieces. Nearly all of the audio pieces have been shortened for the purpose of this competition. Some but not all of them are represented digitally at this link: http://kbia.org/term/mizzoubreaking.
(00-01:19)10:00 a.m. newscast that aired just before Wolfe’s resignation on November 9, 2015.
(01:20-03:13 ) Portions of our live broadcast of the resignation of Tim Wolfe.
(03:14-04:34) Noon newscast
(04:34-06:13) 2:00 p..m newscast
(06:13- 07:16) 4:30 p.m. newscast, aired just minutes before Loftin’s resignation.
(07:16-07:52) Live coverage of the UM Curators meeting where Loftin’s resignation is announced.
(07:53-08:14) 5:30 p.m. newscast.
(08:15-10:44) Excerpts from the half hour program “Intersection,” which aired at 6:00 p.m. the same day as the resignations and demonstrations (November 9, 2015). Complete show here: http://kbia.org/post/intersection-voices-historic-monday-university-missouri
(10:44-14:44) Reporter Reflects on Being Inside Confrontation Between Reporters and MU Demonstrators A first-person account by KBIA reporter Bram Sable-Smith, detailing his presence in the confrontation between journalists and demonstrators over efforts to document the students on campus Aired the morning of November 10, 2015.
While there were many other examples of our coverage that we have left out of this submission, we decided to provide three other audo examples:
MU Student Voices: “I Want Mizzou to Be a Brighter Campus”
Original post: http://kbia.org/post/mu-student-voices-i-want-mizzou-be-brighter-campus
Melissa Click
KBIA had one of the first interviews with Melissa Click, the Communications professor who confronted reporters on the campus, setting off a national debate over First Amendment rights. KBIA quickly posted the raw audio and a transcript of the interview online on February 10th, 2016 after it was conducted, which was quoted in publications worldwide: http://kbia.org/post/interview-melissa-click. The full interview aired the next day on KBIA:
Explainer and Mizzou at a Crossroads
As often happens in these situations, the national narrative of what happened at the University of Missouri made a complex situation look simple. Many journalists were depriving an audience that wanted to understand this story the context about the systemic, long-term issues that brought this all to head in Columbia.
KBIA sought to clear up some of these misconceptions in the immediate aftermath with the post, “4 Things You Might Have Wrong About the Mizzou Story:” The web-only story had more than 100,000 page views in three days.
While KBIA continued its day-to-day coverage of the aftermath in late 2015 and early 2016, the entire staff also began work on a long-form series that would seek to provide more much-needed context. The result was “Mizzou at a Crossroads.”
“Mizzou at a Crossroads” is an in-depth analysis on the history of race relations at MU, the efforts to start conversations about race on campus, the process behind hiring former University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe, and an overview of what might be in store for the future of UM leadership. The analysis of the “ghosts” of the University’s past present and future explored issues rarely touched by other media after the events of November 2015, and never to this layer of depth. Three stories, between 20-30 minutes each, aired on KBIA in February 2016.
http://kbia.org/term/mizzou-crossroads
KBIA also sought to convey this story digitally in a meaningful, impactful way. When creating online experiences for our special projects, KBIA’s Digital Content Director Nathan Lawrence was struck by the lack of flexibility available in tools like Atavist, Divi and Layers. Though they did a great job of making things look nice, they got in the way when writers and editors were looking to focus on content and frequently stymied creative decisions for presentation. So, Lawrence decided to build his own tool for this project. As a result, he created our unique Jekyll-based special projects workflow.
http://apps.kbia.org/mizzou-crossroads/
The interactive layout for Mizzou at a Crossroads went live online February.
Then, in March, KBIA also distributed the three parts as serialized podcasts. (Search for “Mizzou at a Crossroads” in the iTunes store and you will find it). KBIA also released a version of the project as a hour-long documentary, providing more flexibility for it to be aired at KBIA and other members stations.
Here is the hour long version: