The KBIA news team and its Missouri School of Journalism partners have worked to use digital platforms for community and connection with our listeners and beyond. The student teams working with our professional producers bring innovative engagement techniques to our work, and in 2023 our teams produced digital timelines in its reporting, a video for the deaf and hard of hearing, and a youth media podcast, all of which joined our two-way series, podcasts and talk shows that were broadcast across platforms.
Here's a rundown with links to some of our professional and student teams' efforts from 2023:
Engagement producer Kassidy Arena spent months connecting with mid-Missouri teens from the community Dream Tree Academy to build this Youth Media Project and podcast: Take Notes. This engagement-first producing project prioritized relationship-building and listening, before Arena got out equipment and handed over the mics to her student partners, who created the podcast.
https://www.kbia.org/youth-media-productions
When KBIA health reporters Anna Spidel and Rebecca Smith covered the launch of the 988 suicide prevention line's new video phone service for crisis counseling in American Sign Language, they quickly produced a video in ASL so that deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences could access the story.
KBIA Cover Story podcast is a digital-first project and podcast that explores love, family, history, and race, through the soundtracks of our lives.
https://www.kbia.org/podcast/cover-story-with-stephanie-shonekan
KBIA's talk program Views of the News is a collaboration with the Missouri School of Journalism and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Each week, our panel of big-thinkers in journalism dissect the week's stories, with an eye on press freedom, journalism ethics, diversity and democracy. This project has always been digital-first and multi-platform, broadcasting digital video and conducting outreach across social media platforms that accompany its hefty audio conversations.
https://www.kbia.org/show/views-of-the-news/2023-11-01/views-of-the-news-should-espn-apologize
As part of an extensive series of pieces that has involved listening to and lifting up the voices of incarcerated people and their families, KBIA reporter Rebecca Smith has produced photos, audio and compelling digital storytelling to capture the lives of the individuals and families whom we meet through her work. Smith also delved into the history of court rulings that have changed the landscape of juvenile justice in the United States, as seen in the digital timeline embedded in this piece. Smith has also produced multiple Story Corps-style conversations that can be seen embedded in this story.