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KOSU selected to be part of America Amplified Initiative

KOSU's Kateleigh Mills (right) interviews farmer Micah Anderson (left) in August 2020.
Chelsea Stanfield / KOSU
KOSU's Kateleigh Mills has been doing community engagement reporting for the past few years.

KOSU will deepen its engagement with communities across Oklahoma this coming year by partnering with other public radio stations in a national initiative called America Amplified.

The initiative is hosted by WFYI in Indianapolis and is funded by a $983,451 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to support community engagement journalism in traditionally underserved areas. The initiative builds on a similar projectlaunched in the fall of 2019 to produce innovative journalism through engagement. The initiative prioritizes meaningful in-person and online engagement in order to build trust, expand audiences and deepen the impact of public media journalism.

Through this initiative, KOSU aims to put people, not preconceived ideas, at the center of its reporting process — because of ongoing concerns around the pandemic, we will be using tools such as crowdsourcing, virtual town halls, polls and social media to listen first to the concerns and aspirations of our communities. Whenever possible, we will also be hosting live events and meeting with community members in places where they gather.

For its part, KOSU will continue its work in rural Oklahoma, talking with folks about issues affecting them and their communities. Our work aims to help spotlight undercovered issues specific to rural Oklahoma and help close the gap between rural, urban and suburban Oklahomans.

America Amplified is working with 20 public media stations, including KOSU. The other stations are:

  • WWNO in New Orleans; 
  • WUSF in Tampa, Florida; 
  • WSHU in  Fairfield, Connecticut; 
  • WNIN in Evansville, Indiana, 
  • WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky;  
  • WNIJ in Rockford, Illinois; 
  • WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvanial;  
  • WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama; 
  • North Country Public Radio in Canton, New York; 
  • North State Public Radio in Chico, California; 
  • Montana Public Radio in Missoula, Montana; 
  • Maine Public in Lewiston, Maine; 
  • KUNR in Reno, Nevada; 
  • KUNC in Greeley, Colorado; 
  • KTOO in Juneau, Alaska; 
  • KSJD in Cortez, Colorado; 
  • KMUW in Wichita, Kansas; 
  • Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville, North Carolina; 
  • Austin PBS in Austin, Texas 

America Amplified’s goal is to create and share models of community engagement success stories to inform and strengthen future local, regional and national journalism.

Follow America Amplified on Twitter at @A_Amplified or visit www.americaamplified.org to sign up for our newsletter.

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