KOSU is one of 15 stations chosen after a national competition to incubate storytelling experiments and expand public media to more Americans.
The winning teams were selected from more than 200 applications from independent media talent, radio and television stations, educators, and coders.
“This initiative is emblematic of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s commitment to ensuring public media connects with an increasingly diverse America, in the many ways people choose to access media today,” said Pat Harrison, the president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
In Oklahoma, independent producer Allison Herrera and KOSU’s Content Director Rachel Hubbard will create Invisible Nations, exploring modern Native culture in the state. Herrera comes to Tulsa from Minnesota, where she produced stories for several radio, television, and newspaper outlets. She recently produced a series of radio shows on the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa reservation in northern Minnesota.
“All too often, stories and reporting about Native America focuses on tragedy, loss and hardship,” said Allison Herrera, Invisible Nations project creator. “I've invested myself in this project because public media audiences deserve to hear and see complex and rich stories of our nation's First People.”
Localore: Finding America was created by AIR, a Boston-based network of independent public media producers, to bring together the most gifted producers and forward-thinking stations in the industry to produce events, experimental digital projects, and stories for broadcast and publication.
Principle funding for the project comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional support from the Wyncote Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Productions will run through July 30, 2016.
