Community Correspondents Corps
Mia Frederick, Project Manager, Appalshop/WMMT
• Whitesburg, Ky.
To Print this page, go to the File menu and choose PRINT.
Click here to return to the regular version of this page.
|
Community Correspondents Corps
|
CONTACT INFO
Mia Frederick
Community Correspondents Corps
Appalshop/WMMT
91 Madison Ave.
Whitesburg, KY 41858
(606) 633-0108
This project plans to train citizens from central Appalachia in radio news production and story gathering for broadcast on radio and the Web. Appalshop will develop the project with a basic curriculum and workshop model that will cover production technology and techniques and provide instruction in basic community journalism.
Appalshop has launched the Community Correspondents Corps Web site, located at www.appalshop.org/ccc.
Check back for future news and updates.
• End of Year One: November 2007
• Spring 2007
• November 2006
• August 2006
End of Year One: November 2007
As the first year of Appalshop’s Community Correspondents Corps drew to a close, much has been accomplished. The CCC has developed a training model and materials, graduated 20 citizen reporters, seven of whom have become regular contributors. The stories aired at least twice on WMMT-FM and several have been picked up by West Virginia Public Radio’s weekly state-wide radio magazine “Inside Appalachia.“
All of the stories are archived and podcast on the CCC Web site, along with photos, text, and story links. Several pieces have had as many as 200 listens, and over nine months the CCC Web site has had over 2,600 page views. “The most viewed or listened to stories have been about environmental concerns or issues that affect a particular community,“ says project coordinator Mia Frederick.
WMMT-FM serves eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, and parts of southern West Virginia. Because of this wide reach, the CCC has emphasized stories with broader geographic appeal. Some recent pieces that garnered many downloads included coverage of a bluegrass music festival, a story about a family living with effects of mountaintop removal coal mining, legislative debate over an energy bill that would subsidize the coal industry, coverage of rural medical care and profiles of Appalachian women.
The project Web site was revamped in May, switching over to the blog publishing tool WordPress to facilitate easier updating for the project and its participants. The next phase will involve using the Web more for recruiting and audience outreach. They are also now providing full transcripts of the stories online along with more pictures, maps, and links for each piece. Plans are to launch a half-hour news program for broadcast/podcast in November 2007 airing twice a week on WMMT. The Corps hopes the program will promote the project and recruit new correspondents.
The CCC has begun sharing the training model with other groups, including a new low power FM station in Louisville, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a member-run statewide organizing group.
This spring the project was the subject of a case study by a University of Alabama master’s candidate, Amanda DeWald, one of six Knight Fellows in Community Journalism at the Anniston Star. Amanda visited Appalshop with her colleague Mary Jo Shafer and spent several days with the CCC, interviewing project staff and participants, and observing training. In May, Mary Jo returned to Kentucky to do some work with the Institute for Rural Journalism, and she spent a week in Whitesburg, and while there she became a Community Correspondent, producing a piece about a coal miners monument in Letcher County.
In September 2007, the CCC held a training session in Pike County. Seven people attended and two have gone on to become producers for the project. Mia Frederick says, “Future trainings will be held in other parts of the WMMT listening area. I am actively working to recruit five dedicated correspondents from five communities that are in key parts of the broadcast area.“
In the second year, the CCC is actively recruiting an advisory panel, and will hold a series of master classes, led by public radio veteran Dick Brooks, to improve contributors’ skills in interviewing, writing for radio, and producing news stories. The project is seeking partnerships with various community colleges to involve communications students in reporting. And, the CCC has received a grant of $12,500 from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to support this work.
Spring 2007
As of late May, five people were active in Appalshop’s Community Correspondents Corps and eight stories had either aired on WMMT radio or been streamed on the Web.
They have produced reports on such things as a 25-day strike by members of the United Steel Workers union at ARH Hospital, a proposed coal-fired power plant in southwestern Virginia, acid mine drainage, and the rise of grandparents as primary caregivers for their grandchildren. Correspondents are paid $50 for each story they produce.
A new training session began May 24 at Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY. Correspondents were required to undergo 18 hours of training over four weeks to learn the fundamentals of field recording, interviewing and editing with Abode Audition.
Not all of the correspondents who have signed up have been able to complete the training or produce stories for the station.
CCC project manager Mia Frederick reported that most of the correspondents who have been unable to complete the training still wish to participate in the project in some way. “Those who have been unable to participate fully cite work and family obligations as the primary obstacles they faced in sticking with the project.“
“People don’t have the time,“ Frederick told fellow New Voices grantees at a March 2007 meeting. “We are pretty ambitious in what we’re asking of people.“ She also noted that some people were traveling as much as 90 miles to come to the training sessions.
CCC has revised the training curricula to make it easier for those who want to participate. Among the incentives CCC has considered for future trainees are offering to pay travel expenses for those commuting from outside the county. They also plan to, “work on teaming up correspondents that have been through the training with new recruits and with anyone from the first group who wants to try again,“ Frederick said.
CCC has been recruiting correspondents via outreach in local newspapers, public service announcements on WMMT, and through the region’s community college network. Natasha Watts, a media trainer and graduate of Appalshop’s youth media program, will also be working to recruit high school graduates and community college students. Frederick said these are all part of the plan, “to develop this program to function as a bridge to post secondary education.“
“Although the fact that we are doing audio-based citizens media has proven to be a challenge in terms of getting participants through the technical and editing phases, the added layer of training and interface with WMMT and Appalshop staff have enhanced the correspondent’s level of professionalism in production values and their awareness and concern for the ethical parameters of their pieces,“ Frederick said.
November 2006
The Community Correspondents Corps’ first radio pieces were set to hit the airwaves at WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and the Web at www.appalshop.org/ccc in mid-January.
The CCC added two more citizen correspondents to the project, for a total of 11 volunteers. Throughout the fall, the project concentrated on training and editorial assistance, and it produced drafts of training guides. Mia Frederick, the CCC project manager, writes in her progress report that the correspondents were asked to evaluate the usefulness of the material. “As we progress we will continue to review and revise the training guides, with the goal of being able to share those materials with anyone, on the CCC website, the Knight Citizens News Network, and other appropriate outlets,“ Frederick writes. The project has applied for a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to support development of the training model.
WHAT WE USE:
- Marantz PMD660 portable audio recorder.
- Electro Voice RE50N/D-B omni-directional microphone.
- Audio-Technica AT897 short condenser shotgun microphone.
- Audacity audio editing software.
One hurdle is that audio recording equipment is expensive, so the project has a limited number of reporting kits and, consequently, a limited number of correspondents. “Also correspondents are still learning to master the technique of interviewing someone while wearing headphones, monitoring levels, and holding a microphone,“ Frederick writes. “In addition they are all novice editors, all of which adds up to a steep learning curve.“
However, the ambition of the CCC is to do even more. Correspondents have worked on features, but there’s a desire to do local and regional news, on such topics as politics and government, schools, the environment, extractive industries, and health. Frederick says the CCC has identified beats to cover, and in January the project will begin this initiative. Most of the initial reporting will be done by Frederick and Julie Shepherd, a WMMT producer. They’ll work on recruiting a new batch of hard-news correspondents in coming weeks.
The CCC is reaching out to area university journalism programs and working journalists to develop relationships and recruit an advisory panel. Another effort on the horizon: creating awareness of the project.
August 2006
Renamed the Community Correspondents Corps - which directors felt more clearly expressed what the project was about than its initial name, the Federation of Community Correspondents - this radio initiative has trained its first group of citizen correspondents and is preparing to get their stories on the air.
The CCC Web site was up and running in early August, giving visitors a look at this project by WMMT, the community radio station at Appalshop, a media arts and education center in Whitesburg, Ky., the heart of Appalachia. Citizen radio pieces had not been added to the site as of late October, but visitors could read information on the program and its participants and view photos from the training sessions.
The initial group of correspondents - nine men and women from Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia - first met in July and began technical training in August. WMMT-Appalshop bought field recording equipment for their use. The project will use Marantz solid state recorders and Adobe Audition editing software.
In September, the group discussed journalistic practices and ethics. In addition to training sessions, the correspondents have weekly meetings. They have suggested a number of subjects to investigate, including school consolidation, water quality, economic development, drugs, coal and mountaintop removal.
Mia Frederick, who was appointed the CCC project manager, said in late October that several stories would be ready to air soon, including a piece on grandparents raising grandchildren and an exploration of “place” from the viewpoints of three generations. Frederick previously had worked for Appalshop and was involved in getting the CCC off the ground as both a volunteer and then contract employee. Also, in the first months of the grant, Bruce Parsons, another CCC contract employee, was named Web design manager.
More than 30 people have expressed an interest in participating in the project, which has used word of mouth and WMMT - where some of the first correspondents had volunteered - to spread the word. WMMT’s call-in program, “Mountain Talk,“ highlighted the CCC in the fall. Also, an organization called Kentuckians for the Commonwealth featured the project in its newsletter.
Project directors are fostering collaborations between the CCC and the Appalachian Media Institute, Appalshop’s youth media program. The groups may work together, and they’ll take part in an upcoming training workshop with Jay Allison, an independent radio producer whose work has aired frequently on National Public Radio.
In addition to correspondents’ stories and pictures, the Web site will hold online journals written by both the correspondents and the project staff. To keep the project going, the CCC has identified other possible funding sources.
Project Manager Frederick writes in the CCC progress report that the first months have been exciting and the challenges are becoming clear. “The hard work is just beginning,“ she says, noting that the correspondents have full-time jobs and families to devote their time to, in addition to the CCC. “Project meetings, trainings and workshops have to be creatively scheduled to be useful and productive. The greatest challenges are shaping up to be training and assisting a large enough group of active participants to generate the maximum amount of quality content.“
Copyright © 2004-2005 J-Lab, a center of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism.