Engaging New Audiences with Community Cinema

Engaging New Audiences – Community Cinema, a project of ITVS, offers stations, organizations and community groups films from the PBS Independent Lens series to hold screenings featuring discussions, partners and audience involvement.  For PTV stations, Community Cinema is providing a new opportunity to reach diverse audiences. Looking for a way to engage with a younger adult audience? To date, about 19 percent of the attendees are ages 19 – 29 and 43 percent are ages 30 – 49.  The main criteria are that events are free and open to public where all points of view are welcome! What Community Cinema events can do is reframe debate, advance discussions and create empathy around topics and issues that important to your community.

ITVS provides all the tools needed to plan, promote and hold an event in your area with extensive promotional and program materials that are adaptable to your community needs. ITVS also has staff support to not only help you get started but to help sustain your CC program. One of the key benefits is the ability to create community partnerships, often times related to some of the national organizations partnering with the film and local organizations committed to those issues in your area.

Screenings happen in a variety of venues. Art house theaters, museums, libraries, churches, college campuses, etc. CC events in St. Louis Missouri were presented as an example of successful events. Examples were given of ways to fund events including working with organizations and businesses in the community. They partnered with the Missouri History Museum which had a large auditorium and received funds from the Employees Community Fund of Boeing St. Louis and State Louis University to help cover any cash costs like light refreshments. The local newspaper, the St. Louis Beacon is also a partner for Community Cinema. The ideas for activities and ways to involve the audience were endless.

For stations, CC can raise your profile in the community, provide significant promotional opportunities, create new partnerships and maybe even help find new members.

ITVS also offers Community Classroom,  a free curriculum-based resource that engages educators and students through film.

For more information, contact one of the presenters:  Tiffany L. Verkler, AETN tverkler@aetn.org; Sydney Meyer, Nine Network smeyer@ketc.org and/or Allison Inman, ITVS: Allison_inman@itvs.org

 

Amy Shumaker
Executive Producer of Content
South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Blvd.
Columbia, SC 29201
803-737-3433

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Maximizing Your Online Impact

Panelists for this session were Jesse Overright and Libby Peterek from KLRU.

This session focused on the impact of a station's online presence on audience and donors and discussed how to harness web tools to reach out and engage that audience. KLRU has been in the process of of regrouping and rethinking their site. A "donate" functionality is on all pages, the promo area on home; View "what's on and fresh content via a blog is on the bottom of the blog and on targeted pages (family, program oriented). This offers continuing dynamic content.

Blogs, blogs, blogs -- these are more important than ever. (This came up in the communication council meeting yesterday as well)

Maximize your impact -- your thoughts will include choosing a CMS, separating content from design, automation functionality, wigetize code, leveraging PBS assets, online giving and local presence.

CMS -- it can be static or dynamic -- a consideration: who and how many people on your staff will be updating web content.

KLRU found Drupal complicated. The Austin City Limits blog is ofrom Joomla. The current site uses Wordpress -- it looks like the rest of the site and is user friendly.

Separate content from design

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Don't Tweet Your Lunch Session

Don't Tweet Your Lunch, Using Social Media Effectively
Laura Hunter/ Utah Education Network
Jared Covili/Utah Education Network
Amy Baroch for Amanda Hirsch/Amanda Hirsch Consulting
Blogger/Reporter, Kate Spears http://www.KateSpears.com

The session began with a video clip of Ethan Zuckerman talking about the World Cup and a faux Twitter campaign about an announcer that some soccer fans didn't like. The governing body of NETA wanted to use Twitter more to engage others, even folks who aren't here at the conference. 

www.coveritlive.com is a free service where you can allow up to 50 people to live blog as part of your session, much like what was going on in the twitter convos, but as a blog instead. 

Jared showed a graphic that displayed the concentrations of Facebook users plotted on a map of the world. Cross-promotion is one of the strategies that are important to look at. 

www.facebook.com/twitter/ allows users to automatically post information to both platforms, re- purposing a comment in multiple venues. More social media aggregates are becoming available to help you cross-post. www.kurrently.com lets you search for a specific term and see how it is being referenced within the worlds of Facebook and Twitter. 

Someone asked a question about the issue of using cross-promotion, in that it might seem like you are just sending out the same messages over and over via different channels. 

When an announcement was made by Yahoo that "Delicious" was being put on a short-life list, millions of people stopped using Delicious. 

Going Mobile - President Obama used text alerts to announce who his Vice-Presidential choice was going to be. A new wave in politics using social media. 

UEN decided to create UEN.org Mobile which allows cross-platform promotions.

www.txtwire.com is a new program that allows users to sign up to receive text alerts, i.e. station viewers, to share ideas about technology & events

Provide Unique Content - People want social media to give them bits and nuggets that they won't get elsewhere. ex: The White House's photostream on flickr, YouTube First Question w/ Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary

Give behind-the-scenes-looks for your viewers.

Get your community involved - Google Demo Slam is letting people create training videos for their products and then they pit 2 against each other where viewers can choose the winner....this gets users to help create content (i.e. Chubby Bunny Contest via Voice Recognition) 

Super Bowl Commercials fan diy, Doritos Super Bowl Ad

Laura Hunter - Old Spice social media campaign, 48 hour period where a team of writers got together and recorded video responses to any social media messages that were coming in rapid-fire style. Millions of people retweeting. Equal balance of responses to famous people, and others. (i.e. Demi Moore)

Popcorn by Mozilla: New ways to present media...allows you to have an online conversation simultaneously while showing videos/images, etc. 

Crowdsourcing...Universal Subtitles takes videos on the web and adds subtitles to them, for example the band OK Go's entire catalog. NewsHour tried this too and one post was subtitled and translated in about 9 hours. This also makes videos searchable on Google. 

Amy for Amanda Hirsch

Social Media: Inspiration & Resources for Public Media Stations

Use Social Media to...

Provide access to station talent & other local figures --- Help a viewer meet an author whose book they're reading

Connect organizations in your network to create online communities --- Build connections between theaters, museums, local biz

Facilitate discussion about key local issues --- Spark discussions on art & authenticity, politics, etc. 

"Our current funnel goes something like this: Blast our marketing, see who responds, ask them for money, send them a receipt, ask them for more money." 

"The new funnel should work like this: Go out to where people are talking about our issue online, listen, reflect back on what you're hearing, invite small acts of engagement, listen..." 

Have a blog to anchor your social media activity.

People want to engage with a person, a personality.

Examples: March of Dimes, Indiana Public Media, Humane Society, Basin PBS

Use Social Media to....Raise money, nurture relationships w/ devoted fans, create strategic partnerships, attract new audiences, modernize your brand image, convene community to discuss critical issues, get real-time program feedback

Recommended reading:

Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halverson
The Networked Nonprofit, Beth Kanter & Allison H. Fine
ShareThis!, Deanna Zandt

Homework from this session: 

Public Media Chats

Monday 8-9pm ET

Last Remarks: Don't watch social media from afar, Be an active participant yourself. Understand it from the inside and then use what you learn (and the connections you make) to help your station. 

@amanda_hirsch

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Community Partnerships: Growing a Perfect pair the Green way Session

Community Partnerships: Growing a Perfect pair the Green way, Wednesday Jan. 12, 2011
WCTE-TV, Cookeville, TN
 
Cindy Putman, WCTE-TV
Reggie Brown, WCTE-TV
Erica Duarte, WCTE-TV
Blogger/Reporter: Kate Spears
 
Panel:
Cynthia Kent, Pick TN Products
Lisa Shively, Local Table Magazine
 
Cindy Putman did some brief introductions about partnerships between WCTE, Susan G. Komen and Live Green & Prosper as well as the folks sitting on the panel.
 
The goal for this project was to take something creative & successful and then create a new product without exerting efforts to reinvent the wheel. Instead, WCTE decided to identify what it was really good at and then try to connect with other community organizations who could help to do those things even better. The attendees were instructed to think of 3 possible partnerships and jot them down.
 
Dreaming Big: (Identify these)
 
3 most successful partnerships/projects
3 ideas for your station if money was no object
3 ideas to take to your GM/Station Managers
 
WCTE found out that CPB was going to distribute funds through an Economic Response Grant. Erica was one of the people involved in writing the grant and so they began brainstorming about some needs in the community that might be met through the grant. GM Becky Magura had recently read Barbara Kingsolver's novel about living & eating local and was inspired by this. WCTE staff started doing research and found that if each community member bought from local farmers' market, it could boost the economy by $1 million. It was then important to identify people and resources on the state level who would be able to help. The creation of an advisory panel helped to bring together the Dean of Agriculture from the local university, farmers, agriculture workers and others.
 
The advisory panel/partner panel helped lead in the direction of what/who to feature on the Live Green show which opened up a revenue stream that was previously not possible. Ex. FarmAid, Southern Regional Ag. Agency, etc.
 
The initial project involved buying local food at the farmers' market and cooking it in a brainstorming session. Some partnerships already established were with Head Start & Susan G. Komen.
 
"Eat Your Zip Code" slogan
 
Teamwork- Getting everyone on board wasn't hard, but keeping them onboard was a bit tougher.
 
Some of the events that helped to bring all of this together were: Local County Fair (WCTE provided coverage), Weekly farmers' market, Stations of Imagination, Susan G. Komen Race
 
Panelists presentation:
 
Cynthia Kent - detailed the issues faced in State product marketing, including reaching out to farmers when it's much more difficult to reach consumers.
 
Specialty Crop Block Grants are part of the USDA effort to help farmers transition particularly in tobacco states to other crops, if you will grow a specialty crop (honey, cut flowers, horticulture) you can get funding. Also, Rural Development offices are trying to build economic strength in rural communities and this might be a way for public television stations to partner.
 
Working with scientists who knew a great deal in their fields often presents challenges in that they don't know as much about marketing themselves and writing grants. In the beginning of PickTN Products, it was all about processed products via grocery stores because everybody thought small farms were dead. Now that there has been a resurgence of local agriculture and small farming, PickTN products changed its focus to farm products and then things began to take off.
 
Cynthia said that working with public television gave her org. a better deal and her dollars went further. She learned the phrase "lifetime learners," folks who are more interested in experiences than acquiring material things. She has been approached by people who were excited to have seen/heard her on television through spots on WCTE. This connection with the community has been invaluable to Cynthia's organization through the impact being made. Even though her funding for this year is going to be cut, she is still planning on keeping the partnership alive when future funds are available.
 
Lisa Shively - She started Local Table Magazine which combines stories about local farmers, events, farmers' markets, etc to inform the community. Each issue contained news about the Live Green & Prosper program and Local Table was written into grants so that it was a win-win for Lisa's funding and reach.
 
Lisa is part of the advisory to help identify stories and farms and covers all of Middle Tennessee (south to Giles County, west to Lawrence Co. and north to KY). Erica said that Local Table allowed WCTE to avoid doubling efforts to achieve results.
 
Cindy Putman then showed some clips from Live Green Tennessee one in which staffer Amanda Collier demonstrated making her Award Winning Peach Jam. All videos can be viewed on http://www.wcte.org
 
Kate Spears spoke about the blogging partnership she formed with WCTE where she was given a permalink on WCTE's site in exchange for writing one post per week about green topics and sending traffic back to the Live Green site.
 
Tonight is the Jammin' at Hippie Jacks Event where local product Tennessee hams were donated by Benton's Country Ham (famous vendor in Madisonville, TN).
 
 
 

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PBS Interactive: Strategies for Growth

PBS Interactive: Strategies for Growth

Kristin Calhoun, Director, Station Products & Innovation, PBS

Sara DeWitt, VP PBS KIDS Interactive, PBS

Five Trends in Digital Media

1. Social Media
a. Facebook traffic has  surpassed Google
b. Growing source of traffic for pbs.org
c. Nearly half a million fans on Facebook

2. Video
a. 466 million YouTube users globally


b. 42 million Hulu users
c. Opportunities for sponsorship and underwriting
d. The primary reason people go to pbs.org is to watch video
e. Pbs.org is 19th most popular web site for video in November.
f. PBSKIDS.org is the #1 kids site – 9.8 million unique viewers per month


3. Mobile – is outpacing desktop internet usage
a. Users spend $6.9 billion in mobile apps in 2010


4. Mobile – iPad is causing dramatic change


5. Mobile – More than half of cell phone users go to the internet on their phones daily


Strategic Goals
 Grow the audience
 Drive TV tune-in
 Create revenue opportunities for stations and PBS

8 PBS KIDS iphone apps have been launched – 500,000 apps have been downloaded

iPhone app just released - #1 app last week

   31% improvement in vocab acquisition when the Martha Speaks app is used

   PBS New Media Strategy
COVE – 77% adoption by PBS stations
- 200% growth in traffic since last year
- 2000 hours of nationally produced content, 3000 hours of locally produced content
- Has been integrated into Facebook pages
- All stations can view analytics for their programming on COVE

New PBS.org
 - Merlin powered
 - Median age for pbs.org is 34.2 as compared to 62 for broadcast
 - 15% traffic increase from pbs.org to stations since the relaunch.
 - On-boarding stations to Merlin
 - Document and share best practices
 - At least 80 stations on-boarded on

E. Seton L. McIlroy

Manager, Online Communications, Education & Outreach | PBS

slmcilroy@pbs.org | 703-739-5199

Back to the Future: Shootout at the IP Corral (Where is Broadcasting Headed?)

January 12, 2011

Back to the Future: Where is Broadcasting Headed?
(AKA: Shootout at the IP Corral)

Jeff Tucker, Idaho PTV
There is a mix of production folks in this session.

Jerry Field, APT
Eric Wolf, Technology Strategist

Philosophy
Enabled but not defined by technology. Content still drives the
product. Must have an ability to adapt to the times. Public policy
shapes the industry- lack of flexibility can limit us.

The arc: Moore’s Law and corollaries. System specs/technology capability
doubles every 18 months.

It’s not about TV vs. The Net. New technologies will redefine ‘show’ and ‘network’, but not substitute for them. It’s additive. There is no ONE magic technology. Netflix will not kill broadcast television.

10 years is a LIFETIME in the tech world.

Good News: 

Cable must compete with us. Bad News:
Broadcast system built on 70-year-old regulatory structure and does NOT
work for the future.

Good News: Newshour beats CNN and MSNBC but…
Bad News:
…May lose to ‘Angry Birds’

Classics:
Processing faster, storage greater, more connectivity, more input
devices, Batteries last longer, displays use less power and look great,

Are we close (enough) to ‘infinity’? We are now set up to receive
media anytime, anyway, anyplace wirelessly.

1Ght multicore processors in handsets
Bandwidth: 25 Mbps at home
7-8 Mbps in hand
Massive storage (your whole library in your hand)
Reach (accessibility & discovery) – find out about it
Trial (accessibility, narrative, personalization, timeliness) – try it
Stick (Brand/author, narrative, timeliness) – habit forming

Watch list:
Comcast/nbc merger
Mlb.com (mlb advance media)
Amazon Cloud Business (with great transparency) MS Mediaroom
Rovi
Apple
Google
VZN (iphone/ipad)
Lady Gaga’s new glasses w/Polaroid
TX/Sony-Comcast/Samsung
Netflix (doing a lot of things right. No longer a company that sends
you a DVD in the mail) Rightcove
Hulu

Get your house in order:
FIRST:
Implement Cove
Get media assets / workflow in order
Digitize (slowly) your library
Get (lightly) involved in social media

THEN: Get everyone in the organization focused on building your station’s
relevance/importance to your audience and then…
THEN 2.0: Get everyone in the organization working together to build a 1-1
relationship with every viewer. (ie. not broadcast, narrow focus)

Discovery is more than search- www.Hubspot.com/inbound-marketing-hub

Adoption cycles are shorter and more dramatic. The iPad didn’t exist
a year ago. 80 new competitors have introduced their ipad version at
2011 CES

The 5-year plan in business is dead. Don’t get into long-term contracts with ANYONE.

Sweet spot: Make sure file exports are optimized for as many devices as
possible. But pay attention to format & resolution.

-Tim Zeko
WKAR-TV Executive Producer

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Is Social Media Even Worth the Effort? Session Blog Post

Session: Is Social Media Even Worth the Effort? Wednesday Jan, 12 8:30
Amy Baroch/PBS, also for Kevin Dando
Terry Dugas/NET Nebraska
Kevin Brown/Rockhouse Partners
Reported by blogger, Kate Spears http://www.KateSpears.com

Terry began this session by speaking a bit about how social media is the hot topic on peoples' minds right now and that a big question/concern of managers is "what is our return on investment?" 

Amy shared some information about different social media ventures that involved the Twitter platform "TwitGrid" as well as a Facebook campaign. 

Amy stressed that something they feel is vital is a collaborative effort, with stations and all the departments that comprise them. 

Some stats: 

PBS's main FaceBook page has over 480k fans and adds 500-1000 daily.
The main Twitter page has over 640k followers with a gain of 300 each day. 

These fans and followers can be used to benefit stations in that they help to drive visitors to sites. They advise stations to monitor Twitter hashtags (i.e. #WCTE) as well as to stay abreast of Kurrently.com which helps to monitor keywords and search terms. 

Stay up to date with PBS's Facebook page and Twitter account to see what it is discussing or promoting. Send items that your station would like promoted to Kevin Dando at PBS. (kdando@pbs.org)

Facebook posts can now be geo-targeted in a way to share them with folks in your viewing areas to help promote events and other goings on in your area. 

Take advantage of the great tools at PBS Interactive (free tools, tips, webinars/etc.)

Kevin Brown (Rockhouse Partners) - "Social Media Measurement"

Rockhouse is focused on music, sports, and live events (major music festivals, venues around the country, Lance Armstrong Pro-Cycling Team, authors)

"Data focused & Dollar Driven" The digital marketing behind the scenes

"We don't have a choice whether we DO social media, the question is how well we do it" -Erik Qualman

Social Media isn't a fad, rather a fundamental shift in the way that we communicate. People, Technology & Time are the necessary things for good social media. 

"The best social media starts and ends with data." 

Great book "Content Strategies" by Christina Halverson

Trying to figure out your ROI is the Gain from Investment minus the Cost of Investment divided by the Cost of Investment

As of August 2009, 84% of marketing professionals did not measure their ROI

Social Media Metrics: easy to measure, but not conventional
1) Quantitative: unique visits, page views, followers, demographics, frequency
2) Qualitative: emotional component of social media, how people are connecting with your organization
3) Mix of Both: the number of positive comments, number of other blogs linking to you
4) ROI: How social media has increased viewership or led to more donors

The key is to choose metrics that most impact your org and don't get bogged down by the rest. 

Data >> Reporting >> Analysis >> Insight >> Action >> Data (cycle repeats)

At the end of the day there is a sequence in social media ROI, 1) investment 2) action 3) reaction 4) non-financial impact 5) financial impact

Driving traffic is half the battle, what users do/see/feel on your website once they click matters as much if not more. 

Successful social media strategies focus on more than just getting attention. 100k followers are not as great at 1k true fans who are actually engaged with your org. Try to cultivate relationships with the most passionate fans.

ROI Best Practices
1) Define goals & objectives (what are you trying to accomplish and how will you measure success?)

2) Track everything. All the time. (bit.ly, Google Analytics)

3) Give viewers donor opportunities where they live and play. Reach out to them where they are instead of waiting for them to come to you. 

4) Look at all metrics in one place (metrics dashboard to show a comprehensive dashboard of stats)

5) Test, test, test

6) An email address is always more valuable than a social media interaction

7) Don't think of social media channels in silos. Allow disparate social networks to complement and amplify each other. Drive interaction between the channels. CROSS-PROMOTE! 

8) ROI isn't just about tracking success metrics. You should also track time spent managing social media. 

9) Learn how to best communicate social media metrics to key stakeholders

10) Be patient. It's a process, not an event. 

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First day of conference video posted

The first day of general sessions from NETA11 is on it’s way to  the NETANashville YouTube channel.  We come  to conferences to learn and I’ve gotten quite an education today…  J

-          The Sony camera I’m using to shoot the sessions has a feature that automatically tries to follow a person’s face and keep it more-or-less in the same part of the picture.  Since our speakers can become  passionate and animated about their subjects, the picture can bounce around a bit as the camera tries to follow the face.  I believe I have switched off this feature so hopefully future sessions won’t do this. 

-          We’re working to correct the imbalance in lighting between the speakers and the background.  The bright blue highlights look cool here but tend to wreak havoc with the camera’s auto-iris. 

-          Due to a technical hiccup, I’m unable to post the session on Nashville Public Television’s wonderful NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS project at this time. I’m hoping to have the glitch resolved soon so you can see this – it’s great!  Stay tuned!!!

Wish you were here but am happy you are along for the ride!!

Bob Petts

Program Development Manager, NETA

What’s on the front page?

Our latest offers!

Great video clips!  

We Twitter!

Editorial Integrity for Public Media

This general session featured Ted Krichels (Penn State Public Broadcasting) and Tom Thomas (Station Resources Group).

Session began with examples of questionable underwriting practices -- a beef council providing funding for an NET doc on the cattle industry; the FBI as a partner in "Facing the Mortgage Crisis." The question asked is "Does the viewer expect editorial integrity when the program has these underwriters.

Told how UNC turned over reporting materials into an ALCOA investigation -- including tapes and transcripts -- to a legislative committee. Is this university station considered a part of the state? (State funding)?

They then asked,"Do you know where your employees are, what they are saying off your air and do you approve?" Then a photo of Juan Williams appeared on screen.

It could happen to anyone -- we need to be prepared.

American people trust public television -- and public broadcasting.

But there are changing expectations in and related to technology (we're everywhere); the audiences, partnerships and transparency.

In this changing environment, we need principles, policies and practices to maintain the public trust.

Editorial integrity for public media is station focused -- this group came out of the Affinity Group Coalition and Station Resource Group -- it applies to radio and TV and is funded by CPB.

Core principles define public media -- a 1984 Wingspread Principles study noted: We are trustees of public service; our service is programming; credibility is the currency of our programming; many of our responsibilities are grounded in law; we are a fiduciary repository for public funds.

This group has guideposts and objectives. It is community based, inclusive and reflective, focuses on common good and accessible to all. The main objective is to increase public education and enrich.

The question is: Would a viewer reasonably question the role of the funder? If a public affairs discussion is funded by a state teacher and business lobby -- opposite points of view -- does that remedy the issue?

How does news and history differ? Does having a State Historical Society as an underwriter on the history of cattle industry that is also underwritten by vested interests balance it out?

We need to adopt transparent policies to guide those decisions.

Trasperancy is public media's calling card. Public acknowledgment amount of the grant and agreement details; publish editorial guidelines and funding standards and a glossary that includes what "brought to you in part by..." means.

How should public media apply standards and principles in community partnerships? Used the "great dates" example -- a partnership with shared mission, interests, clear division of labor, everyone brings something to the mix, there is systematic communication; the partnership guidelines are put in writing, there are benchmarks and opt-out opportunities.

Issues at the edge -- Emerging and unfamiliar platforms
Blurring lines of editorial ownership
Trade-offs with non-traditional partnerships
Do consumers actually choose sources in terms of reliability and independence?

Next steps for this group include final working group reports, feedback, recommendations, collection of resources and case studies.

The next issue on the table will be employee relations -- what can employees say or not say?

"Trust is our most important asset," says Ted.
Submitted by Jeanie Croope / WKAR/East Lansing

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NETA -- Opening Session Intros

Some of these notes may duplicate Tim's, below.

Skip Hinton announced the next NETA conference is in October 2011 -- for many stations, it will be in a new fiscal year.

NETA Board chair Polly Anderson welcomed attendees, offered a moment of silence for those in Tuscon. "We are facing one of the most challenging years in public television," she said. "We have to work harder to defend opposing viewpoints and civil public discourse." Public media is more vital and relevant than ever, she reminded us, asking us to take heart in the national leadership of Paula Kerger (PBS), Pat Harrison (CPB) and Pat Butler (APTS).

Becky Magura (WCTE Cookville) spoke on the "Jammin' at Hippie Jacks event. Sounds fun!

Cindy Gaillard (WOSU) and Lauren Schwarze (9 Network) were recipients of the Ottinger scholarship award, while Linda Oltham and Debbie Robertson received the new Myers scholarships.

"NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS"

Beth Curley (CEO, Nashville PTV) welcomed us to the city and introduced Karl Dean, Mayor of Nashville. We then saw segments from NPT's "Next Door Neighbors" project, introduced by Kevin Crane.

The programs look at four communities of immigrants in the U.S. We saw a 3:00 video clip, followed by explanation of the series. Nashville has 95 languages spoken in the public schools and it is a key home for immigrants to the US. The project came out of RTL workshops, as they did more workshops for immigrant community center. NPT realized the immigrant population was large, and received a grant for seed money, followed by corporate sponsors. The program offered immigrants a voice in American society and educated the community about the immigrant experience. It has been used as a tool to bring people to the table to speak to issues and understanding.

More docs are in production; 1,000 DVDs distributed and literacy workshops continue. Spoke highly of working with Harwood in terms of transforming how they worked.

LZ LAMBEAU/WISCONSIN VIETNAM VETERAN WAR STORIES

This massive community engagement project began as a conversation with 5-10 Vietnam vets, who were asked to talk about their story. After overcoming an extreme lack of trust, and a decided lack of eagerness in sharing the stories, these vets decided to give it a chance. Jon Miskowski (WPT) reports that the stories were difficult to hear and to tell. The big question: How do we reach every Vietnam veteran in the state? The components of this massive porject included a televison documentary, interview archives, a companion website, teacher's guide, community screenings and discussions, a history book (Our Veterans Remember), a traveling portrait exhibit with powerful photos and bits of interviews (art museums.) This led up to LZ (Landing Zone) Lambeau -- Wisconsin's official "welcome home and thank you," an event over three days. That weekend included a cross-state motorcycle ride, moving "Vietnam Wall," museum exhibits, motor pool exhibit, the "big map" (check the videos on this one), a lecture seris (topics: Hmong and War, Women in War, Music in War), school tours, Story Corps, a tribute inside Lambeau Field for vets that was broadcast statewide on WPT, Milwaukee Public TV, Wisc. Public Radio.

The Paper Wall included obits of fallen vets organized by counties. The Walking Map was an enormous map people could walk and write on.

A toolkit for stations is coming. Also, a reminder that Ken Burns is working on a Vietnam series.

Website:http:// LZLambeau.org/toolkit

Submitted by Jeanie Croope / WKAR (jeanie@wkar.org)

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