Local Media Dynamos

In an environment where a few media moguls control much of the news we hear, Sound Partners for Community Health helped local journalists collaborate with communities to tell complex, nuanced stories. Each of those journalists stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a community partner, such as a mental health counseling center or a health promotion agency, to work together to improve the health of their city or county. When Sound Partners for Community Health began eight years ago, it restricted its funding to public broadcasters and their community partners, but has expanded to support whatever media configuration will effectively communicate with the grantees’ audiences. This has spawned some unusual yet effective partnerships. In many cases, public broadcasters have found commercial broadcasters, cable TV stations, print journalists, and web publishers to be willing collaborators. Each organization has innate strengths and advantages that can be enhanced by the other’s participation. Together, the whole team becomes a dynamo for community change.

KEET team at work.

In Eureka, California, public TV station KEET is collaborating with commercial radio station KHUM to reduce the high rate of methamphetamine use in their county. Teens produce, write, and act in video public service announcements which they hope will influence their peers to turn away from street drugs.

At KUSP in Santa Cruz, Youthtopia teens are reporting and producing their own radio programs on tough topics like homelessness, gang violence, and abortion laws. The Youthtopia radio programs are complemented by cable TV shows and a strong web presence, including an online newspaper by and for teens.

In Alabama, the soap opera Bodylove, which teaches about mental health issues through the story of Vanessa Love and her family, is a result of an unusual collaboration among commercial radio, public radio, a counseling center, and a public health school. It airs on 16 commercial stations across the state.

We invite you to take in each story in this issue and listen to the audio and video clips. Here is a showcase of local media doing what it does best—creatively telling local stories in ways so powerful that a depressed listener is moved to find out about antidepressants, a restless teen turns down meth, and a girl may decide to stay home instead of turning to the streets. Sound Partners demonstrates how local media can be a strong partner in shaping healthier communities.

—Beth Mastin
Co-Director, Sound Partners for Community Health

Topics: Building Community, Community Media, Journalism, Outreach, Partnerships