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| Ongoing Programs
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| PRI
News Programs
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CASE STUDIES IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT |
| Examples of Effective Discussions by Keith Hopper, Public Interactive  We
have learned that the most effective discussions integrate tightly
with public broadcasting content, are meaningful and genuine requests
for listener input and bring in non-technical staff like producers
and editors as part of their day-to-day research and creative production
activities. Often, this requires planning content features and promotions
ahead of time that are specifically intended to bring in the audience.Here are a couple of exciting recent examples that have resulted in external publicity, high volumes of resultant traffic and new site registrations in the thousands for a single content feature. To date, some of our best examples are around program content. Four case studies are outlined below: "Car Talk's" 10 Commandments of Driving When the Vatican released its "10 commandments of driving," "Car Talk" crew couldn't resist responding with their own 10 Commandments. They crafted this feature specifically to bring in listener additions to the list. Invitations to participate were extended through a unique show-opener segment and through a major graphic promotion on the Web site homepage, one that included a direct link to submit new suggestions on Public Action. The graphic took up over 50% of the homepage real estate above the fold for a full week, and then in the side rail for another week. The external news site Digg.com picked up the feature, and sent tens of thousands of visitors flocking to cartalk.com. Hundreds of suggestions and a lively dialog ensued. Discussion Fixed promo External PR "RadioWest's" Family Vocabulary KUER's local talk show, "RadioWest," invited author Paul Dickson to discuss his recent book on family vocabularies. During the on-air discussion, he invited listeners to join him online after the show to share their own family's invented words. There, he responded to the participants and shared additional relevant snippets from his book. Dozens of listeners registered and participated, and the discussion extended for two months past the original air date. Discussion Fixed promo "The World's" Predictions for 2008 As PRI's "The World" staff was arranging an interview with "The Economist" magazine's Daniel Franklin, editor of "The World in 2008," they saw a great opportunity to invite listener participation. They began planning to effectively promote the discussions. The result is a highly anticipated broadcast series, with feature discussions seeking listener insight around the predictions for 2008. The discussions will culminate with Franklin responding to the most insightful predictions. An ongoing, themed graphic feature appears prominently on the Web site homepage, inviting listeners to make their predictions, and in-segment audio promos also invite listener participation online. "The World" will also leverage its current partnership with Yahoo! that features audio from the program in slide shows on yahoo.com. Franklin's segment will be used to drive yahoo.com viewers back to theworld.org for discussion/participation. Discussion Fixed promo "Car Talk's" Name a Car When a listener on "Car Talk" asked a seemingly innocuous question about re-naming a car, Ray went off on the preposterous notion of naming inanimate objects. The production staff immediately recognized this as a major controversy that could only be resolved (or not!) by inviting listeners into the online Car Talk Community for lively debate. They quickly recorded a special on-air invitation and developed a site promotion. The result was an ad hoc discussion series, an online landing page to feature the series, a special e-mail invitation and over a thousand user comments across a month of listener participation. Original discussion Fixed promo (and discussion series) |
Public Action is an online community engagement and social networking application designed specifically for public broadcasters. Several exciting new features have recently been added to Public Action that allow for easier management of discussions — get details.