NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting want to help stations do local investigative work. To that end NPR has created a “Station Investigations Team” with CPB backing.
Its purpose is to work with public radio regional newsrooms and topic teams. It is led by Cheryl W. Thompson, an investigative reporter who came to NPR in 2019 and worked at the Washington Post for many years. She is also president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, an organization that seeks to improve investigative journalism.
[Read: NPR to Modify “Consider This” to Include Local Content]
“The team, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will include a producer and a data editor who will advise reporters who’d like technical help with skills such as data collection and analysis and freedom of information requests,” NPR announced.
“The team will also help facilitate stations’ opportunities to localize NPR investigations through webinars and open-source data.”
The announcement was made by Tamar Charney, acting senior director of collaborative journalism, and Kathy Merritt, CPB senior vice president, Radio, Journalism and CSG Services.
Charney said the investigative unit will support station-based reporters with resources to help them cover local issues “from the safety of the water where we live to the ability of our local health systems to respond to the pandemic.”
The initiative is a component of the Collaborative Journalism Network.
