June 2: National Black Programming Consortium and WHUT Howard University Present "What's Good DC?"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Llenda Jackson-Leslie
NATIONAL BLACK PROGRAMMING CONSORTIUM AND
WHUT HOWARD UNIVERSITY TELEVISION PRESENT
WHAT'S GOOD DC?, THE VOICE OF DC’S TEENS
Press Screening
Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 11:00 am
West End Cinema, 2301 M Street, NW (23rd at M Street)
Washington, DC (May 25, 2011) — What's Good DC? (WGDC) is a new half hour, magazine-format talk show that gives DC youth a real voice on issues that affect them and showcases local artists. WGDC will explore issues ranging from STD/STIs to the impact of social media on youth culture. In addition to the broadcast, the show’s discussions will take place online, across social networking platforms and through text messaging.
Hosted by high school and college students, the show was taped at WHUT Howard University Television before a live studio audience of more than 300 students from area high schools. Each of the seven episodes features a youth DJ, live performance by a local performing artist, topical segments produced with the Digital Media Art Clubs at the Academies at Anacostia High School and Washington Metropolitan High School, a live SMS poll on the show’s topic, and a guest expert.
WGDC is produced by the Public Media Corps (PMC), a public media community engagement project of the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC). The show was created and produced by PMC Fellow Ivana Jackson, a DC-native and recent graduate of University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in conjunction with PMC partner WHUT Howard University Television. Jackson created the show to amplify the voices of Washington, DC’s youth and to provide a next generation of content makers and viewers with a platform on public television.
“What’s Good DC? is for the generation that everyone talks about but rarely listens to,” said WGDC producer Ivana Jackson. “When WHUT expressed an interest in connecting with DC’s youth population, we developed the show with the hopes of expanding conversations around important social topics. The goal of the show is to expose students to every aspect of broadcast production and social media while providing them an opportunity to express themselves in a medium often aimed at them but rarely engaging them in a meaningful way.”
“Today’s youth, ages 16 to 26, is the nation’s demographic most underserved by public television, yet they are the most at risk of today’s societal ills – violence, obesity, low education attainment,” said NBPC Executive Director Jacquie Jones. “WHUT is the public media partner that stepped up to the challenge and made a commitment to use its airways to engage this audience in a meaningful conversation from their point of view.”
What's Good DC? will premier on WHUT, Saturday, June 11 at noon and air every Saturday at the same time.
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ABOUT THE PUBLIC MEDIA CORPS
The Public Media Corps is a new national public media service modeled after Teach for America that helps local stations to forge relationships with underserved communities through content production, local events and digital media training. In June 2010, PMC launched a six-month beta in Washington, DC with 15 tech-savvy fellows embedded in Wards 1, 7 and 8, and working in 11 community and public media partner sites. The goal of the PMC was to provide stations and community organizations with a blueprint for connecting with audiences who have traditionally not found public broadcasting relevant to their lives and providing them with access to emerging participatory platforms. The fellows developed four engagement models that are available in a toolkit for stations and community organizations: the Digital Media Arts Clubs, an afterschool digital literacy and production program; What's Good DC?, a teen television program; Family Portrait Project, a library program that invites local families to have an annual family portrait taken and introduces them to the library’s training and digital resources; and Community Town Hall, a public forum for addressing the roles media and technology in education, civic engagement, innovation, and job creation.
ABOUT NATIONAL BLACK PROGRAMMING CONSORTIUM
The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) works to increase capacity in diverse communities to create, distribute and use public media. Throughout its 30-year history, NBPC’s mission has been two-fold: building capacity in new generations of creators of social issue media and broadening the pool of stakeholders in public media institutions. For the past five years, in addition to supporting producers who create programming for public television and other platforms, NBPC has convened and mentored more than 500 media professionals in its innovative New Media Institute (NMI). While the focus of the NMI has been professional development for media makers using next-media technologies, NBPC created the Public Media Corps to address an urgent need in our communities. The PMC was created as a framework for supporting creative, sustainable and community-initiated engagement strategies and providing both stations and community organizations with a blueprint for connecting underserved audiences to emerging participatory platforms and relevant content.
ABOUT WHUT HOWARD UNIVERSITY TELEVISION
WHUT-TV, Howard University Television was founded in 1981 in Washington, DC as WHMM. At its inception the station became the first public station in the US to be licensed and operated by a Historically Black College and University - Howard University. The station broadcasts reach over 2 million households in a 60-mile radius. The station endeavors to underscore Howard University's overall mission in its commitment to excellence, leadership and public service. In its 30 years on air, WHUT has become a leader in broadcast communications by providing quality programming for the Greater Washington, DC viewing community that is relevant and informative. WHUT has won 13 Emmys, and numerous other awards such as the Telly, Aurora, and Cine Golden Eagle.