As a commitment to our new brand and our goals to develop and broaden our digital reach, Michigan Public set out to cover a historic election in new ways. One of the main highlights of this coverage included taking an audio-focused project we did in 2020, Voter Voices, and broadening the production and scope of that project to reach more platforms. For the 2024 election, we created an 11-part video series highlighting 12 Michigan voters across the state. At a time when our country was deeply divided, we sought to understand more about why many Michiganders chose to go to the polls. We used our source connections, network, and research to find 12 people willing to talk to us as part of this video series about the things happening in their lives that influenced their political leaning and who they were voting for in the presidential election. These videos were produced to fit into the social media space and were highlighted across all of Michigan Public’s social media channels, as well as on the website. In addition to the video content, we were able to use the interviews collected to produce an on-air piece that ran during Weekend Edition; a segment on our daily show, Stateside and a podcast episode; and a compilation video that NPR shared on their Instagram page. This project required resources across our newsroom and programming teams, and introduced many staffers to producing content for video.
Stateside Podcast:
