Little Rock Public Radio Joins America Amplified Election 2024 Initiative

Little Rock Public Radio has been selected to join a project along with public radio and television stations from all 50 states that will deepen engagement with communities across central Arkansas.

America Amplified Election 2024 initiative is a community engagement journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting involving public media stations across the country, building on a similar project in 2022 to help public media stations provide critical information about voting during the midterm elections.

"This is the first community engagement initiative of its type that we've undertaken here at Little Rock Public Radio, and we couldn't be more excited about it," said Daniel Breen, news director for Little Rock Public Radio. "We hope that we can build on the success of this initiative to inform our coverage about other non-election related issues, so that we can be a better neighbor to our community and serve as a vital source of free, unbiased reporting for everyone in central Arkansas and beyond."

America Amplified prioritizes meaningful in-person and online engagement to build trust, expand audiences, and deepen the impact of public media journalism. In 2024, Little Rock Public Radio will use community engagement journalism practices to combat the spread of misinformation and distrust in media while also sharing audience-focused resources on voting information.

"The project aims to put people, not preconceived ideas, at the center of the reporting process," Breen said. "Public media is uniquely suited to serve as a community resource, and getting the buy-in and trust of our community is central to that goal. For this project, we aim to listen to what our community says they want to hear in our election reporting and use that input as a roadmap for our coverage going forward."

Breen hopes that the America Amplified initiative will help Little Rock Public Radio move beyond the traditional "horse race" style of covering elections, ensuring that issues that most affect the communities are covered.

"We'll pose questions asked by members of our central Arkansas community directly to candidates who are seeking their votes and present those answers in ways that our stakeholders can most benefit from," he said. "It's our hope that this leads to a higher level of civic engagement in our elections, since Arkansas traditionally has very low voter turnout."

Little Rock Public Radio will be reaching out to voters through outreach events like listening sessions to ensure that community members, especially new voters, know their voices are being heard.

"Central to that is our Hearken embed, which is available right now on our homepage," Breen stated. "Listeners can ask questions about the upcoming elections using the embed, which will then forward it to our Election Information Portal. This tool uses generative AI to gather verified information from state election offices to respond to questions posed by their audience and community. Responses will be drafted using, in part, the information gathered by the GAI tool. They will be edited, revised, and verified by America Amplified and LRPR newsroom staff."