Idea Lab

Have a Global Story to Tell? Apply for a Grant from PRX, Open Society

by John Barth
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

U.S. attention to the rest of the world runs in cycles: When we're at war or global tensions run hot, naturally our ears are alerted to foreign news and we check global maps to see if Pakistan is East or West of Afghanistan. (The answer is East.) In an election year or after a protracted overseas engagements, American interest swings the other way: Jobs, not Jihad grab attention; bailouts, not Bosnia end up on the front page. No wonder that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently lamented on Reddit: "...For a decade or so after 9/11, the U.S. was...

• October 2, 2012
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PRX Story Exchange Shows Power of Crowdfunding via Public Radio

by John Barth
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

PRX embarked on a local journalism experiment last fall with Louisville Public Media (LPM) and Spot.us with the support of the Knight News Challenge. We built a service that matches the pioneering crowdfunding work of Spot.us (itself a News Challenge grantee) with the public radio focus of PRX and LPM. The project is called Story Exchange, and it directs the power and reach of public radio to help drive listener support for ambitious local journalism. The early signs from Louisville, Ky., are encouraging. The news staff posted pitches for six different reporting projects starting in January. Each idea is more...

• August 3, 2011
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