WED., APRIL 30 — FRONTLINE, the PBS documentary series produced at GBH in Boston, announced today that it will launch a two-phase initiative to engage young people in civic dialogue through journalistic storytelling, emerging technologies and public conversations. The initiative will be supported by Cortico — a nonprofit that uses AI technology to support community listening — and the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC). Cortico and MIT will work under a collaborative agreement to advance the goals of FRONTLINE’s initiative.

The initiative will kick off with a six-week, paid fellowship for a small cohort of Boston-based youth (ages 16-21), who will meet at the MIT Media Lab. Young people interested in participating can apply here. Over the course of the fellowship, participants will explore the intersection of AI, learning and the future, using video shorts produced for FRONTLINE’s youth-oriented For the Record series as the foundation for conversation and storytelling.

The fellows will host peer conversations inspired by FRONTLINE content, use cutting-edge AI tools from CCC and Cortico to synthesize and surface key insights and co-develop conversation guides and other resources that will be used to support teens across the country as part of a broader library roll-out in the fall and beyond. They will also co-create media outputs that FRONTLINE can feature or build upon in future storytelling and provide structured feedback to FRONTLINE on current videos and story concepts — with an emphasis on resonating with young audiences across the political spectrum.

“As we look to connect FRONTLINE’s journalism with younger audiences, we need to know what’s important to them and how they engage with a rapidly evolving media landscape,” says Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE. “We hope this relationship with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication and Cortico will create a feedback loop between youth audiences and public media — informing stories, expanding reach and embedding journalism in the spaces where young people live, learn, and engage.”

The initiative also aims to lay the groundwork for scalable civic dialogue across the country, using libraries as a starting point. In a second phase, building on learnings and using resources developed in phase one, Cortico will launch a Teen Dialogue Accelerator with 10 libraries nationwide from fall 2025 through mid-2026. The tools and frameworks developed in phase one by FRONTLINE with the support of MIT CCC, Cortico, and Boston area libraries will be introduced to library staff and teen leaders from 10 libraries across the country to launch civic conversations locally.

“The Youth Civic Voices Initiative will give young people practical tools and a platform to shape conversations about issues they care deeply about,” says Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou, head of translational research and practice at MIT CCC. “By combining journalistic storytelling with accessible AI tools, we are empowering youth to directly influence how public media engages their generation. This continues our effort to create spaces where young voices can drive real, meaningful dialogue.”

“In the spirit of bringing light, not heat, to the conversation, this initiative reimagines civic discourse for a new generation,” says MIT Professor Deb Roy, director of MIT CCC and co-founder, CEO and chair of Cortico. “By combining youth-led dialogue with the storytelling power of short-form video made for how young people communicate and connect today — and equipping them with AI tools they control — we aim to demonstrate a scalable model for authentic, inclusive public conversation.”

If you know a young person in your Boston community who is curious about the impact of AI in their life and the lives of others and interested in listening to and documenting varied perspectives on this topic, we invite you to nominate them by May 16, 2025. You can reach out to sarah.gesner@cortico.ai for more information or just send them this link to submit their interest.

About FRONTLINE
FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 108 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

About the MIT Center for Constructive Conversation
Informed by years of social media and media analytics, CCC’s work combines the ancient wisdoms of human conversation with emerging digital technologies to promote shared understanding and trust rather than reinforcing the “side-taking” and binary thinking that too often divides us. Based at the MIT Media Lab and working closely with the non-profit Cortico, CCC brings together researchers in AI, computational social science, digital interactive design, and learning technologies with software engineers, journalists, political scientists, designers, and community organizations. An important aspect of CCC is its commitment to reach both within and beyond academia to work closely with locally based organizations to launch pilot programs focused on building a culture of listening and dialogue that promotes a sense of shared understanding, empathy, and trust. Learn more here.

About Cortico
Our mission is to bring underheard voices to the center of stronger civic spaces. We do this by building tools and methods that enable deep conversations and make it possible to understand and learn from these voices and experiences. Cortico’s AI is human-steered — no pushbutton shortcuts. Unlike AI that digests and summarizes human speech, Cortico’s voice-first, people-led approach helps communities surface, share, and act on their own narratives. Our tools ensure insights stay grounded in real voices and local knowledge. Cortico’s vision is to become the platform that surfaces underheard voices rather than the loudest, facilitates sharing experiences rather than battling opinions, and promotes empathy and connection rather than division and intolerance. Cortico collaborates closely with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication and maintains a unique cooperation agreement with MIT that enables collaboration on IP, prototyping and field pilots. Learn more here.

Press Contact:
FRONTLINE: Anne Husted, Director of Marketing & Communications, frontlinemedia@wgbh.org