WETA Public Television & Radio

The Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is the public television and radio station serving the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. WETA is also a major producer of national programming for PBS stations and the home of the PBS NewsHour (Newshour). The NewsHour is a multiplatform news producer, best known for its daily evening telecast, which explains the essential national and international news of the day. This award provides flexible general support for the NewsHour to continue its deep explanatory reporting, expand its coverage of international news and foreign policy, pursue newsroom collaborations, and grow its digital presence. The intended outcome is a reliable and comprehensive news source for Americans to turn to that is trustworthy and free of charge.

PBS Student Reporting Labs (SRL), a project of WETA, trains middle- and high-school students across the country to produce and share original media that explores national and global issues and how they affect local communities. Launched in 2009 as an effort to more deeply engage young people in PBS content, today it is an independent project that reaches thousands of students in every state through partnerships with schools and after-school programs and clubs. It has a special focus on working with Title I schools and low-resource communities, and its curriculum is focused both on traditional journalism and the creation and circulation of new media online. This grant supports efforts to increase the capacity of PBS Student Reporting Labs to reach more students, especially in rural areas, and to build up its social and mobile platforms to engage youth more deeply in the sharing and circulation of their media with others in their community and beyond. It also supports the development of new curricular modules to accommodate the various needs of schools, their teachers, and students.

WETA is the public television station serving the Greater Washington, D.C. area, and it is the production home for PBS NewsHour, the daily, flagship news program on public television stations nationwide. The NewsHour provides deep and nuanced analysis of daily national and international events and special coverage of under-reported issues in health, education, science and the arts.  It is available to American audiences via television broadcast, its website and mobile app, through social media and third party platforms, such as YouTube. This grant seeks to support and sustain a strong newsroom with the capability to deliver high quality explanatory journalism that informs Americans about the major events and issues of the day.

WETA Public Television & Radio (WETA), the leading public broadcasting station in Washington, DC, produces educational, cultural, news and public affairs programs, and services for national broadcast on PBS, including more than 30 years of performance specials at the White House. On October 14, 2015, to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), WETA produced and recorded a concert at the White House celebrating the diversity of American music. Music and literary readings were performed by artists honored or supported by the NEH. The grant supports WETA’s efforts to edit and broadcast the concert for public television audiences and create a website with downloadable curriculum and educational materials for teachers and students. MacArthur, along with the Carnegie and Ford Foundations, is providing one-time support for the NEH’s anniversary events, which are intended to raise awareness of the Endowment’s role in supporting America’s cultural life.

The PBS NewsHour is the signature news and public affairs program broadcast on public television. It covers a set of issues important to the country in a manner that is deep, sustained, and thoughtful helping audiences fully understand current events. The program’s priority beats include politics, the economy, education, science, health, and international issues. This grant provides general support for The PBS NewsHour, enabling it to pursue its highly regarded form of serious journalism and to continue to develop and implement digital strategies that will grow its audience on all platforms.

The PBS NewsHour is the signature news and public affairs program broadcast on public television as well as on radio in the U.S. and internationally. It is widely considered one of the most informative and balanced newscasts on television, and it has won every major award in journalism for its thoughtful analysis and civil discourse on the most important news stories of the day. Every night, across the country, on primetime, The NewsHour television broadcast draws a consistent audience of 1 million nightly viewers. Its digital audience has grown rapidly over the last year and now sees 3 million page views each month.

WETA Public Television & Radio is the PBS station serving the greater Washington, D.C. area and the presenting station of The PBS NewsHour. This grant supports a research project that will collect and analyze data on news consumers which will be used to better understanding and to help expand the audience for The PBS NewsHour.

In support of The NewsHour, a nightly primetime news program on PBS (over three years).

In support of the documentary film "Reporting America at War".

To support a documentary series on the role of class in American society.

For "Jazz," a public television series (over two years).

For "Vote for Me: Politics in America," a public television documentary series that examines electoral politics as a reflection of American culture (over two years).

To support "The Glory and the Power," a PBS series on fundamentalism in world religions, together with a public radio series.

For the school guide to accompany the broadcast and video distribution of "America Becoming."

To support the public television production of "Arab and Jew," based on David Shipler's book of the same title.