Listen on the go: Four Days investigation, narrated by Kevin Donovan
With a new generation of media consumers demanding more access to quality, real news coverage, traditional media outlets are increasingly turning to radio.
It is a trend that started earlier this year with a little-known New York-based radio station that was the first to be granted the license to broadcast its news, in December. The station, Radio Free NY, was created by and is operated by a group of political activists intent on producing progressive radio content, rather than simply entertainment.
That station, and others like it that have started up across the country, are creating a new environment for radio and new media broadcasters. These new media outlets, while not the only ones to engage with these issues, are the first to do so in a way that’s accessible to a mass market audience.
In these circumstances, and as the New York Times reported on the program Wednesday, it’s hard to find anybody who doubts that the role will be growing for radio and public television, and for newspapers that have come to recognize that it’s more important to serve a local community than it is to serve news consumers nationally.
Radio and television are increasingly being used to cover the news and provide a voice to the concerns and stories that the mainstream media is reluctant to do.
One of the most notable cases of this happened this week, when a New York Times article about the use of guns in American schools to kill students and teachers was taken up by the radio broadcast of WKCR in Chicago, WBEZ in New York and WNYC in New York. These stations are among the most respected on the air in cities where the issue of gun violence is an issue that the mainstream media refuses to address.
The story generated plenty of discussion on social media, and some online outlets reported on the event while others did not, while others criticized the use of radio for the story. Of