KUNC selected for national reporting project

GREELEY — KUNC will participate in a two-year national reporting project along with nine other public media stations that will jointly examine guns in America.

The Guns & America project is funded by a $5.3 million grant from The Kendeda Fund, a private grant-making foundation based in Atlanta.

The reporting collaborative will be headquartered and supported by a five-person production team at WAMU in Washington, D.C.,  and 10 Audion Fellowship reporters to be placed in newsrooms across the country including KUNC in Greeley; Boise State Public Radio in Boise, Idaho; KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.; KERA in Dallas, Texas; OPB in Portland, Ore.; WABE in Atlanta, Ga.; WAMU in Washington; WCPN ideastream in Cleveland, Ohio; WNPR in Hartford, Conn.; and WUNC in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Neil Best, KUNC president and CEO, said, “It’s an honor for KUNC to participate in this project and to be able to participate in examining this difficult topic in the public radio tradition of fairness. We’re thrilled to participate with so many esteemed colleagues under the leadership of JJ and the team at WAMU, and to help to provide an opportunity for journalists to enrich their ability to cover challenging issues.”

WAMU General Manager JJ Yore said KUNC will bring a western perspective to the project. “As a premier public media outlet in Colorado, KUNC will bring unique voices to our reporting on the ways guns impact our lives,” he said.

The national collaborative will report for two years on the many ways that firearms are intertwined in American life, from the cultural significance of hunting and sport shooting, to the role guns play in suicide, homicides, mass shootings and beyond. The inaugural cohort of Audion Fellows will increase the capacity for in-depth reporting and infuse public media newsrooms across the country with digital and multimedia skills. Reporters at the 10 stations will begin filing their first stories in June 2018.

Reporting will be available at www.gunsandamerica.org beginning in June.

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