Pew Center funds supported the use of videoconferencing technology that allowed KTCA to originate broadcasts from new and unconventional locations and to connect citizens from far-flung parts of the large, rural state. The result was innovative programming with groundbreaking levels of interactivity.
The first broadcast to use the new technology, in January 1999, linked newly elected Gov. Jesse Ventura, in the KTCA studios in St. Paul, with citizens in Bemidji, Mankato, Duluth, Windom and Minneapolis for a discussion of his new tax policies.
The program was so successful, the governor’s office agreed to an ongoing series of discussions. Later programs featured discussions of education and agricultural policy.
The technology was also used to link citizens from a Minneapolis soul food restaurant, Lucille’s Kitchen, with white residents of a depressed farming community for a series of riveting discussions about their similarities and differences.
A live show in June 1999 linked two families with teenage children from the living rooms of their homes to the KTCA studios for a discussion of underage drinking. During the broadcast, the teens took a test, published in the Star Tribune, designed to identify teenage drinking risk factors.
Use of the technology to allow ordinary citizens to participate in public discussions from their own zones of comfort – the restaurants, shopping malls and other “third places” in their own communities – became a permanent and popular fixture in KTCA programming.
Contact:
Bill Hanley
Executive VP, Content
KTCA-TV (PBS)
172 East 4th Street
St. Paul, MN 55101
Phone: (651) 229-1380
Email: bhanley@ktca.org
Evelyn Messinger
Director
Internews Network
705 Mission Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
Phone: (415) 457-5222
Email: emessinger@internews.org