Beginning this October, NHPR listeners and readers can expect to find more enterprise and investigative journalism spanning NHPR’s on-air, digital and podcast properties. Document is a new newsroom reporting project that will allow NHPR reporters to dig deeper into key stories and issues to produce long-form, narrative-driven content that shines a light on topics that serve the public interest.
Jason Moon, host of the hit NHPR podcast Bear Brook, and Lauren Chooljian, co-host of NHPR’s award-winning Stranglehold podcast, will be the primary reporters on the project, though anyone on the NHPR news staff may pursue Document reporting initiatives in collaboration with the team. The first project from the new team, The List, takes a look at police accountability in the Granite State.
The List is about the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, better known as the "Laurie List," a secret list of New Hampshire police officers identified by prosecutors as having credibility issues. Many states have similar lists, along with legal battles to make the lists public. The List looks at New Hampshire’s decades of secrecy around police misconduct and asks: Why do these lists exist? How have they changed the way we think about the police? And if the lists were made public, would they solve our policing problems?
Other themes include the effects of police misconduct on victims, the effects the list has on public trust in local law enforcement, and accuracy issues presented by the list in its current form. During the third podcast episode, listeners also hear about the impact the “Laurie List’ had on one local police officer’s career and life. The List is being presented in multiple forms: as a three-episode podcast series, a one-hour radio documentary and a magazine-style digital story.
Further plans for the Document team include 3-4 deeply-reported, multi-platform projects each year. The next project is expected to take a look at life on parole in New Hampshire, through the story of one man’s challenging journey to get his life back on track following a period of incarceration.
“When you have something important to share - when you want someone to really listen to what you have to say, and to understand what they’re hearing - you don’t just recite a catalogue of facts. You tell them a story,” said Jim Schachter, president and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio. “That’s what the Document team is all about: telling New Hampshire’s most important stories – the ones that matter in people’s lives and resonate beyond our borders – in all the media that diverse, growing audiences love.”
Over the past half dozen years, NHPR built its expertise and personnel in order to report and share stories across platforms. With the loyalty and support of members and listeners, a Campaign for Innovation raised more than $5 million dollars, allowing NHPR to embrace and experiment with podcast, digital, interactive and data-driven journalism. The work of the Document team will further extend the promise of the Campaign.
Find The List:
- Read the feature story.
- Subscribe to thepodcast – starting Monday, October 26.
- Listen to the trailer: www.nhpr.org/document
- Follow the Document project on Twitter @nhprdocument
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About NHPR
Since 1981, New Hampshire Public Radio has shaped the media landscape in the Granite State and beyond. Our mission is “Expanding minds, sparking connections, building stronger communities.” NHPR is broadcast from 14 different sites, making it by far New Hampshire’s largest (and only) statewide radio news service. Every week, NHPR is the choice of more than 157,000 listeners as a primary source of in-depth and intelligent news coverage, with thousands more viewing NHPR.org, following our social media sites or listening to our podcasts. Each day, New Hampshire Public Radio delivers several hours of local news reported by its award-winning news team. Locally produced programs and podcasts include The Exchange, The Folk Show, Outside/In, Bear Brook, and Civics 101, among others. NHPR is the exclusive outlet for NPR News in the Granite State and broadcasts national weekly programs such as The Moth Radio Hour, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, and This American Life. www.nhpr.org
