American Documentary to develop new innovations in digital storytelling through its award-winning PBS series, POV


Save Story

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

[STK]

[IN] ENT TVN

[SU]

-- WITH PHOTO -- TO ENTERTAINMENT, NATIONAL, AND RADIO-TELEVISION EDITORS:

American Documentary to develop new innovations in digital

storytelling through its award-winning PBS series, POV

NEW YORK, April 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American

Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) today announced a plan to further expand its

nonfiction series, POV, beyond television into the digital space with

new innovations in storytelling. With $250,000 from the John S. and

James L. Knight Foundation, POV will increase its digital

co-productions, hire a technology fellow and continue its successful

nonfiction media lab, POV Hackathon.

Since the 1990s, PBS's award-winning nonfiction broadcast series POV

(a cinema term for "point of view") has built a reputation for digital

innovation. POV built PBS's first program website and created PBS's

first interactive storytelling project, the Webby Award-winning "POV's

Borders"; POV has also continually created companion film websites and

apps. Recently, POV and The New York Times announced a collaboration

to premiere new documentaries on the organizations' websites. The

first film, "The Men of Atalissa," produced by The New York Times, can

be seen on pbs.org/pov and www.nytimes.com.

Building on POV's digital track record, $75,000 of the Knight

Foundation funding will go to two promising media projects that push

the boundaries of nonfiction media in the digital age. The projects

will receive technical and creative support to take them from idea to

prototype to a finished product.

With the balance of the support, POV will offer a yearlong fellowship

to a technologist and continue its nonfiction media hackathon labs.

The chosen fellow will develop digital and mobile tools for nonfiction

media makers. Since 2012, the POV Hackathon labs have gathered media

makers and technologists to collaborate and develop new innovations in

documentary for the Web. In 2014, POV will organize two labs in New

York and for the first time hold a lab in Los Angeles.

"While newsrooms have seen significant pick up in media innovation in

recent years there is a need for more digital breakthroughs in the

television and broadcast arena; POV is helping fill this gap by

innovating with new technologies across multiple media platforms,"

said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism

and media innovation. "Videos and documentaries have a great power to

engage the public and capture in-depth stories. We can strengthen

their reach by supporting innovation in this area."

"We're excited that Knight is supporting digital media across the

spectrum, from the experimentation that comes out of POV Hackathon to

creating new works that forward the field of digital journalism and

Web documentary," said Cynthia López, POV co-executive producer. "As

POV continues exploring what's possible, we will also see how

nonfiction media makers can find new ways to use mobile platforms for

storytelling and engagement."

POV is now seeking projects for digital co-production at

pov.org/submit, and applications are now being accepted for the POV

Digital Technologist Fellowship at pov.org/jobs.

For the complete press release,

visit www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom/2014/pov-knight-foundation-digital-storytelling-innovation-grant.php.

SOURCE American Documentary

-0- 04/10/2014

/CONTACT: POV Communications: 212-989-7425. Alternate contact: 206-790-8697; Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org; Amanda Nguyen, anguyen@pov.org; POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom; Anusha Alikhan, Director of Communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677, media@knightfoundation.org

/Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130320/DC80188LOGO

/Web Site: http://www.pov.org

CO: American Documentary

ST: New York

IN: ENT TVN

PRN

-- DC02194 --

0000 04/10/2014 13:00:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Most recent U.S. stories

Related topics

The Associated Press
    KSL.com Beyond Series
    KSL.com Beyond Business

    KSL Weather Forecast

    KSL Weather Forecast
    Play button