PRI announces Phase 2 of Across Women’s Lives, its multi-media initiative to increase awareness, knowledge and engagement around issues of gender equity
Christina Asquith, founder of The Fuller Project for International Reporting, to lead the effort
CONTACT: Julia Yager, PRI, 612.330.9231, jyager@pri.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MINNEAPOLIS, August 8, 2016 – Public Radio International (PRI) today announces plans for the expansion of its Across Women’s Lives (AWL) initiative to target ethnically-diverse American Millennials outside the current public media consumer. A grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help support PRI’s reporting on gender equity and its impact on health and development around the world.
PRI launched Across Women’s Lives in 2014 to spur action and effect change on vital global health and development issues by illuminating the interconnection of improved status for women with better health and societal outcomes community-wide. Through multimedia storytelling and social outreach, AWL created a network of people in the U.S. and beyond who drove action and conversation about gender equity. Its reporting, created by PRI’s newsroom for PRI’s The World® and pri.org, was consumed by millions of people, and was the foundation for vibrant social media communities.
In Phase 2 of Across Women’s Lives, PRI will focus primarily on women’s health and economic empowerment; it will also pilot new strategies to deepen public engagement around gender equity issues, with a particular emphasis on reaching diverse and younger audiences. Data journalism and multimedia reporting will translate complex data and research about gender equity into compelling storytelling that helps the public better understand their world. Alisa Miller, CEO and President of PRI, said, “In the two years since launching Across Women’s Lives, we have seen great interest in understanding the broad role that women play in strengthening their communities, and a strong desire to participate in the conversation and take action. Moving forward, we will continue to engage the public media audience to raise awareness of gender equity issues, and will reach out to Millennials to bring them into this important conversation.”
Christina Asquith will lead the AWL editorial team. Asquith is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Fuller Project for International Reporting, a non-profit journalism organization dedicated to multimedia reporting on issues that affect women globally. In her 20 years reporting on women around the world, Asquith has published hundreds of articles in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, CNN, TIME, ELLE Magazine, VICE, and The Guardian; she has also produced several short videos for The New York Times and Foreign Affairs. Her recently released book, “Sisters in War: A Story of Love, Family and Survival in the New Iraq,” details a female perspective of the Iraqi war, told through stories of four women.
Asquith has a Masters degree in policy from The London School of Economics and a BA from Boston University. She is a recognized expert on women, and has been a guest speaker on the BBC, ABC News, NPR, Fox News, PRI’s The World®, Al Jazeera and at the US State Department and Harvard University. She will be based in PRI’s Boston newsroom and Istanbul. Of her appointment, Asquith said, “I am thrilled to join PRI’s newsroom and the staff at The World in drawing attention to the vital role women play in the success of their communities. Across Women’s Lives will be the media leader in mining emerging data on women globally, and turning this research into compelling narratives that help our audience understand how women's lives are changing, and women's potential to solve problems in their own communities."
About PRI: PRI is building a more informed, empathetic, and connected world by creating multi-platform content that empowers people to benefit their lives and the world. PRI’s award winning content reaches more than 18 million people each month, through over 900 public radio stations in the U.S. and PRI.org, and millions more through podcasts and social media. An affiliated company of WGBH, PRI produces PRI’s The World®, The Takeaway (a co-production with WNYC), and Studio 360® from PRI and WNYC. It produces in-depth reporting on topics including gender equity (Across Women’s Lives), international security, and American identity and immigrant life (GlobalNation). It represents public radio programs including Science Friday, q from the CBC and The Tavis Smiley Show. Major philanthropic supporters include The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ford Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Annenberg Foundation.
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