Ocean State Media reporters, producers, editors and staff members visited Warwick on Monday as part of the Ocean State Media in Motion project.
The project will tour all 39 cities and towns in Rhode Island, with the goal of bringing people together, sparking thoughtful dialogue, and gathering real insight that helps shape reporting.
Ocean State Media reporter James Baumgartner was on the ground in Warwick, including at a community discussion on the importance of staying informed in an increasingly polarized society, hosted by political reporter Ian Donnis.
Baumgartner also spoke with community members at a coffee shop, while other reporters met with elementary school students.
Baumgartner sat down with morning host Luis Hernandez to discuss some takeaways from Ocean State Media in Motion in Warwick.
Interview highlights
On a visit to Hoxsie Elementary School
Luis Hernandez: It was so much fun. Just want to say a shout-out to the principal there and the teachers. By the way, it took me back; the construction paper and the markers and the glue. The kids were wonderful, and they asked a lot of interesting questions about people I’ve interviewed, and surprisingly, they knew about some of them.
On a visit to the Boys & Girls Club of Warwick
James Baumgartner: We had a group go to visit an after-school program at the Boys & Girls Club, and they did a Media Making workshop with the young people there from the PBS Student Reporter Labs. We gave them a prompt, and they were going to make a quick video from it. The prompt was, “Tell us what are the issues facing teens in Warwick?” Some of the issues you might recognize – bullying and cliques, perennial issues for teenagers – and they also talked about cell phones in classrooms. Isabella Jibilian, one of our reporters, helped make the videos and talked about what a journalist does, and then they created a short video about that topic.
On ‘Civics in the Media,’ an event hosted by Ian Donnis at the Warwick Public Library
Baumgartner: Ian Donnis, our political reporter, has been covering politics and news in Rhode Island since the ‘90s, so he knows all of the colorful stories from the world of politics. He says that it’s not necessarily good to have such colorful politics sometimes; it’s not always a good thing for the public interest. He also mentioned that despite many cutbacks, Rhode Island still has a robust media landscape compared to some other parts of the country. He encouraged the people he talked to to have a diverse media diet, and he talked about how media has its role in helping to inform the public, but it’s up to the people to put pressure on their elected officials if they want to make change. He used the example of same-sex marriage from 2013 that really came out of a grassroots effort to make a change, and it quickly made a change in the state legislature.
Ocean State Media in Motion is slated to visit Glocester on June 16 and 17.
