Today we premiere a new series that will air on On the Record every Tuesday in February. More Than Words is a collaborative youth media group, radio project and podcast produced and reported by Baltimore City Public School students. The show hands over the microphone to youth so they can report and tell personal stories they feel journalists sometimes neglect or get wrong.
For the 2016-2017 school year, we partnered with Frederick Douglass High School’s Recording Arts, Media and Production (RAMP) in West Baltimore to teach how radio journalism and storytelling have the power to shift perspectives about issues confronting communities of color. Deneira, Miles, Chanel and Xavier will produce at least six episodes by the end of the school year. The show is edited and directed by WYPR’s education reporter, Jonna McKone and Jamyla Krempel, the station’s digital producer. Episode #1 is a discussion among the youth about how adults perceive young people.