The Michigan Association of Broadcasters named the Tracked & Traced podcast the winner of the Best Use of New Media award for Public Radio Group 2 during its 2022 Broadcast Excellence Awards ceremony on Friday, March 17, 2023. The Tracked & Traced podcast is a collaboration between WDET-FM, Detroit’s NPR Station, and MSU Museum CoLab Studio. The Broadcast Excellence Awards program recognizes outstanding achievement in broadcasting by commercial and public television and radio stations in Michigan each year.
“It’s an honor for our team to be recognized for their reporting, editing and producing on Tracked and Traced, remarked David Leins, podcast producer at WDET. “Surveillance technology is everywhere, and we worked hard to bring its impacts on society to light with this podcast.”
Tracked & Traced is a 10-episode podcast inspired by the Tracked & Traced exhibition that was on display at the MSU Museum from September 10 to December 23, 2021. Through the contributions of more than one dozen national and international artists, scientists, and researchers, the exhibition examined the complex relationship between surveillance and ethics. The podcast builds on the themes of the exhibits through stories exploring what it means to live within a surveillance society, how surveillance benefits us as individuals and as a society, and the inherent harms inflicted upon those being tracked and monitored.
Co-hosts of the podcast include acclaimed poet and MSU Museum Community Engagement Manager Natasha T. Miller and former MSU Museum CoLab Studio Head of Programming Antajuan Scott. Additionally, Museum CoLaborators served as “street reporters” by asking visitors to the Tracked & Tracked exhibition questions about surveillance. CoLaborators are a team of MSU students with a passion for talking about the collision between science and the arts.
“I learned how to have deep and meaningful conversations about important topics with amazing individuals,” said Patrick Vaughan, MSU Museum CoLaborator.
This is the second year in a row that WDET and MSU Museum CoLab Studio have produced a podcast that was named best use of new media by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters. In 2022, the team produced the Science of Grief podcast which made space for young adults to share stories, science, and solutions for those who are experiencing grief and exploring their mental health for the first time. Listen to Science of Grief podcast here and the Tracked & Traced podcast here.
“The podcasts demonstrate the Museum’s efforts to support student success and advance community outreach and engagement,” said Devon Akmon, MSU Museum Director. “We are honored to be recognized for the outstanding work achieved through this collaborative effort.”
The creation of the Tracked & Traced podcast was made possible by the generous support of the Pulitzer Center, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, and MSUFCU.
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan is a full-service philanthropic organization leading the way to positive change in our region. As a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations, the Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development, and civic affairs. Since its inception, the Foundation has distributed more than $1.2 billion through more than 80,000 grants to nonprofit organizations primarily throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair, and Livingston counties. For more information, please visit www.cfsem.org.
The Pulitzer Center raises awareness of underreported global issues through direct support for quality journalism across all media platforms and a unique program of education and public outreach. The Pulitzer Center is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). For more information, please visit pulitzercenter.org/.