Rekha Murthy
On March 31, the FluPortal project comes to an end. We’re happy to say this is well after the H1N1 flu pandemic has itself waned in the United States. Given this fortunate turn of events, we took the site into new directions beyond pandemic flu, exploring how public radio and public television stations can cover a range of emergency situations where public information is critical.
Our report, “Crisis Coverage by Public Media: A Review of FluPortal and Recommendations for the Future,” gives in-depth perspective on the technological, editorial, and communications aspects of the project.
FluPortal.org, the website, will remain accessible indefinitely. Public Radio Exchange (PRX), which has led the project with support from partner NPR and funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, will migrate the site to the servers of the National Center for Media Engagement. We’ll stop blogging and adding new material, but we hope public media and public health professionals, as well as the general public, continue to refer to FluPortal for information and ideas on covering flu pandemics and crises in general. Given the nature of technology, our website tool guides won’t be timeless, but they’re cutting edge so they should last for a while.
I’d like to thank our team — Josh Andrews, Katherine Bidwell, and Ken Mills — for their efforts in breaking new ground for public media. I’d also like to thank NPR — particularly Joe Neel, Keith Jenkins, Javaun Moradi, and Robert Benincasa — for their work as well. And a huge thank you to the hundreds of people at stations, media organizations, universities, and health/science organizations who presented at our webinars and contributed content, crosslinks, and insights.
We hope FluPortal represents a step forward in public media’s ongoing efforts to collaborate and share knowledge. We also hope that this will be sustained and built upon by future efforts. It’s in that spirit that we wrote the report, and we welcome your thoughts.
Rekha Murthy
FluPortal project manager
Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
