How Do We Choose Featured Programs?

Most days, FORA.tv posts about six new programs, but we can only feature three of them at the top of the new home page. Usually Trevar knows by 10 or 11 a.m. which programs will be ready for posting that evening, so that's when I look at the list and make decisions.

First, I look for programs featuring a well-known newsmaker or a hot topic in the news. Then, I try to select a "mix" of programs so that the top of the page isn't all international issues or all policy. If we've featured a lot of Iraq programs recently, I might not feature another one unless it really adds something new to our understanding of the issue.

Last night we had the interview with James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize as part of the team that identified the double helix structure of DNA. Since he's an engaging speaker and a well-known person you don't hear from all the time, I put him in the first, and most visible spot.

Then we had an interesting discussion about China's competition with other countries for energy resources: that program won the number two spot.

Finally, we had Dave Barry, who's always fun. He went in spot number three.

Unfortunately, that meant that NPR Producer Dave Gediman, talking about his work on NPR's regular "This I Believe" segment, moved down to the "Recent Programs" list, as did the incredibly inspiring Women Who Light The Dark, stories of women around the globe, many of them impoverished, who are changing the world nonetheless.