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Writer's pictureDylan Robertson

Giant Robot wins coveted Golden Mike for best long form documentary at RTNA Awards.

Los Angeles, Calif. – April 2, 2024 – PBS SoCal, Southern California’s flagship PBS organization, announced this morning a total of two wins from the 74th Annual Golden Mike® Awards presented in-person by the Radio & Television News Association (RTNA) of Southern California on Saturday, March 30, 2024 at the Universal Hilton in Universal City. PBS SoCal was honored in the Division A categories for locally produced arts and culture series ARTBOUND’s “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” for Long Form Program or Documentary while the PBS Digital Studios series HIP-HOP AND THE METAVERSE was recognized in the Digital News Reporting category. The two wins came after receiving seven nominations across six categories in early February, led by ARTBOUND with five nominations. The Golden Mike Awards is the longest running broadcast news awards show in America, and one of the most distinguished because some of the top journalists across America do the judging.


The locally produced, award-winning arts and culture series ARTBOUND originally aired the documentary “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” in the fall of 2022. The film chronicles the iconic magazine Giant Robot which created an appetite for Asian and Asian American pop culture, exploring Sawtelle Boulevard as a Japanese American enclave, and ultimately resulted in a lasting le





gacy of Asian American artists that achieved worldwide recognition. Founded in 1994, Giant Robot was a bimonthly magazine driven by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong covering Asian popular culture and soon featured Asian American artists such as David Choe and James Jean. The film features interviews with Margaret Cho, Takashi Murakami and Daniel Wuamong others. The film was directed by Dylan Robertson as well as Dennis Nishi and produced by Radiant Features.

ARTBOUND is supported in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture and Creative Recovery LA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other generous institutional funders.


The digital series HIP-HOP AND THE METAVERSE premiered in January of 2023 on PBS Voices, a documentary-focused YouTube channel. Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the series examined the intersection of music, art and technology and was hosted by writer, multimedia producer and professor of media arts Dr. Robeson "Taj"   Frazier. The episodes explored the way Hip-Hop artists and entrepreneurs are reshaping and remixing emerging technologies with artists now venturing into new virtual worlds to create unique experiences for audiences in 3D spaces and developing art with innovative decentralized technologies. In each episode, Taj engaged with experts and artists in their fields who shared their real-world experiences and discussed Hip-Hop as a culture, genre and multi-disciplinary art form as well as how it transforms and influences the future.

The RTNA salutes the best in broadcast journalism on an annual basis in Southern and Central California. From breaking news to documentaries, awards for outstanding work were presented to reporters, videographers, producers, writers, and managers at Radio and TV stations from San Diego to Fresno. The RTNA is a nonprofit organization representing broadcast news professionals throughout Southern California and coordinates TV pool coverage of major news events in the region, fights for freedom of information causes, and provides scholarships for the next generation of broadcast journalists.

About PBS SoCalPBS SoCal uses the power of public media for good, strengthening the civic fabric of Southern California and providing our community with an essential connection to a wider world. As a local, donor/member-supported non-profit organization, PBS SoCal is available to stream on the PBS app and the PBS Kids App, and reaches nearly 19M viewers across 7 Broadcast channels — including 2 primary channels, PBS SoCal and PBS SoCal Plus and 5 digital subchannels. With a commitment to make content available anytime and anywhere for free, PBS SoCal offers programming that reflects the diversity of Southern California and showcases the full schedule of beloved and trusted PBS content spanning Education, News, Environment and Arts & Culture. PBS SoCal also sparks the sharing of ideas at in-person cultural events and community conversations as well as prepares children for kindergarten and beyond by bringing bilingual, hands-on learning experiences to the community for free.

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