Here’s what the MIF team is reading, watching and listening to these days
For our final newsletter of the year, I’ve asked my colleagues what kinds of media they’re into right now. The choices are endless these days, and I just need to know that there’s more to life than “Cobra Kai.” (I hope you all remember that this was the #1 streaming show during COVID lockdowns. And […]
Journalism’s Threatened Role in Our Democracy
Catherine Devine (Rita Allen Foundation Civic Science Fellow 2024-25) shares reflections from the 2024 JFunders annual meeting in San Francisco: My first encounter with journalism was with my town’s Hometown Weekly—a modest paper that covered everything from local elections to dance recitals, graduations to high school football games. It was only recently, at the JFunders annual […]
The powerful intersection of documentary and journalism at the local level
As a photojournalist on staff at the Detroit Free Press, Kimberly P. Mitchell was used to doing “quick turn” stories – snapping photos and short videos that encouraged engagement on the Gannett paper’s website and social media.
MIF report from the Skoll World Forum and the International Journalism Festival
It was great to be back in Oxford, England, earlier this month for the Skoll World Forum, a unique gathering of donors and doers from around the world. From the opening courageous conversation between Carole Cadwalladr and Nobel Prize-winning editor and author Maria Ressa, one of the central messages of this year’s World Forum was on the dangers […]
New findings on U.S. audience behavior highlight a path forward for funders of international public interest media
News executives have long wed themselves to the narrative that there is a lack of U.S. audience appetite for international news. But is that true?
Philanthropy can help expose the truth about racial inequality in America through support of documentary films
Across America, there is a battle being fought in state houses and school boards over the future of our society, and whether we will continue to build on progress to be a diverse and inclusive nation or if we will allow ourselves to revert to being a society that discriminates on the base of race […]
Amid war, a clear and collective call to support public interest media in Ukraine
Every day, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine grinds on, we are witness to bloody crimes against Ukrainian civilians and crimes against humanity, in a growing crescendo of violence that can only be called genocide. The grim photos and videos streaming out of the city of Bucha in recent days, call to mind the chilling images […]
Looking forward prompts us to look back: Reflections from our 2019 Media Impact Forum
As we prepare for our first in-person gathering since the pandemic began, the Media Impact Forum at the National Geographic Society on June 1, we have been thinking back to the last time we got together in person for our Forum—titled Radio Active Culture—in May 2019, at the American Philosophical Society, here in Philadelphia. In […]
Over the years, funders of media & journalism have helped America understand—and come to terms with—its gun violence epidemic
In recent weeks, it seems like America has arrived at a crucial crossroads in its long and painful history of gun violence. In the wake of several high-profile mass shootings in Atlanta, in Boulder, Colo., and most recently, in Indianapolis, Ind., there is a growing sense of outrage and demand for solutions. And in Washington, […]
As attacks on reproductive rights grow, philanthropy needs to step up support for a counternarrative
Last month, just two days after the inauguration of our 46th president and first female vice president, the nation marked another milestone — the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding access to safe abortion as a woman’s constitutional right.
Year-end reflection: Funders of media in the public interest stepped up in the face of 2020’s myriad challenges
Coming to the end of 2020, I think it’s fair to say that many of us are eager to turn the page with hopes of a better year to come. As this newsletter goes out, we are close to the winter solstice, the shortest and darkest day of the year. It feels that way metaphorically, […]
Equity first: A call to action for journalism and journalism funders
In late September, the LA Times editorial board wrote, “For at least its first 80 years, the Los Angeles Times was an institution deeply rooted in white supremacy.” This editorial was the start of an eight-part series interrogating the Times’ history of racist coverage and its failure to represent the communities it purported to serve […]