Throughout the first half of this year, Media Impact Funders and our members have focused a tremendous amount of our attention to the myriad ways in which media and journalism are contending with challenges from the new administration. And so it made sense for us to devote our annual Media Impact Forum this year to the subject of Safeguarding Media and Journalism. And nowhere better to do this than the National Constitution Center, here in Philadelphia, at a moment when we are seeing increasing attacks on press freedom and attempts to cut federal funding for public media.
It was great to return to the National Constitution Center, where we held our first Media Impact Forum way back in 2012. We always appreciate the warm welcome we receive from the NCC staff and reflect upon the values it represents, especially the prominent place of the First Amendment among all elements of the Constitution.
Right from the opening of our program, we heard a powerful call to action from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Maria Ressa, author of the best-selling book “How To Stand Up To A Dictator” and subject of the award winning film “A Thousand Cuts.” Ressa has devoted herself to the defense of democracy in her own country and also travelling around the world encouraging journalists and media funders to stand strong in holding powerful politicians to account, even as they become more and more repressive in their policies. At the same time, she explained that the major corporate technology platforms are also to blame for the toxic political environment, contributing bias and surveillance and environmental damage, due to their practices. And she urges public interest media organizations and their funders to create alternative technology solutions that will allow them to create a healthy flow of information and discourse.
The bulk of our program was devoted to finding new ways for media makers to reach new audiences and for media funders to explore how to support new voices, beyond the traditional and legacy outlets that have garnered most philanthropic support to date.
We heard several compelling presentations of research on how to work with content creators and influencers. Ashwath Narayanan, CEO of Social Currant and Brian Waniewski, Executive Director of Harmony Labs. Narayanan and Waniewski both demonstrated the power of reaching large audiences through effective partnerships with social media influencers and showed how and why some messages (and messengers) work better than others.
Justin Arenstein, founder and CEO of Code for Africa and co-CEO of ISFJ+ described how to best identify and work with news influencers at the local level, explaining how to use narrative mapping and social listening to engage allies for building community. And Flora Lichtman, host of NPR’s Science Friday, talked about her experience as a podcast host of “Every Little Thing” at Gimlet Media as informing her approach in creating entertaining and engaging content for her weekly broadcast. Jesse Hardman, founder and senior program advisor at the Listening Post Collective and Maritza Félix, founder and director of Conecta Arizona, talked about how media outlets can best connect with their communities and described the Civic Information Index, which maps a wide array of factors that show the depth and breadth of civic information available in communities across the country.
Rita Parhad and Sydney Apple, from communications research firm Protagonist, outlined their sweeping research report on the different ways that conservative and liberal media outlets deliver content around narrative themes in ways that shape and influence public discourse, with conservative outlets producing a much more focused and coherent set of messages that have dominated political debates.
When it comes to public and community media, Philadelphia was a special place to convene this year’s forum, with exemplary outlets across a wide range of media outlets. Our gathering featured many important voices from local media, including Sara Lomax, president and CEO of WURD Radio, Tom Casetta of hyperlocal, low-power FM broadcaster, G-Town Radio. And our closing session— featuring Ivan Sigal, the interim executive director of Free our Feeds, and Ryan Merkley, COO of NPR—was moderated by Jazz and Classical station WRTI’s station manager, Bill Johnson.
And we also were inspired by a musical performance by Dillon Scott, a brilliant violist studying across town at the Curtis Institute, which is itself celebrating its centenary this year. Scott performed a piece by contemporary composer Jessie Montgomery, Rhapsody No. 1, and a piece of Scott’s own composition, A Moment In Time. In between the music, he had a short but enlightening conversation with WRTI’s Bill Johnson, who noted among other things that Scott has a following of more than 10,000 people on Instagram.
You can watch Scott’s performance on video on the Media Impact Funders website, along with most of the proceedings of this year’s forum. And you can follow him at dill_onviola on Instagram.
On a personal note, it was a real joy to organize this year’s Media Impact Forum with all of my staff colleagues, who each made a special contribution to our gathering. And it was bittersweet in that this was my last forum, as I close out my time as executive director of Media Impact Funders.
