The 2017 Media Impact Forum

Agenda 9 a.m.—Welcome and Introductions   Vince Stehle, Executive Director, Media Impact Funders David Rousseau, Vice President and Executive Director, Media & Technology, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation 9:15 a.m.—Returning to Public Media’s Roots A conversation with NPR’s founding architect and one of today’s leading public radio reporters on how public media has served us for the last 50 years and where it will take us in the future. Bill Siemering, President, Developing Radio Partners Korva Coleman, Newscaster, NPR 9:45 a.m.—Policy Visions, Platform Realities How have the founding policy visions for public broadcasting translated into current cross-platform efforts to serve all Americans with news, education and insight? Korva Coleman, Newscaster, NPR (moderator) Michael Copps, former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Thomas Hjelm, Chief Digital Officer, NPR 10:30 a.m.—Spectrum Auction: The First $2 Billion  With federal cuts looming, the spectrum auction may breathe life into local news and the public sphere. What are the plans for the first $2 billion? How much of it will go to public media? Tim Isgitt, Managing Director, Humanity United Patrick Butler, President and Chief Executive Officer, America’s Public Television Stations 10:50 a.m.—Networking Break   11:20 a.m.—Tech… Read More

Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared Aug. 8, 2016, on PhilanTopic, the blog of Philanthropy News Digest. By Neill Coleman | Vice President of Global Communications, Rockefeller Foundation Read More

PHILADELPHIA, PA (May 31, 2016)—Media Impact Funders (MIF), a member-supported network of funders who seek to improve society through media and technology, has been awarded a two-year, $500,000 matching grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, a limited-life foundation. It is the largest-ever grant awarded to the nonprofit since its incorporation in 2009. Read More

At the Open Society Foundations' headquarters in Manhattan, philanthropic leaders and media makers gathered for Maladies and Miracles: Funding Media to Illuminate Health and Science, a day-long series of panels on health-related media coverage and storytelling projects. Read More

On November 20, 2014, as the world waited for the Grand Jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri, Media Impact Funders and The Atlantic Philanthropies hosted a conversation on race, justice and media with philanthropic leaders and media makers. The event was designed to explore how media is changing public opinion and policy on multiple criminal justice issues — from the school-to-prison pipeline, to racial profiling, to wrongful prosecution and beyond. Now, with another grand jury deciding not to indict another police office in the killing of yet another unarmed black man, Eric Garner, protests are erupting around the country. This makes it more crucial than ever for funders and producers to consider how the narratives around people of color have played out in mainstream media, and how that correlates to representation, judicial policy and policing. Our event laid out high-impact examples in three core areas — documentary and narrative film, journalism and social and advocacy campaigns — and examined how these forms intersect. We learned how journalism from FRONTLINE informed the creation of the action movie Snitch, which spawned an advocacy campaign on mandatory sentencing minimums. In the same vein, the best-selling book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in… Read More

Media Impact Funders, The Atlantic Philanthropies and Philanthropy New York convened a funder gathering and livestream to discuss the acclaimed Ken Burns Film, The Central Park Five, on June 15, 2013. Read More