Maladies and Miracles Recap: A Day of Science and Storytelling

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