Transformative Media Network: Building Capacity to Authentically Serve Communities
4/3/2017 

Title:
Transformative Media Network: Building Capacity to Authentically Serve Communities

Describe your project:
Think of your most trusted news source. For some, it may be CBS, ABC, or CNN. But for many of us, our most trusted news source is the one that is most authentic to our community. It’s the podcaster who sounds like our friend, the YouTube show that speaks deeply to our personal history, the website that keeps us up to date on the issues we care most passionately about. We trust the news that is produced by people who understand who we are.

What if we could get all (or most of) our news from this trusted news source? What if, instead of a top-down system run by a few coastal editors and producers, we could build a bottom-up news network that begins with and centers communities?

Our ambitious project is a prototype of this kind of truly transformative media network. Our goal is to bring together outlets working within local geographies and demographies with outlets working within national demographies and areas of interest in order to create ongoing equitable local-national partnerships.
 
We will begin in four metro areas: Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. In each area, we will organize 12-15 local news outlets plus 5-8 national outlets authentically engaged with communities of interest. Beginning with face-to-face meetings in each city, we will hold monthly in-person or video meetings; ensure each cohort member is involved in at least one local-national partnership; support cohort members in forming equitable partnerships with each other; and train members to use a Slack-connected cloud database as a sustainable ongoing way to develop new partnerships.These long-terms partnerships are where the lasting transformative trust will develop.

The aim of this prototype is to build infrastructure. Tangible collaterals include a Code for Equitable Partnerships to set guidelines around racial/gender/geographic equity in partnerships and the Slack-driven searchable database.

What problem are you trying to solve?:
The “fake news” conversation usually focuses on the stream of misinformation coming from social media. But social media is not the source of our problem. If the public had trusted sources to provide all the news we need, most of us would treat Facebook news the way we treat the National Enquirer—a fun read, but not something to inform the choices we make in our daily lives.

The deepest problem we face is that the public no longer trusts the mass media outlets that once provided a one-stop source for news. Frankly, one reason for this lack of trust is that newsroom cuts have disconnected most of those mass media outlets from local communities. So, seeking out stories that truly reflect our lives, many of us turn to social media. 

Luckily, we don't have to choose between mass media and social media. A significant sector of news is still highly trusted by the public—independent news outlets that are authentic to the communities they serve, whether those communities be geographic, demographic, or communities of interest. Examples include the Twin Cities Daily Planet, an award-winning outlet serving Black readers in Minneapolis-St. Paul; Bitch Media, serving millennial feminists nationally; and Earth Island Journal, serving those passionate about the environment. 

What makes these outlets powerful, however, is precisely that they are niche. They can provide news about the niche, but that still leaves their communities without news relevant to other areas of their lives. A reader of the Twin Cities Daily Planet still needs news about the nation and the world; a reader of Earth Island Journal still needs news about her local politicians. 

What’s needed is a way to deliver all the news a person needs via the news outlet he trusts the most. That’s the problem this project begins to solve.

Who will be impacted by your project and how do you understand their needs?:
This project is designed to build dynamic infrastructure for media outlets seeking to serve community-based needs. It will most directly impact local outlets by providing them with partners for national news, and national news outlets by providing them with partners for local news. It will provide white-dominant outlets with a more authentic way to tell the stories of people of color, and outlets serving people of color with an easier way to distribute their content. 

We know the needs of these outlets intimately because we work with them daily. The Media Consortium represents over 80 independent news outlets: local, regional and national. Through our TMCinColor program, we have begun working closely with another 20 outlets that primarily serve communities of color. Through our close relationships with New America Media, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, the Alliance for Community Media, and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters we have come to know their members in the world of ethnic media, alternative newsmedia, public access channels, and community radio.

Most critically, this project originated with a strong request from the Media Consortium members and the community media staffers present at our TMC2017 conference that we build an infrastructure for collaboration. That support was echoed when we engaged our community by asking them to choose which project we should put forward for this proposal—the unanimous choice was this Transformative Media Network proposal.

Please list team members and their qualifications:
Transformative Media Project Directors:
Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, Executive Director, The Media Consortium

Jo Ellen has run the Media Consortium for seven years. A leading voice on collaborative partnerships within independent media, Jo Ellen recently gave the plenary address at ACM and publishes frequently in MediaShift. She formerly served as managing editor and associate publisher of Tikkun, and was a consultant for the Independent Press Association. Jo Ellen serves on the board of the Foundation of the Alliance for Community Media, on the board of the Foundation for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, and as the board chair of ITEGA.

Manolia Charlotin, Associate Director, The Media Consortium

Deeply familiar with ethnic communities, Manolia is herself an immigrant of Haitian descent who speaks five languages. As a journalist who has led 3 community media outlets, Manolia understands the desire of these journalists and storytellers to tell the truth of their communities, and knows how to support them in their work. She has led numerous collaborative media efforts, including 35 reporting collaborations among 40 Media Consortium members.

Boston Project Directors: Chris Faraone and Jason Pramas, Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism
Chris and Jason founded BINJ in order to create a news ecosystem in Boston, They have already gathered 13 news outlets to work together on radio programs, pop-up events, and joint reporting. They aim to continue their outreach in Boston in order to fully capture the stories of Boston’s diverse neighborhoods, suburbs and surrounding towns.

Chicago Project Director: Manolia Charlotin, The Media Consortium
Manolia has lived for several years in Chicago, working particularly with Black, Dominican, and Latino based media there. She currently is running a Media Consortium project for the Chicago Community Trust bringing together 15 Chicago community outlets to participate in On the Table and to produce collaborative news stories. We are in talks with the Chicago City Desk project, Project Narrative, and the new INN project to ensure that work on the Chicago ecosystem centers journalists working in communities of color.

Los Angeles Project Director: Sharon Kyle, The LA Progressive
Through her project, LA Progressive, Sharon has spent the last decade telling the story of LA’s neighborhoods. In that work, she has come to know the editors of the many community newspapers and radio stations. Now, working together with the six other Media Consortium outlets in the LA area (including the Young Turks, Brave New Films and Ms.), Sharon has begun outreach to metro area outlets. The LA project will launch with a meeting June 27, 2017.

Oakland Project Director: Linda Jue, 100 Reporters
Despite being the home of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, the Bay Area is a news desert as far as locally reported news. The news situation in Oakland is especially dire. LInda is a highly respected figure in this journalism landscape, having been the lead on the Chauncey Bailey reporting project. Now, Linda is beginning to organize East Bay news outlets to once again join together to collaboratively produce investigative news stories. Her project will launch in December 2017.