Frameworks for Change

Hosts: 

Bernardo Motta, Alisha (Asha) Wang Saville

Session Reporter:

Alisha (Asha) Wang Saville

Participants:

Off-the-record

Key Quotes/Takeaways

• Avoid being co-opted and therefore rendered ineffective when it comes to serving community
  • Foundations play a role in leveling playing field and should not contribute to gatekeeping
• Scale comes from grouping
• There are significant untapped opportunities to connect / collaborate / learn from one another across not just news orgs but also from a broad range of other orgs including edu, libraries, etc
• Inertia (resistance) is so powerful – where are we close to changing it?
• Status quo = inertia
• Listen more 
• Partner with people not in journalism
• Need different actors included in the newsroom like community organizers
• Readers vs. inform the people
• “Change doesn’t happen because someone wrote a story about it.” << Getting “coverage” is a broken model.

Sparks / Inspirations

• Overlap is just repetition
• Sometimes we don’t publish
• Empathy Interviews: listen, learn, give people a place to intervene
• Newsroms as collectives including organizers, libraries, nonprofits and …?
• Educators are the most powerful inertia in the system
• Untapped funding and co-op models
• News value of “informing community”
• Community organizers should be part of journalism infrastructure
• Training program in citizen reporting to provide employable skills for community members who can then report for your outlet
• You define the success for the funder. Take them on your journey. (s/o The Green Line) (ie. grantees have the power to define success, to define what impact means, then take funders on that journey)
• Technology – AI – add community voices

Next / Lingering Questions

• “How do we pull at the threads of what we have in common?” And what do we weave together?
• What are the conversations you can have (in newsrooms, community) that don’t end in delivering something?
• Want first steps for establishing media co-op
• How to find & sustain the deep immersion in community-centered work?
• Empathy interviews
• From serving needs of those in power to those whose voices need to be heard
• What will it take to SHIFT THE KPI’s?!
• How do these practitioners gathered stay better connected and at what cadence?
• News value
• Community first —> end with the funders