Posts tagged with 'the media consortium'
Media Consortium Annual Meeting Program!
Filed under: 
Make an Impact!
February 6-8, 2013
Baltimore @ The Wyndham Peabody Hotel
Not a member of the Media Consortium? Don’t worry, you are invited! Cost is $250. Get your ticket here!
Are you a Consortium member? Your meeting registration is included in your dues. However, please register so we know how many lunches to order!
Wed. February 6: Pre-Meeting Focus on Print (open to all meeting registrants)
8:30 Pre-Meeting Registration
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Why Stay in Print?
Moderator: Maxine Phillips, Publisher of Dissent with Rinku Sen (Colorlines), Dan Dineen (In These Times) and Bhaskar Sunkara (Jacobin)
A panel of your peers will discuss why they have chosen to stay in print
(or not); A lively discussion will follow.
10:30 Coffee Break
10:45 Best Practices for Building Single Copy Sales
Maire Walsh, VP for Next Steps Marketing
Frank Locantore, Green Paper Project
In an age of shrinking newsstands and newsstand sales, find out key ways to increase single copy sales in stores, online, and through tablet devices. This session will include information for you to better understand the changing retail environment and will provide creative solutions for you to build awareness, sales, and efficiency.
12:00 Lunch with Guest Speaker: Bo Sacks
Bo Sacks speaks regularly at Folio, MPA and other mega-publishing industry conferences, but as a co-founder of High Times has a soft spot for independent media. He’ll tell us what we can expect to see in 2013.
2:00 Print Grab-Bag
Rod Arakaki from Yes!
Steve Katz from Mother Jones
Join this informal discussion designed to look at the nitty gritty of print, from retaining subscribers to advertising to printing.
3:15 Coffee Break
3:30 Tablet Strategy for Print Publications
Bob Cohn, Editor of Atlantic Digital
Kit Rachlis, Editor of the American Prospect
Bob and Kit discuss the Atlantic’s strategy, then open the floor to questions.
5:00 Dinner on your own
6:30 Meeting Registration
7:00 Welcome from Steve Katz, Publisher of Mother Jones
7:15 Opening Plenary: Why You Should Be a Media Entrepreneur
Chris Rabb, author of Invisible Capital
Chris Rabb is a writer, consultant, and speaker on the intersection of entrepreneurship, media, civic engagement, and social identity. He is a visiting researcher at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as well as a Fellow at Demos. He formerly ran Afro-Netizen, a Media Consortium member outlet.
Thursday, February 7
8:30 Registration
9:00 Plenary: How You Made an Impact in 2012
Emcees: Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, TMC and
Marc Favreau, New Press
Hear presentations from the top 5 impact-making TMC publications of 2012, plus the Media Consortium’s own May Day effort
10:15 Coffee
10:30 Concurrent Sessions:
Create a Multiplatform Campaign with Steve Michelson, The Video Project
Understand what documentary filmmakers mean by a transmedia campaign, and how news organizations can use this strategy to their advantage to obtain high quality video content.
Tools for Online Donors with Joe Macare, Truthout; Kate Lezniak, Bitch Media; and Jason Barnett, The Uptake
How do you attract online donors? Learn from your colleagues with tips on email newsletter, social media, and crowdfunding strategies.
Fact-Checking without Fact-Checkers with Peter Rothberg, The Nation and Linda Jue, GWW Center
Face it. If we fact-check at all, we use interns. Learn when and what you really need to fact check, and how you can train interns to do the job.
11:30 Concurrent Sessions
Package that Content! with Sara Critchfield, Upworthy
Upworthy publishes “a steady stream of the most irresistibly shareable stuff [mainly video] you can click on without feeling bad about yourself afterwards.” Find out how to package your content so it’s irresistible too!
Working with Local Outlets with Tiffany Shackleford, Executive Director, AAN
The best news has a concrete, specific angle–which means it’s local. If you are a national outlet, get that content by partnering with someone already there. Four local outlets will talk about what they offer to–and what they need from– national outlets.
12:30 Lunch with Guest Speaker: Michael Copps
Now Common Cause’s Senior Advisor for its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative, Michael Copps served two terms with the Federal Communications Commission. His tenure was marked by a consistent embrace of the public interest. As a strong voice in opposition of consolidation in the media, he notably dissented in the Comcast-NBC Universal merger. He has been a consistent proponent for localism in programming and diversity in media ownership.
1:15 Panel: What’s Next for Media Policy? with Bartees Cox (Public Knowledge), Matt Wood (Free Press) and Todd O’Boyle (Common Cause)
Media Policy impacts news outlets directly via issues like net neutrality and free speech. Even more, complex issues like data caps and spectrum purchases can have very direct–and negative–impacts on the low-income, minority populations that need the voice of the independent media.
2:00 Consortium Reports (sequential)
- Media Policy Project with reporters Ken Rapoza (ITT) and Alice Ollstein (FSRN)
- Natural Gas Reporting Project with editor Maureen Nandini Mitra (Earth Island Journal)
- Community Journalism Training Institute with Susan Mernit (Oakland Local)
- Metrics Innovation and Incubation Lab with Gary King, Harvard (via skype), Ariel White and Benjamin Schneer
3:00 Coffee
3:00 Affinity Groups
Open Space to network, create collaborations, and plan for next year.
Please feel free to join one of these networks, or create your own:
–Natural Gas Reporting Project
–Reproductive and Gender Justice Project
–Media Policy Workshop
5:00 Next Steps from Affinity Groups
Report Backs
5:30 Dinner on your own
7:30 Party at the Real News Network! Cash Bar and Bands
Friday, February 8
9:00 Plenary: Mobile Strategy
Amy Mitchell, Associate Director of PEW’s Project for Excellence in Journalism
Amy Mitchell is acting director for the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. She manages all aspects of the project including the design, analysis and writing the project’s in-depth research reports. This includes the Annual Report on the State of the News Media. She will break down for us her recent report, The Demographics of Mobile News.
10:15 Coffee
10:30 Concurrent Sessions
Why Stream? with Michelle Holmes, Ustream
Streaming often seems to be the province of citizen journalism. Michelle Holmes, a former Knight Fellow and newspaper editor, will describe how journalists can use streaming for high quality reporting.
Hybrid Business Models with Lark Corbeil, PNS; Zuade Kaufman, Truthdig; and Steve Piersanti, Berrett-Koehler
Independents need to find new ways of bringing in revenue. Hear from three colleagues who have experimented with simultaneous non-profit and for-profit organizations.
11:30 What’s the Role of Advocacy in Impact Journalism?
Moderator: Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, Media Consortium with Maya Schenwar, Truthout; Alex DiBranco, Public Eye; and tba
After two days of talking about impact, let’s reflect on the meaning of impact. To what extent must journalists become advocates in order to move audiences to action? We will parse the difference between “solutions journalism,” “engaged journalism” and “advocacy journalism” and talk about what journalists gain–and lose– from going from informers and educators to “solvers” and advocates.
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Public Meeting Ends; Media Consortium Members-Only Meeting Begins
1:00 Report from the Executive Director
1:15 Reports from Committee: Finance, Development, Program, Membership
1:30 Nominations and Votes for Coordinating Committee
2:00 Workshop
3:00 Next Steps and Vision for 2014
3:30 Media Consortium Annual Meeting Concludes
3:30-5:30 A Coordinating Committee meeting will follow the end of the annual meeting.
‘Media for the 99 Percent’ Challenges Corporate Media with Joint Coverage of May Day Protests Nationwide
This year, International and Immigrant Workers’ Day, May Day, will usher in a spring of protests fueled by the rise in anti-immigrant legislation and enforcement, a lopsided economic recovery that favors the few, and a reemergent Occupy movement poised to challenge corporate power.
If past coverage is any indication, corporate media will not tell the May Day story accurately or with depth or analysis. That’s why more than 25 independent media outlets belonging to The Media Consortium are collaborating to provide coordinated, national coverage of May Day events from around the country.
Calling themselves “Media for the 99 Percent” (www.mediaforthe99percent.com), these diverse outlets will offer a live TV and streaming broadcast, an interactive map, breaking news reporting, and coordinated social media coverage across their sites, reaching a combined audience of more than 50 million Americans.
“With this May Day collaboration, independent media will show that live national coverage can reflect the breadth, diversity, and complexity of the American people,” says Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, executive director of The Media Consortium.
Independent media outlets have stayed with the Occupy story through the winter with unparalleled reporting: books by YES! Magazine and AlterNet; a weekly “Occupy the Media” TV program by Free Speech TV; cover features by In These Times, The American Prospect, The Nation, and Mother Jones; in-depth and breaking news reporting by Truthout, Making Contact, the Public News Service, Free Speech Radio News, and many others.
On May Day, the Media for the 99 Percent outlets will leverage their existing platforms and reporters to provide coordinated national multimedia coverage, featuring:
- An interactive Map: Find out where actions are happening across the country and follow the independent media’s by-the-minute coverage with links to video, audio, photos, and blog reports.
- Television and Live Stream Broadcast: Free Speech TV will broadcast live (and live streamed) news coverage throughout the day, featuring reports from around the U.S., as well as in-studio commentary.
- Curated Social Media Coverage: Using the Storify platform, Media for the 99 Percent will offer a curated narrative of breaking news via blog updates, along with photos and social media posts from reporters on the ground.
All three content tools will be available for embedding by other news outlets and the public.
Weekly Diaspora: Why We Need a Deportation Moratorium Now
by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger
As a floundering Congress repeatedly impedes the passage of widely supported immigration measures like the DREAM Act, reform advocates are refocusing their efforts and calling on President Barack Obama to declare a moratorium on deportations.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), whose impassioned support of immigrant rights landed him in jail earlier this year, is at the forefront of that charge, reports Braden Goyette at Campus Progress. Joining a chorus of immigration reform groups, Gutierrez is asking for moratorium: “The President will tell us we need Republican votes in order to pass legislation, and he’s correct,” Gutierrez told a raucous crowd of New York immigrants last month. “But let me tell you something. With the executive stroke of that pen, he can stop the deportation and the destruction of our families.” (more…)
Weekly Diaspora: The High Cost of Cheap Labor
by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger
A new study about the effects of immigration on U.S. employment supports the long-standing arguments of immigration advocates: Rather than displacing American workers, immigrant labor actually makes our economy stronger. Kevin Drum has the details at Mother Jones.
Now, with reports that undocumented laborers are a mainstay of disaster relief efforts all over the country, Americans are beginning to get a sense of the unsavory work relegated to many immigrants, and the high price immigrants pay for the simple privilege of employment.
Undocumented workers driving wages up
Going back to Mother Jones, new research examining the relationship between immigration and U.S. employment found that—contrary to conventional anti-immigrant wisdom—immigration does not negatively affect American employment. Instead, immigration drives wages up by pushing low-wage American workers into higher-paying jobs.
Here’s how it works: As less-educated immigrants gravitate towards work that requires fewer English language skills (like manual labor), their less-educated American counterparts move on to higher-paying, communications-intensive work that capitalizes on their comparatively better English language skills. This naturally drives wages up, and makes for a more productive economy overall.
The irony, as Drum notes, is that those who complain about immigrants stealing American jobs are the same people who want immigrants to learn English and assimilate as quickly as possible. “If they did,” Drum argues, “then they’d just start competing for the higher paying jobs that natives now monopolize.”
Stiffed in New Orleans
The reality of being an undocumented worker in the U.S. is starker than most Americans realize. Not only are immigrants doing work that most would rather not, they are also often cleaning up the messes that Americans leave behind.
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, undocumented laborers remain a key component of reconstruction efforts. Initially drawn to the city by the prospect of work and the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to suspend employment immigration enforcement, many undocumented laborers relocated to New Orleans to assist with rebuilding. But, as Elise Foley reports at the Washington Independent, their immigration status renders them especially vulnerable to rampant wage theft, threats of deportation and workplace violence.
The situation is so dire for many workers that numerous nonprofit groups have initiated projects in the city and are calling for legislation to combat the problem. However, a key concern is that rising anti-immigrant sentiment in other parts of the U.S. could exacerbate difficulties in New Orleans. If such sentiment results in even greater labor abuses or renewed immigration enforcement, whole communities of people who have been dedicated to rebuilding the city could find themselves without livelihood, or even be displaced.
Exploited undocumented workers clean up oil spills
Given the reality that undocumented workers are charged with some of the dirtiest and most unsafe work American employers have to offer, it shouldn’t be surprising that U.S. companies rely on immigrant labor to clean up their worst messes. Not only do undocumented workers have fewer employment options, their immigration status renders them far less likely to report unsafe working conditions, exposure to hazardous materials, and underpayment—making them especially attractive to employers looking to save money or hide bad behavior.
So, naturally, undocumented workers were called in to deal with the catastrophic BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (though their compliance only earned them the undue attention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and, more recently, an oil spill in Michigan.
As Todd A. Heywood at the Michigan Messenger reports, one company in particular has come under fire for hiring and then exploiting undocumented laborers. Hallmark Industrial, a Texas contractor hired to clean up the oil spill, allegedly paid its workers only $800 for up to 100 hours of work per week. Additionally, the company subjected them to unsafe and hazardous working conditions, and even failed to provide workers with on-site toilets—forcing workers to relieve themselves in the areas they were charged with cleaning.
Just 24 hours after the Michigan Messenger broke the story, Hallmark Industrial was fired from the oil spill clean up, its contract terminated by the company which hired it, Garner Environmental Services, Inc. Whether that’s a victory is questionable. Following the termination of the contract, 40 undocumented workers were arrested in Texas, on a bus chartered by Hallmark—presumably just returned from Michigan. While the termination of the contract ensures that its workers won’t be subjected to further workplace abuses, it also ensures that those same individuals must begin the difficult task of finding similar work elsewhere.
Unemployed in California labor camps
Clearly, despite an inexorable willingness to perform low-wage manual labor, undocumented workers are not impervious to the unemployment epidemic. In U.S. labor camps—where migrant agricultural workers can find seasonal or even long term lodging near ranches—farm work is increasingly harder to come by.
As David Bacon highlights at New America Media, both undocumented immigrants and legal “guest workers” are adversely affected by the recession. While the latter possess work visas and may therefore stay in the country legally, both groups live together in the same labor camps, where they remain, ironically, unemployed. Given the present economic climate, there isn’t enough work for even the lowest-wage workers. And in spite of their legal status, even guest workers are barred from applying for unemployment benefits.
The recession has cast both undocumented and legally sanctioned agricultural workers into circumstances even more dismal than those advertised by UFW when it launched its “Take Our Jobs” campaign earlier this summer. Outlining the long hours, low pay, and back-breaking labor associated with farm work, UFW satirically invited American citizens to replace the scores of overworked and undocumented laborers that keep our agricultural industry afloat.
Though meant to be a tongue-in-cheek response to the misconception that immigrants steal American jobs, the campaign exposes a real, if unfortunate, truth about undocumented workers: Even as their presence drives Americans into higher paying jobs, Americans employers are all too happy to subject the undocumented to the worst indignities.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
Weekly Diaspora: Immigrants Abused, Denied Social Services in Broken Immigration System
by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger
After decades of misguided policies and patchwork practices, the high human costs of our disordered immigration system are only starting to emerge. Stricter immigration policies and overcrowded detention centers aren’t making our streets safer or our social services more accessible.
Instead, mounting evidence shows that our immigration policies are just creating a space for immigrants to be brutalized—socially, financially and physically. From reports of sexual abuse inside of detention centers to news of legal residents being denied social services, the ineffectiveness of the prevailing system has never been more apparent, nor the need for reform so great.
Women and children sexually assaulted in detention centers
As Michelle Chen writes at Colorlines, allegations of sexual abuse within a Texas detention center have sparked investigations by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. According to reports, a guard at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center sexually assaulted several women while transporting them prior to their release. (more…)
The Media Consortium and Center for Social Media release new media report: Investing in Impact
The Media Consortium is pleased to release a mini-report in collaboration with the Center for Social Media. Investing in Impact: Media Summits Reveal Pressing Needs, Tools for Evaluating Public Interest Media was developed out a series of “Media Impact Summits” that took place in seven cities around the country throughout the first quarter of 2010.
Jessica Clark of CSM and Tracy Van Slyke of TMC drew together dozens of leading public interest media makers, funders and researchers from Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Boston to address the question that many media makers are asking themselves: “How do you know your media matters?”
Insights from those summits are the basis for Investing in Impact, which outlines the major arguments for assessing impact, synthesizes the five top impact evaluation needs, and proposes five new tools for public interest media assessment. As a quick highlight, the five overarching needs expressed by summit attendees include:
- Getting on the same page: Developing shared categories of impact assessment
- Following the story: Tracking the movement of content and frames across platforms and over time
- Contextualizing the anecdotal : Refining methods for analyzing shifts in public awareness, deliberation and behavior
- Understanding our users: Creating more sophisticated profiles of audience demographics, habits and concerns
- Moving beyond market assumptions: Defining the uses and limitations of commercial metrics schemes for assessing public interest media
And the five proposed tools to help public interest media makers assess their impact include:
- Putting it all in one place: Building a unified social media dashboard
- Chasing the frame: Building a social issue buzz tracker
- Telling your story of impact: Developing model formats and processes for strategically communicating outcomes
- Asking the right questions: Creating common survey tools for evaluation and audience assessment
- Identifying networks: Creating a suite of tools that track the growth, health and effectiveness of networks
We encourage you to read and download the analysis (see below) and share it with your colleagues and peers. We also hope that you feel free to leave comments at one or or both of our web sites. If you would like to tweet about the report, please use the hashtag #mediaimpact.
Investing in Impact: Media Summits Reveal Pressing Needs, Tools for Evaluating Public Interest Media
We hope Investing in Impact begins to answer the questions of many public interest media makers, funders and allies on why and how to define and assess impact. CSM and TMC are both committed to continuing this conversation and working with partners to test out these theories and build out proposed tools.
The Big Thaw: Index
The Big Thaw is a “box set” with three volumes that can be used separately. Click here to download a volume of this report, or use the below index to read excerpts from each volume.
Welcome to The Big Thaw
An introduction to The Big Thaw from Media Consortium project director Tracy Van Slyke.
Vol. 1: Dissonance & Opportunity (includes Executive Summary)
This volume summarizes journalism’s old paradigm and outlines a strategic framework for independent media to build a shared vision for the future.
Charting a New Future: An Executive Summary
Journalists and independent media makers have always been society’s most valuable truthtellers. As the old system shuts down, how can media organizations use this crisis as an opportunity rather than a meltdown? (more…)
Conclusion: The American Way
“We’re watching hundred of billions of [bailout] dollars being spent unaccountably to support supposedly our ‘American way.’ I think at some point we have to ask whether or not the ‘American way’ includes journalism.” – John Battelle
Do Americans view journalism as a public good that is critical to our country’s intellectual infrastructure and American exceptionalism? Do they believe that the strength of our democracy depends on a diverse and free press? (more…)
Creating a greater distribution of value
Successful business models hinge their ability to measure value. “A well-measured medium is a more valuable medium” according to Nielsen Media Research’s website.
As more reliable and commonly accepted metrics emerge to measure content performance, the more that organizations can estimate the value they create. And, others can estimate how much they would be willing to pay for it. Money will flow to where there is value in the chain. Marketing analytics are based on this sort of reliable measurement, and deals are done based on it. As metrics become better, publishers may be able to use new incentives for writers and producers. Also, a publisher could potentially convince aggregators to pay based on content’s performance. Aggregators could sign up freely or cheaply and pay if content spreads past a targeted threshold. If the price is low enough, and the aggregator can accurately measure the performance, it would be in their interest to share earnings in exchange for reliable content. (more…)
New Value Chain of Journalism
While media organizations are trying many different revenue models, the models that succeed in the long run will find a place in a new value chain of journalism. A “value chain” is a chain of activities, in which each activity adds value to a product or service. The financial success of any business model depends on the ability of an organization to capture value they create. (See graphics below. The value chain is also featured in our Big Thaw slide show.)
Journalism’s old value chain was delineated with clear roles and exchanges of value. The new value chain reflects more roles. One organization often plays multiple roles. In the old model, advertising also had clearly defined roles. It mostly concentrated on publishing and broadcasting. In the new model, advertising is spread across more players. (more…)
