40 Years of Impact: Foundation-Funded Media
Building on the Past - Harnessing the Future
On September 16, 2007, GFEM held a media conference in San Francisco as part of our commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the Council on Foundations Film & Video Festival. This day-long event offered an opportunity to underscore how deeply rooted foundation-funded media are in the history of social change and showcased new thinking on how to effectively navigate and influence our current media-saturated environment. The conference covered media content, policy, and infrastructure.
By listening to our seminar you’ll learn about: the current state of media; funding opportunities for using media to strengthen communities and promote democracy through civic engagement; how to effectively use media tools, such as documentaries, for community outreach; Creative Commons licensing; and how to advance the entire field of philanthropy by facilitating a wider dissemination of information. You’ll hear about the next generation of media platforms, how youth media are transforming communities, and we looked beyond our borders to use media effectively on a global scale.
[PLEASE NOTE: The Opening Plenary and a portion of the Lunch Plenary contain some minor audio drop-outs.]
Opening Plenary
Stories from the Field: Community Media—Building Community
The opening plenary used a narrative form to connect the dots of community media in all their forms. With GFEM managing director, Alyce Myatt, providing the thread, the elements of the session include:
San Francisco Foundation/NAMAC
This presentation focused on the creativity and innovation found in the nationwide network of community-based media arts centers and the role they play in improving communities. Presenter: Helen de Michiel, Co-Executive Director, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Benton Foundation
When the right elements come together, municipalities are transformed. Drawing on examples from the Benton Foundation’s recently held Community Media Summit, this presentation will highlight the technologically driven metamorphosis of community media and the important role community foundations are playing in this transition to provide access to local, state, and national connectivity. Presenter: Charles Benton, Chairman, CEO and Trustee, Benton Foundation
Link to videos mentioned: http://www.benton.org/node/6712
The Funding Exchange
Communities must be inclusive—inclusivity, through media justice, is essential to civil society. Small amounts of strategic funding, at the grassroots level, can have a significant impact within the larger social justice movement. This presentation offers examples of small investments with large returns, from low-power FM radio for agricultural workers to youth-led media justice activism. Presenters: Hye Jung Park, Media Justice Fund Program Officer, Funding Exchange, Marlen Torres, Public Relations and Fundraising Coordinator, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste and Michele Gutierrez, Youth Media Council
Link to Youth Media Council: http://www.youthmediacouncil.org/
Link to PCUN's radio station site: http://www.kdrt.org/gallery/pcun
California and the American Dream
Even if a foundation doesn’t fund the making of films, they can, for a small investment, use film to further their work. This segment demonstrates how easy it can be to support the use of media to foster civic engagement activities. Presenters: Producers Lyn Goldfarb, Jed Riffe, and Paul Espinosa
Link to the series: http://www.californiadreamseries.org/
Session: Citizen Media: Fusing News, Schmooze and Civic Life
This session explores the robust phenomena of hyperlocal citizen media sites, examining the motivations, methods of generating content, and measures of success. Both online and via community radio, citizen media claims notable impact in their communities – from increasing voter turnout and helping to solve local problems, to watch dogging local government and local media. Moderator: Jane Brown, Executive Director, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Presenters: Dan Gillmor, author and Director and Founder, Center for Citizen Media, Jan Schaffer, Director J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, Robert Strobel, Editor, The Forum, Deerfield, NH
Links to visuals shown by Dan Gillmor: amateur Tsunami video - http://www.asiantsunamivideos.com/ ; My Love clip - http://www.jibjab.com/view/61235 ; photoshopped picture - http://www.snopes.com/rumors/photos/tourist.asp
Link to Center for Citizen Media: http://citmedia.org/
Link to J-Lab Website: http://www.j-lab.org/
Link to Forum Website: http://www.forumhome.org/
Session: Breaking Down the Walls: The Changing Roles of Grantmaker, Filmmaker and Community Outreach Provider
Demonstrating how media can move a policy agenda at the local, state and federal level, this session presents the evolution of grantmaker, filmmaker and outreach provider working individually into a more collaborative model—thereby advancing the mission of foundations to address pressing issues. This model achieves concrete results in engaging audiences to take action to solve seemingly intractable community problems. Moderator: Joy Thomas Moore, President and CEO, JWS Media Consulting, Presenters: Tod Lending, Oscar and Emmy nominated filmmaker, Legacy and Omar and Pete, and Judy Ravitz, President and Founder, Outreach Extensions
Download a document, prepared by the Council on Foundations, that outlines some of the regulations that govern lobbying and advocacy by foundations by clicking here.
Link to clips from Omar and Pete and Legacy: http://nomadicpix.com/pages/past_prods.htm
Link to Outreach Extensions: http://www.reentrymediaoutreach.org/
Keynote Luncheon: Professor Lawrence Lessig
A proponent of the free flow of ideas, Professor Lawrence Lessig is the leading international figure on the relationship between the law and cyberspace and its impact on innovation. He will highlight the role foundations of every size can play to ensure access to knowledge. Introduction: Elspeth Revere, Vice President, General Program, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Link to Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/
Session: The Katrina Media Fellowships: Media-Focused Funding Strategies
Using the Open Society Institute’s Katrina Media Fellowship program as a case study, this session demonstrates a successful rapid response strategy of funding across media platforms to draw attention to issues of race and class, inequality and poverty. Moderator: Sandy Close, Executive Director, New America Media/Pacific News Service, Presenters: Larry Blumenfeld, Journalist (Katrina Media Fellow), Sara Catania, Journalist (Katrina Media Fellow), Erlin Ibreck, Director of Grantmaking Strategies, Open Society Institute, Brett Myers, Producer, Youth Radio (Katrina Youth Media Grantee), Dawn Logsdon, Filmmaker (Katrina Media Fellow)
Link to visuals mentioned by Sara Catania
Link to OSI's Katrina Media page: http://www.soros.org/resources/multimedia/katrina
Session: ReFraming: Dissemination and Access to Media
This session highlights current challenges and presents creative, working solutions to archiving, preserving, disseminating and providing access to media arts. You will hear from those at the forefront of new distribution and exhibition models for public media. They will demonstrate how new technologies have shifted the landscape for media distribution and access and how those technologies are being harnessed for the public good. Moderator: Elspeth Revere, Vice President, General Program, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Presenters: Sally Jo Fifer, President and CEO, Independent Television Service (ITVS), Stephen Gong, Executive Director, Center for Asian American Media, Brian Newman, Executive Director, Renew Media, Jake Shapiro, Executive Director, Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
Link to PRX animated video: http://about.prx.org/
Link to Center for Asian American Media: http://www.asianamericanmedia.org/
Link to Reframe site: http://reframecollection.com/
Closing Plenary
Global Media Strategies for HIV/AIDS
The centerpiece of the Closing Plenary is the presentation of exciting case studies of effective multi-platform media campaigns in the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, and Russia. Illustrating models of engagement with private sector media partners and local organizations, this project (scalable to fit foundations of all sizes and issue areas) is succeeding in targeting adolescents and young adults to further public education and promote social change around the issue of HIV/AIDS. Presenter: Tina Hoff, Vice President and Director of Entertainment Media Partnerships, Kaiser Family Foundation
Link to KFF page where you will find much of the media Tina Hoff discusses:
http://www.kff.org/entpartnerships/
The Closing Plenary also addresses BIG Questions funders formulated based on their experiences over the course of the day, as well as general questions about the hows and whys of supporting media in all of its forms.
