A View from the Field: Advocating for Just Media

A View from the Field is an ongoing feature that highlights the efforts of Free Press’ team of organizers, advocates and leaders. Once a month, we’ll provide their updates from the field as they work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a more just and equitable media system.

• Senior Policy Counsel Gaurav Laroia took part in the panel discussion “Nuts and Bolts of Content Moderation: The Role of Technology”. The conversation examined how technological content-moderation tools that companies like Facebook and Twitter use can pose significant risks for user speech. Engine’s Kate Tummarello, the Trust & Safety Professional Association’s Charlotte Willner and Open Tech Institute’s Spandana Singh also participated.
• On Martin Luther King Day, News Voices Director Mike Rispoli took part in “Conversations of Kings 2021: Media, Narrative and Social Change”. The discussion explored how Dr. King used the media to advance the cause of civil rights, and considered how communities today can leverage media to tell their own stories and combat damaging narratives. WURD Radio’s Sara Lomax-Reese, Editors on Call’s Mike Days and Y.E.A.H. Philly’s Kendra Van de Water also participated, with the Rev. David W. Brown of the Klein College of Media moderating.
• Members of the Media 2070 team — Media 2070 Director Alicia Bell, Vice President of Cultural Strategy Collette Watson, Senior Director of Strategy and Engagement  Joseph Torres, News Voices: Philadelphia Project Manager Tauhid Chappell and News Voices: Colorado Manager Diamond Hardiman — hosted the first-ever Media 2070 Partners’ Meeting. More than 30 journalists, funders, organizers, lawyers and artists brainstormed about strategies to make media reparations a reality. Participants’ ideas ranged from shifting financial and technical resources from well-funded foundations and investors to organizing the public to demand that their local-news institutions commit time, training and resources toward building and supporting community media.
• Diamond facilitated the Black Voices: Colorado Interest Meeting, which explored how media outlets have harmed Black communities in Colorado and nationally. Diamond introduced plans to create a working group with Black leaders, reporters and journalists to pinpoint ways that local newsrooms can serve the news-and-information needs of Black Coloradans. During the gathering, Joseph discussed the Media 2070 project, the history of anti-Black harm in U.S. media and how newsrooms can repair past harms and become more equitable and just. Free Press Operations Manager Christina Pierce also participated.
• Diamond discussed News Voices: Colorado’s upcoming initiatives in a presentation for the Open Media Foundation’s Diverse Hiring and Retention Working Group.