We Media Game Changers Awards Winners

Online media star ZeFrank, mobile texting service Twitter, Obama campaign mastermind David Plouffe, Japanese digital designer Yugo Nakamura and Kenyan mobile alert service Ushahidi are among nine winners of the We Media Game Changers Awards. The awards, organized and administered by iFOCOS, a media think tank and futures lab, will be given out at the We Media Miami conference Feb. 24-26. Other award winners are The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Innocentive’s crowdsourcing for the science crowd, Humana’s Freewheelin’ and social network Socialvibe.

We Media defines Game Changers as entities that ‘lead society to knowledge.’ It invited entries from ‘big companies, little startups, social entrepreneurs, independent thinkers, brands, causes, tools, ideas, commercial, nonprofit – all were welcome.’ To learn more about the MF-sponsored awards and the winners, click here.

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NYCMA Announces 2008 Ippies Awards

The New York Community Media Alliance (NYCMA) announced the 28 winners of the 2008 Ippies Awards for ethnic and community press in New York City on Friday, Dec. 5 at Baruch College. Established in 2001, the Awards recognized excellent journalism chosen from more than 170 entries, in categories covering: investigative reporting; feature writing, editorial or commentary; coverage of immigrant, racial or social issues; coverage of labor; election coverage; overall design and photography.

To see more about the awards and winning articles and photo essays, click here.

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December is Ethnic Media Month

The Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University has posted its MF-funded study “The Health of Ethnic Media: Needs and Opportunities.” The report, directed by Cristina Azocar and Jon Funabiki, offers a snapshot of the health and resiliency of the nation’s ethnic news organizations from the point of view of their proprietors, publishers, editors and reporters. To see the study, click here: http://ciij.org/downloads/Health_of_the_Ethnic_Media_Final.pdf

Also, hyperlocal journalism was celebrated Dec. 5 at Minnesota’s Twin Cities first regional Ethnic and Community Media Awards. Co-hosted by the Twin Cities Daily Planet and New America Media, the event honored stories about such topics as Asian-American theater, the recent arrival of refugees from Bhutan, education in the Hmong community and the Service Employees International Union strike in Minneapolis.

To view a NAM story on this event, click here:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=2d396e99f74e9f3b7500319ce0b599a2.

For audio coverage of the event, click here: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=979cee7dfd9e5c88c47004478bd04e31.

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Dollars for Ideas

Here at MF we get dozens of ideas for digital media news start-ups annually. Unfortunately, there's not enough support to seed all these ideas or projects, and our work is generally focused in other strategic journalism areas.

But we're happy to point out MF grantee J-Lab's New Voices grants program, that funds the launch of participatory community news ventures. The guidelines are pretty broad and innovation is encouraged.

If you want to start a new Web site or online community, check out their guidelines - they're accepting proposals through Feb. 12, 2009 - for more details at: www.j-newvoices.org/apply/V09.

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AAJA Announces New Executive Director

Former newspaper and television industry professional Ellen Endo has been appointed the new executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), replacing Rene Astudillo, who has led AAJA since 1999.

In her 24 years in TV industry leadership positions, Endo has served as an executive at Republic Pictures Productions, MGM/UA Television, Embassy Communications and ABC. She has also served as managing editor of The Rafu Shimpo, Los Angeles Japanese Daily News and chief operating officer of the nonprofit Go For Broke National Education Center.

Founded in 1981, the San Francisco-based AAJA is a nonprofit professional and educational organization with approximately 2,000 members and 20 chapters in major cities across the U.S. and in Asia.

To see more on Endo’s background and her video introduction as AAJA e.d., click here

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Communities in Flux

With media companies slashing their workforce and opportunities for in-depth reporting waning, the Journalism Center on Children & Families has some promising new free resources for covering the impact of economic turmoil and changing demographics.

The materials, available online at http://www.journalismcenter.org/fellowships/ConferenceMaterialschicago.html, include source lists, speaker handouts and Power point slides from a McCormick Specialized Reporting institute on "Communities in Flux: The Impact of Economic Turmoil and Shifting Demographics" in Chicago Nov. 16-18. Topics included the foreclosure crisis, local government budgets, rise of the working poor, and more. Check it out for some quick, but substantive reporting ideas.

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