New Media Women Entrepreneurs Winners Announced

Last week, J-Lab ( The Institute for Interactive Journalism) announced the three winners of The McCormick Foundation New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative. Each winner received a $10,000 start-up grant to launch a new media project. This initiative, a collaborative effort between J-Lab and the McCormick Foundation, seeks to spotlight the creative assets of women and help address issues of opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism.

Officials selected the winners from a pool of 435 applicants. The three winners of the 2009 McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneurs were:

ChickRx - Harvard MBA student Stacey Borden and partner Meghan Muntean will lead a team of women in launching an “edgy, approachable, engaging” online health resource uniquely targeted to women, ages 18 to 27. It will have content and Q&As, updated daily, from medical, family and nutrition experts. Borden is the former campus relations director of 85 Broads, a national professional women’s group

Women’s Community News Franchise - Former MytopiaCafe.com editor Michelle Ferrier will develop a complete infrastructure, to be franchised, for those who want to launch hyperlocal news sites. A demo site will launch later this year in West Volusia County, Fla., piloting services that will include a Web platform, software development, market analysis, some content, and legal and marketing assistance.

The Good Food Fight - Three media-savvy Seattle women will connect consumers interested in food with larger public policy issues that affect food choices, security, safety, health and sustainability. Partners Kristin Hyde, Jen Lamson and Amy Pennington will use their deep experience in policy, marketing, journalism and digital campaigns “to leverage the growing concern and interest in food with a call to arms."

-compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, citizenship intern

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Now available: Youth Media Reporter--Chicago issue

The newest edition of the Youth Media Reporter is now available online. This issue, published in June, was made possible by a grant from the McCormick Foundation, which supported YMR to do a series of region-specific issues this year, including this recently released Chicago area-issue.

YMR's goal is to build the field by documenting, from multiple perspectives, the insights and leading lessons in engaging young people in video, film, television, radio, music, web, art and print.

This Chicago area issue features articles by local organizations, such as After School Matters, Beyondmedia, Open Youth Networks, Truestar Foundation, We the People Media, and Young Chicago Authors. Many of these groups are also members of the Chicago Youth Voices Network, which was founded in October of 2006. The group of McCormick Foundation grantees meets bi-monthly to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing youth media practitioners.

This issue’s articles touch on a variety of topics, from ways to use media to dismantle violence to the disconnect between new media and parents. Some notable takeaways:

Best practices

· Partnerships with social service organizations can support many of the complex needs of those who are homeless, are adjudicated and/ or have dropped out of school.

· Youth media organizations must present themselves to schools, describe realistic plans, and demonstrate openness to work with them to improve outcomes.

· By using the model of a joint venture, youth media organizations can work together to partner with a greater variety of organizations and create a bigger effect

· Focusing on youth media that reaches an adult audience will help communities see young people not as a threat or a drain on resources, but as active, engaged community members

Did you know?

· More than ever, adolescent females are entering gangs—some female-only, like the Chicago-based “Lady Taliban,” which has begun to communicate their membership and display weaponry on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.

· Violence involving youth is largely happening off school grounds, and much is not school-related.

Tools and techniques

· The Google My Map (GMM) application allows users to add digital content (text, video, paths, shapes, photos) to a satellite-imaged map of Earth, creating a personalized and annotated mashup that can be shared online with anyone in the world.

· The “invite collaborators” button allows multiple users from across geographical regions to collaborate on a single map, effectively allowing you to harness collective intelligence through crowd-sourcing.

Youth media groups update

· Beyondmedia launched Chain of Change, a project that organizes youth to reflect on, dialogue about, and produce and share media on the subject of violence without risk of censorship, embarrassment, or recrimination. As a result of Chain of Change, conversations about violence led by young women are taking place across neighborhood and identity. When youth media projects are coupled with outreach and forums for networking, it can stimulate constructive dialogue across generational, occupational, and other differences, helping to erode mistrust and build respect, important elements in diminishing violence.

· True Star Foundation has partnered with Walgreens for the last two years in a contest asking youth to put an artistic spin on how they would combat HIV/AIDS in the urban community. True Star Magazine engages 150 student apprentices and seven adult instructors who collectively create a 44-page quarterly publication.

· Young Chicago Authors is currently working with a group of aldermen to develop a series of student-produced Public Service Announcements to promote safe spaces in some of Chicago’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods

To view full text articles or download the entire PDF of the issue, visit the Youth Media Reporter website.

--compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, citizenship program intern

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NAM Project Sparks Collaborative Coverage of Veterans

* An African-American soldier in the Iraqi desert learns that her son has been killed in a gang shooting in South L.A.

* A Chinese-American sergeant loses his legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq and comes home to try to succeed at Cal State Fullerton

* A Latino soldier has to fight for his veteran benefits after the Army fails to provide a copy of his discharge papers

These and other stories are emerging from a New America Media (NAM) initiative that is bringing together ethnic media, journalism schools and mainstream dailies to cover the complex issue of soldiers returning home from war. The collaborative project, funded with an MF grant and coordinated by veteran editor Sharon Rosenhause, brings together Sing Tao Daily, La Opinion, Our Weekly and the Los Angeles Daily News, in an effort to build on the growing willingness of newsrooms to collaborate with one another in coverage of complex issues. In the Fall of 2009, this project will partner with Arizona State University to explore the stories of Native American veterans returning to Arizona.

To see links to the Los Angeles coverage, including a video featuring the work of Sing Tao reporter Charles Ding, click here:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_alt_category.html?category_id=587

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Ethnic Media is Growing, Expands Audience by 8 Million in 4 Years

Ethnic media outlets now reach more than 57 million people in the United States, according to a new poll by New America Media (NAM). The survey results were released at the New American Media Ethnic Media Expo held in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month.

Ethnic media readers and viewers have increased by 8 million people in the last four years. The poll, conducted by Bendixen & Associates, surveyed 1,329 African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American adults in the United States.

The uptick in readership signals the deep penetration of ethnic media into the communities. Ethnic media outlets now reach 82% of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American adults. NAM’s executive director, Sandy Close, attributes this to a thirst for information in communities that are not typically covered by mainstream media outlets.

One notable finding was that Asian-Americans turn to ethnic media outlets such as VATV (Vietnamese) in Washington, D.C. and KCNS-TV (Chinese) in San Francisco for news coverage from their home country.

The Hispanic population has also embraced television as a media outlet, with Spanish-language stations such as Telemundo and Univision continuing to increase their viewership and now reaching 86% of the Hispanic population.

Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen & Associates, notes that through the economic downturn, ethnic media consumption has remained stable. He attributes part of the recent increase to Barack Obama’s candidacy and presidency, with many minorities finding a newfound interest in political news coverage.

Please tell us what your organization is doing to reach the ethnic community and develop your audience.

--Compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, Citizenship Program Intern

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McCormick Grantees Speak Out in Support of Laura Ling and Euna Lee

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two Current TV journalists that were detained in North Korea, were sentenced last week to 12 years of hard labor in a North Korea labor prison. As the United States weighs its diplomatic options and obligations, many of the McCormick Foundation’s journalism grantees are speaking out in support of the two young women.

The Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) has reached out to its Leadership Council members, informing them of the involvement of Bob Dietz, the director of CPJ’s Asia program. Dietz has been working with the families of both journalists and assisted them in voicing their concerns publicly. Dietz has also appeared on such broadcast outlets as NPR, Fox News and Al Jazeera. Additionally, CPJ has reached out to press groups around the globe to sign a joint appeal.

The International Women’s Media Foundation has condemned North Korea’s sentencing of the women, fearing that their imprisonment is unrelated to their work as journalists and instead is being used as pawns in broader political circumstances. IWMF has organized a petition in support of the young women’s release and has encouraged members of journalism groups to call for the release of Ling and Lee.


The Asian American Journalists Association has also expressed deep disappointment in the harsh sentencing. AAJA is worried about the safety of the two young women and urge North Korea to reconsider the punishment. The AAJA Web site features news updates and a list of related links from other media outlets.

The Journalism Program encourages all readers and grantees to share opinions on the imprisonment of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

--Compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, Citizenship Program Intern

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Newspaper Circulation Up 1.3% Worldwide in 2008

Despite the global financial crisis, newspaper circulation grew 1.3% worldwide in 2008, according to data compiled Gavin O’Reilly, president of the World Association of Newspapers. Nearly 1.9 billion people read a paid daily newspaper, reaching 41% more adults than the Internet. The data was presented in May 2009 at the World Association of Newspapers Power of Print Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Other significant findings include:

Although North America, Australia, and Europe saw newspaper circulation decline by 3.7%, 2.5%, and 1.8% respectively, other markets saw large increases. Circulation increased by 6.9% in Africa, by 2.9% in Asia, and 1.8% in South America.

In the United States, combined print and online newspaper audience grew 8%. Some 52% of online newspaper readers said they spend the same amount of time as they did previously with newspaper content, 35% say they spend more time overall with newspaper content, and 81% of online newspaper readers say they've read a printed newspaper in the same week.

For the full summary of findings, visit the Center for Media Research.

--Compiled by Jenn Bollenbacher, Citizenship Program Intern

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