Moved to action by widespread reckonings in newsrooms over race and gender equity, the Ford Foundation released a report in 2020 titled Reconstructing American News. Commissioned by journalism program officer Farai Chideya and authored by Jessica Clark’s team at Dot Connector Studio, the report detailed the pressing need for investment in diverse journalism innovators, and the ways in which such leaders had stepped up in a time of unprecedented strife to rethink reporting on the pandemic and racial justice.
Now, a year later, Chideya and Clark are bringing the report’s recommendations to life. Last fall, Chideya launched a podcast, Our Body Politic, unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they are shaping and influencing those very issues. With support from Ford, Clark launched the New/s initiative at the Guild of Future Architects—a three-year exploration of what it takes to support mission-focused news innovators who are women, BIPOC and/or LGBTQI+. The two will discuss their parallel approaches, and take questions from attendees about how both funding and journalism are evolving to better represent people’s lived realities and address complex social issues.