Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports the Journalism After Snowden initiative to ensure access to information and promote journalistic excellence. Below, Jennifer Henrichsen, a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, and Taylor Owen, research director, write about the program. Photo: Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll delivers a Journalism After Snowden lecture at Yale Law School in October.  Courtesy Tow Center for Digital Journalism.  A year ago the Tow Center for Digital Journalism began working on a project exploring the implications of increased state surveillance on the practice of journalism. Funded by The Tow Foundation and Knight Foundation, Journalism After Snowden explored some of the challenges faced by journalists in an age of mass state surveillance and big data.  Related LinkS "Columbia University’s Journalism After Snowden initiative expands with new funding" press release, 6/20/2014.  "Tow Center program defends journalism from the threat of mass surveillance" by Jennifer Henrichsen and Taylor Owen, 6/20/2014 The initiative formally concludes today at an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which will feature the launch and discussion of a survey of investigative journalists and their digital security practices in collaboration with Pew Research Center. We’re also hosting a conversation on surveillance and journalism with editors, academics and journalists, including New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet, Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll and Politico Editor Susan Glasser.

Leaders in global media innovation gathered for a panel discussion on transforming the role of women in journalist at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters Tuesday. Pictured: Joyce Barnathan (president of ICFJ and moderator), Mariana Santos (speaking), Justin Arenstein, Vivienne Irikefe and Sandra Crucianelli. Credit: Carolina Wilson. Lack of training, lack of networks and lack of capital. Women in media face these three barriers and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is working to overcome them. For its first major West Coast event, ICFJ, whose work Knight Foundation supports, assembled a panel of global media innovators at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters Tuesday evening, spurring discussion about the importance of supporting a new generation of women as leaders in media technology. Each panelist brought a unique cultural and professional background in media innovation to the discussion. They have worked on projects from developing an app to track Ebola in Nigeria to creating the first team of investigative journalists who can track government  accountability in Argentina.  Over the past 30 years, ICFJ has worked with over 80,000 journalists from 180 countries in an effort to empower global citizens with networks and tools to improve media outreach in their communities.

Kevin Davis is CEO of the Investigative News Network.   Above: Newsroom lights reflected in the glass of an iPad by Troy McCullough on Flickr. This week marks the opening of the third round of the INNovation Fund, a micro-grant program managed by the Investigative News Network to help with business experimentation in nonprofit and public-media newsrooms across the country. Related Links  "Investigative News Network is announcing 8 winners of the first round of its INNovation Fund grants" "What you need to know about the $1 million INNovation Fund" by Kevin Davis and mon Knight Blog, 1/28/2014 "New fund to give $1 million in micro-grants to innovative nonprofit news and public media projects" - press release, 1/28/2014 The program is made possible by a $1 million commitment by over two-years to invest in business experiments that look to drive audience engagement or experiment with new revenue streams. Unlike for-profit organizations, nonprofit news organizations do not have equity to leverage when seeking capital for business investment. Furthermore, most grantmaking puts limitations on the amount of overhead allowed on any given grant. Yet nonprofit newsrooms are expected to iterate and innovate to increase the amount of engagement with their target audiences, reduce their dependence on existing funders and diversify their revenue streams to become sustainable.