Media 2070 Milestones

Media 2070 is celebrating its one-year anniversary on Oct. 6, 2021. Here is a list of the milestones achieved since the project's launch:

• We hosted a panel at the Allied Media Conference on the critical need for media reparations.
• The Columbia Journalism Review named the Media 2070 essay one of the top-10 pieces of racial-justice coverage of 2020.
• Media 2070 co-founder Alicia Bell discussed Media 2070’s work at the BEYOND conference.
• Media 2070 hosted its first-ever partners’ meeting. More than 30 journalists, funders, organizers, lawyers and artists brainstormed about strategies to make media reparations a reality.
• Media 2070 joined with MediaJustice and the Movement for Black Lives to organize Black Narrative Power Month in February.
• Media 2070 organized a virtual conversation between Media 2070 co-founder Joseph Torres and MediaJustice founder Malkia Devich-Cyril about how the media system fuels anti-Black oppression.
• Alicia spoke at the Knight Media Forum about dismantling systemic racism and fighting for media reparations.
• Alicia spoke at the Storytelling for Change summit about how photography has historically reinforced harmful stereotypes.
• Media 2070 commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre:
  • We held a conversation on “Newsrooms and Black Truths” with Tulsa journalists 
  • Joseph documented how local media fueled the massacre and subsequently covered it up.
• Alicia took part in the “Teaching Race and Journalism” panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists’ Media Institute on Education and Health.
• In an Instagram Live, Alicia, Media 2070 co-founder Collette Watson and guests explored the connections between state violence against Black people and racism in the media.
• Alicia and Collette took part in the panel discussion “Media Reparations: Reckoning and Justice for People of Colour” at the Canadian Association of Black Journalists’ RISE conference.
• Media 2070 delivered a petition to 3,000 newsrooms across the country that calls on outlets to dismantle anti-Black racism, trust Black journalists and care for Black communities.
  • So far 40 journalism organizations — including CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, Scalawag Magazine, the Tucson Sentinel and WURD Radio — have signed the pledge.
• Collette interviewed Alicia on the weekly show Free Press Live about Juneteenth and the fight for media reparations.
• Rep. Jamaal Bowman and 24 House colleagues called on the FCC to examine how its policy choices have harmed Black people and other communities of color.
  • Alicia, Joseph and Collette hosted a briefing with Rep. Bowman.
• Media 2070 delivered a letter to the FCC from 100 journalists, media-makers and public-interest groups urging the agency to investigate its history of racist policymaking.
  • Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s response, quoted in Communications Daily: “I recognize we can’t build a better, more equitable future without a reckoning of how our past continues to influence our present and how too many communities continue to be overlooked and underserved.”
  • Joseph and Media 2070 Campaign Manager Venneikia Williams appeared on Free Press Live to discuss the letter and the broader fight for reparations.