Announcing New Name for Field's Media & Storytelling Portfolio
By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
If you’ve scrolled the Field Foundation website lately, you may have noticed a change. In December, our Media & Storytelling portfolio became the Journalism & Storytelling portfolio.
As context for this change, we here at Field have been engaged in reflection on the composition of this portfolio and whether we are achieving the goals and impact envisioned. We have also done some informal polling, internally as well as externally with some existing grantees. At nine months into my role as Program Manager for this portfolio, it was important to me to integrate best practices and lessons learned from the journalism/media philanthropy landscape.
With a deeper understanding of opportunities and challenges for these portfolios nationwide, insights on continuing gaps that exist, and current trends on what is being funded and why, I believe it necessary to shift from one-off storytelling projects to greater focus on efforts to build and sustain media equity.
The renamed Journalism & Storytelling portfolio signals this effort and aligns with the rising focus on rebuilding local news, including the groundbreaking Press Forward initiatives that have pooled philanthropy funds toward sustaining local journalism both locally and nationally.
As the Journalism & Storytelling portfolio, we will continue Field’s mission to tell untold stories and ensure diverse viewpoints in the public square. Our focus will be further supporting impactful and promising news outlets and startups reflective of Chicago's BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, and the filling of information gaps with diverse narratives, news, and investigations accurately reflecting community needs.
We’re excited about this change and look forward to opportunities to continue to partner with our grantees and strategic funding partners as we move toward our common goal of saving local news.
Maudlyne
Maudlyne Ihejirika
Journalism & Storytelling Program Manager
The Field Foundation of Illinois