August 31, 2017
The Twin Cities Media Alliance equips individuals and organizations with the power of media arts to shape narratives that advance equity and justice. It does this through several methods including offering classes, publishing the Twin Cities Daily Planet and hosting community conversations. Thanks to Voqal’s support, Twin Cities Media Alliance made great progress toward establishing a media ecosystem where marginalized voices – and the work happening to address their oppression – are amplified.
One of the ways Twin Cities Media Alliance successfully engaged with its community was through increased original content in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, an award winning online publication that amplifies and connects marginalized voices. This led to a large increase in social media engagement for the organization. In addition, it implemented two editorial cohorts that enabled it to provide consistent, nuanced and in-depth coverage around the issues of affordable housing and local arts and culture. Finally, a voter education campaign was featured in the Twin Cities Daily Planet that highlighted the historic number of candidates of color and LGBTQ candidates running in 2017.
Besides its excellent work with the Twin Cities Daily Planet, the Twin Cities Media Alliance was also able to directly engage with community in other ways. It’s “Our Space is Spoke For” project, a dynamic storytelling project that curates professional, cross-disciplinary artists and community members from marginalized communities to create and documents public performances around how marginalized communities navigate and create space, was a 2016 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge winner and launched this summer. In addition, it offered a new set of media arts trainings focused on providing storytelling skills with data and research which was met with positive reviews from all attendees. Lastly, it sponsored a 2016 Fall Media Forum themed “No Stories About Us Without Us: The Power of the Narrative” that brought together a cross-section of social changemakers who discovered tools and methods for building new narratives, critically engaged around issues affecting marginalized communities and made connections across sectors/industries.
The work of the Twin Cities Media Alliance to engage with marginalized voices in the Twin Cities community is an important step towards creating a more equitable media ecosystem. Voqal is proud to have supported this work and looks forward to the continued success of the Twin Cities Media Alliance at creating a more socially just world.