Practical Tips on Using New Media to Inform Communities

Highlights from the seminar, sponsored by Knight Foundation and the Council on Foundations, include:

• Advice on using text messaging, mobile devices applications and social networks to engage communities;

• Resources community foundations can use to engage young people with web 2.0 tools, cross the digital divide and reach the disenfranchised – and find the donors to fund those and other information projects;

• Examples of projects community foundations are launching to ensure all residents have the information they need to make informed decisions;

• Visitors can also view PBS correspondent and author Gwen Ifill’s keynote speech on the new era in black politics. Ifill’s comments were based on her bestselling book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which all seminar participants received.

The Media Learning Seminar is premised on the belief that information is essential in a democracy, that is a core community need. In that vein, community foundations, which were created to meet core needs, should also support news and information projects.