Empowering People to Tell Their Own Stories

The newest area of work in MacArthur's long-standing Journalism and Media Program is support for organizations that enable, encourage, and amplify civic media-making. We are supporting nonprofit organizations that train and amplify fresh voices, with a particular emphasis on empowering young people and historically marginalized communities to tell their own stories, shape the public narrative, and assert influence over the matters that concern them. We call this work "participatory civic media."

Many of these civic media organizations are led by young professionals of color or first-generation American citizens. These groups are encouraging and spreading the practice of civic imagination; they are changing the dominant narrative little by little, community by community, and exercising their democratic rights and responsibilities in a uniquely 21st Century way. The people and organizations MacArthur supports and their inspiring work make us optimistic about the possibility of a better future, one that is more just and inclusive for all Americans.