NewsFrames: Team Leads and Direction Update

I hope everyone is well. Lately it’s been a roller coaster of emotions for many in our community, so let me start off with happy news.

Team Leads

I’d like to introduce our first NewsFrames Team Leads: Sana Saleem and Iria Puyosa. Some of you may already know one or both of them, as they have been active at different times and from different corners of the GV world.

Sana Saleem is a journalist with a focus on social justice and human stories and has most recently been the Pakistan Editor at GV. She has been honored with recognitions by Foreign Policy (Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2012) for her work on free speech and the BBC (Top 100 Women to Watch in 2015). Her work can also be found at 48hills.org and the Guardian.

Iria Puyosa was active in the community between 2005 and 2010, and we are glad that she’s “returned” for this role (she never felt that she really left because of the GV community Google group!). Iria brings a different set of skills and experience, especially around research around political communication and data. Iria has a PhD from the University of Michigan and is currently the Director of the Masters in Digital Journalism as well as the Master in Communication & Social Media at the Universidad de Las Américas in Ecuador.

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Sana Saleem. PHOTO BY: Onnik James Krikorian

Iria Puyosa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In talking with both Sana and Iria, I learned more about what excites them about being part of this initiative. For Sana, GV has taught her a great deal about comprehensive and inclusive coverage — she means it when she says GV is “a community like no other” — and NewsFrames is the next opportunity to push this coverage farther. “We could enhance our coverage and truly challenge the ideas of lazy labels like ‘media bias’,” for example. For Iria, the fascination and the vision is much the same.  For two years, Iria “has worked to incorporate online monitoring and analytical techniques in the training of journalists” in Ecuador and believes that by “working in this project, I will be able to make a contribution for better digital journalism.”

Please join me in welcoming them, and they look forward to talking with you soon.

Where we’re going

But talking with you about what? In addition to hiring new Team Leads, NewsFrames has been undergoing lots and lots of design. Things are still under development, but I can share something about where we are.

Polarization, echo chambers, misrepresentation, and fake news: there’s a relationship between media producers and audiences that is responsible for news content and it needs to be better understood, especially when it seems to go wrong. We believe that through NewsFrames tools, data, and a lot of knowledgable people like you, it will be possible to shed some light on these problems. We also want to use our insights to take us a step further and figure out where the moments of empathy and bridge-building might be.

These data investigations, which will take place across many languages and countries, won’t be easy to build. We will also fail sometimes. But we all think that there important work to be done and hope you agree. The NewsFrames Team is excited and very motivated!

By the way, thanks so very much for those of you who responded to the survey. We know that people still have questions and are eager to help. We are working on the best way to answer the questions and for people to participate in the different problem areas.

As usual, feel free to contact me (and also now Sana and Iria) should you have any questions. We’ll be in touch soon!

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