Meredith Clark, associate professor at Northeastern University, and Tracie Powell, CEO and founder of The Pivot Fund, closed the 2023 NC News & Information with a keynote presentation based on their research examining the connections between race, journalism philanthropy and the information needs of communities, seen through the experiences of BIPOC newsroom leaders. They connected media responsibility with the Poor People’s Campaign agenda for a Third Reconstruction that would empower the nation’s poor and underrepresented people. They also examined how funders often misunderstand how diverse communities actually obtain and use essential information from entities they trust, and how those funders direct too much support to a “trickle down” and paternalistic approach to BIPOC media.
