Converge Media: A must visit for journalist and students from around the world
Students from Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador who are participants in the Digital Literacy Youth Leadership Program stopped by Converge Media’s Black Media Matters Studio earlier this month. (Photo: Susan Fried)
By Omari Salisbury
Journalists and aspiring media professionals from all around the world stop by our Black Media Matters Studios in downtown Seattle to learn more about Converge Media and our hyper-local mission to uplift our community while providing news, information, and entertainment.
Recently students from the countries of Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador, stopped by for an hour to have a lively discussion about Digital Literacy. This is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) that brings together 24 youth participants (ages 15-18) and adult mentors for a two-week exchange focused on connecting with community through digital media and how to combat misinformation and disinformation in relaying information.
We discussed the immediate national concerns in their home countries (Security, Corruption, Press Freedoms) and talked about ways that they can use technology to not only inform citizens but also empower them to be active stakeholders in their communities.
Earlier this year, journalists from Serbia, Kosovo, and several other Balkans countries also visited the Black Media Matters Studios, many of these brave media professionals face many challenges in doing their jobs in their home countries. With them, we discussed the real-life outcomes at times of speaking truth to power.
Journalists from Serbia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia stopped by the Black Media Matters Studios in May to learn more about how Converge Media reports on government.
At times, we have taken the Converge Media message on the road, globally, like last year when I visited Berlin, Germany as part of the German Marshall Fund and discussed the work that Converge Media does on a panel that included several Mayors including Mayor Jim Kenny of Philadelphia as well as several police chiefs and elected officials from across Europe and the United States.
I had an opportunity while in Berlin, Germany to speak with Mayor Kenney about gun violence in his city of Philadelphia and what steps his administration was taking to address it.
Our work is grounded in the same simple goal, to just tell it like it is for our community and try our very best to make our home neighborhood of the Central District as well as our elders proud of our work along the way.