Featured Grantee

In recent years, our country has been confronted by an era of media consolidation, partial reporting, and skewed journalism.  In the United States, a vast majority of broadcast and periodical capacity have played a role in advancing a misguided agenda for our country.

The Center for Independent Media is working to break this pattern within mainstream media, offering alternatives in new media outlets, investigative journalism and diversity of news content.  The Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that fosters diversity of ideas in the national debate through the advancement of independent media, with a primary emphasis on online journalism.  The Center brings talented and distinct voices and ideas to the fore of our national discourse through its fellowships, publications, conferences, and research.  Programs emphasize the importance of citizen-driven journalism as a critical founding principle of our nation.

The Center for Independent Media achieves these goals, in part, through its New Journalist Training Program.  Through a competitive process, the Center selects people to serve as New Journalist Fellows for six months.  After receiving rigorous trainings in investigative reporting by seasoned practitioners, these Fellows are expected to produce original journalism online on a regular basis, with ongoing mentorship and support.

Designed to pick up where the training program leaves off, the Center also employs the New Journalist Editorial Program, which provides talented online journalists with direct support to conduct original reporting.  This program is designed to advance serious original reporting using the infrastructure of blogs.  Launched in Colorado and Minnesota in July 2006, and expanded in 2007 to include Iowa and Michigan, the Center’s New Journalist Program has achieved great success breaking stories, utilizing new media such a blogs and online journalism, and transmitting local and national stories to a wide audience.  The Center’s Fellows are the recipients of nine awards for excellence in reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Arca Foundation is pleased to highlight the Center for Independent Media and its work as one of our newest grantees.

To view all the Current Grantees, click here