API summit: Serving Diverse Communities

The American Press Institute together with Temple University’s School of Media and Communication held an invitation-only Thought Leader Summit on diversity and community on Thursday, June 9, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Serving Diverse Communities: A New Look at News, the Public and Engagement gathered leading editors and academics with online storytellers and community engagement experts. The agenda focused on the information needs of a variety of communities of belonging and, in a world where anyone can publish, the ideal qualities of a news source that serves a particular community, regardless of whether or not it was a traditional outlet.

Our setting at Temple University in Philadelphia, one of the largest minority-majority cities in America, served as a backdrop for the discussion. Keith Woods, NPR’s vice president of diversity in news and operations, facilitated the discussion, which was driven by participants.

Goals of the summit included recalibrating discussions of diversity and community by reconnecting leaders and forming new connections with others seeking to create inclusive media for their communities. The discussion also will inform strategic thinking of the American Press Institute and Democracy Fund, one of API’s funders, as they imagine other initiatives and efforts to catalyze projects seeking to better serve diverse communities and their information needs.

Participants were invite-only and represented a range of lived experiences, skillsets and backgrounds.

For more information, contact Arlene Morgan at Temple University anotoro@temple.edu