Saving Journalism: Can Community Building Counter AI and Polarization

Join Pia Ranada, the McLuhan Fellow from the Phillipines for a talk on how building journalism around community can help it survive. With the rise of AI, the unreliability of big tech as platforms for news distribution, and increasing polarization, can a focus on community building help save journalism?

Pia Ramada will discuss efforts in her newsroom Rappler to bring the work of journalism to readers and citizens in new, impactful ways. From a membership program, to AI-driven public consultations, to a social media platform run by journalists, these initiatives in the Philippines aim to build trust between journalists and the public they serve, while helping newsrooms sustain their operations and weather economic and political pressures.

Marshall McLuhan Fellow is Pia Ranada ihead of community for Rappler. Previously, she was an investigative journalist and senior reporter for Rappler best known for her coverage of the Duterte administration when she was assigned to cover the presidential beat.  As Community Lead, she is now responsible for linking journalism with communities for impact and action. 

The Embassy of Canada in the Philippines awarded her the Marshall McLuhan Fellowship in November for her “exceptional commitment to journalism, using the craft to build citizens with critical information that can impact societal change” and her commitment to inform, “to enable meaningful public engagement on issues in service of the public, and illustrate how investigations, facts, and transparency can ensure meaningful democratic accountability.”

Please RSVP below.