We need a media ecosystem that urges justice

Editor’s note, Nov. 3, 2025: This piece was initially published on Dec. 13, 2023, and the below copy has been updated and fact-checked for the 2025 Civic Media Magazine, a project of The Objective, News Futures, and members of Free Press’s Media Policy Collaborative. You can read the updated letter to the editor and find more pieces from the series here.

I was in college when Trayvon Martin was murdered. I’m Black, so the knowledge that white folks can kill Black folks with impunity was not a new concept for me. But the media’s irresponsible stewardship as a child’s execution was debated in the public square awoke something in me.

In the time since, I’ve come to realize that my desire to meaningfully effect transformational change was born out of this head-on encounter with ideological power.

In a world where narrative begets ideology begets the status quo, the media is a gatekeeper and, for some, an executioner. I’ve witnessed the loop of injustice playing repeatedly in the court of public opinion, constructing social, cultural, and political power: The dominant culture’s beliefs shape popular narratives, which are platformed by the media, and that platforming legitimizes and reinforces those often oppressive beliefs. Sometimes unspoken and other times concretized through law and policy, these constructs of power are then used to bestow upon or deny many of us humanity, an equitable existence, and access to justice.

How then do we start a conversation about the media’s role in promoting civic health when so much of the Fourth Estate is complicit in upholding violent, oppressive systems? By changing it.

This moment is a call for us to create a media ecosystem that uses narrative as a tool to dismantle systemic oppression and redistribute power — instead of a device sustaining white supremacy and racism, classism, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia. Under my tenure — and after my departure — my former team at Scalawag, a Southern, abolitionist media organization, has been working to operationalize this model.

To create an equitable, cooperative, and sustainable local media system that meets the information needs of all communities, we must strive for change across all structures — not just media. Therefore, we must primarily concern ourselves with the pursuit of collective liberation, equity, inclusion, and justice. This requires a marked shift away from how journalism has been practiced and toward a media system that plays an active role in a larger social change ecosystem. 

Through journalism and storytelling, Scalawag works to revolutionize the popular consciousness, prime civic action, and, in solidarity with social movements, drive social change. In practice, this means Scalawag’s work is explicitly done in service of a more just South. Scalawag’s engagement efforts focus on listening to and building relationships with the individuals and organizations working with communities, as in the newsroom’s 2023 coverage of Stop Cop City construction paired with direction to related mutual aid funds.

Scalawag’s storytelling is responsive to what the team hears and is produced in collaboration with community-rooted and/or systems-impacted journalists. Scalawag publishes content that examines power and builds readers’ consciousness. And the newsroom convenes and connects readers with community and movement partners, and each other.

We know large-scale impact is needed to transform our region and beyond, and therefore we in the media cannot do this work alone: Our theory of change must scale from an organization to ecosystem level. That is why, during my tenure as Executive Director, we worked to develop Scalawag to not only be a publisher, but to also anchor a media ecosystem that functions within grassroots Southern movement. 

Some believe the creation of such a media system is antithetical to journalistic practice, and should be separated out as “advocacy.”  Folks tritely conjecture that practicing media this way requires you to be against “conservatives,” or for “liberals,” or to choose “left” over “right,” when this media system ultimately urges justice.

On a larger scale — including and beyond Scalawag — meaningful steps are already being taken to develop such a media ecosystem and strengthen its relationship with movement. In January 2024, I joined 40 other people in Austin, Texas, for the Movement & Media Convening. Facilitated by Piece By Piece Strategies and the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, leaders from organizations like the Appeal, the Rising Majority, Next City, and the Highlander Research and Education Center, strategized interventions at the individual, organizational, and ecosystem level to support media organizations, civic/power-building organizations, and philanthropy in working together to change dominant and local narratives in order to increase civic participation and build sustained social movements. 

We’ve since formed the Movement & Media Collaborative, a container that builds and sustains relationships and political alignment between movement and media organizations; fosters the development of initiatives that builds power and wins material change in communities; and resources shared projects and infrastructure. We’re especially excited for the experimentation and learnings that will emerge from this formation.

Over the next decade, our focus must be the development of strategies that take narrative shift from theory to practice.

“Narrative shift” (or “narrative change”) is a phrase that many use, but few clearly define or strategically implement. My definition of the phrase comes from Movement Generation: the Justice & Ecology Project — their definition of shift is a social, economic, and/or cultural transformation, and their framework for adaptation makes clear how social movements can create these transformations. 

At current, narrative shift strategies within progressive social movements are largely focused on strengthening communications infrastructure. In the past, for about three years, I coached power-building organizations on digital marketing and fundraising: I know there is real power in resourcing and training movement organizations on public narrative, audience growth, content creation, and supporter engagement. But communications and public relations tactics alone cannot drive narrative shift. 

As Victor Pickard explained in an interview with CJR, media needs movement and movement needs media. A “core media strategy” must prioritize the development and resourcing of a grassroots media ecosystem, constellated by media organizations that see readership growth as the building of a conscious base primed to take social action for social change.

It is my belief that narrative is a key tool for awakening the popular imagination — and in our increasingly unstable world, we will undoubtedly be met with more and more opportunities to facilitate collective “aha” moments that spark social action. It is also my belief that media organizations that are aligned with social movements are best positioned to do this work.

When I envision a networked, grassroots media system, the outlets within it work individually, collectively, and in alignment with movement, to create storytelling, products, and platform-native content that reaches ever-growing multi-racial, multilingual, and intergenerational audiences. The practitioners within this system believe that high-quality, rigorous reporting does not have to be inaccessible, and that we will continue to fail to move the masses if the content we produce requires our audiences to be literate. Ongoing investments in this media ecosystem prioritize general operating support that enables organizations to increase and optimize news and information production, community outreach, audience engagement, and coalition building.

I invite those that are interested in joining, financially contributing to, or otherwise supporting this critical work to please be in touch by emailing info@piecebypiecestrategies.org.

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Cierra Brown Hinton is a creative strategist who centers imagination, play, and community in her work, and is also a member at Blue Engine, a collaborative that works with media companies, startups, foundations, and others on revenue and audience growth, product development, consumer user experience, and digital strategy. Cierra was previously the Executive Director-Publisher at Scalawag, a Southern, Black-led Abolitionist media organization reporting with communities on the intersections of culture, race, and systems of power and privilege.

This piece was edited by James Salanga. Copy edits by Bettina Chang. Fact-checking by Bashirah Mack.