MediaJustice

The organization was formally founded in 2009 by Malkia Devich-Cyril, Amy Sonnie, and Jen Soriano. ¹

Background

In 2001, an Oakland, California-based organization known as Youth Media Council (YMC) was created as a “Black-led media accountability coalition” by activist Malkia Cyril. It had its roots in a former organization called “We Interrupt This Message,” and both groups were staffed by activists who desired to change media narratives around racial stereotypes believing they contributed to allegedly racist public policies. ²

In 2004, YMC joined with media activist groups Media Alliance, Reclaim the Media, and Media Tank to form the Media Action Grassroots Network. This merger was supported financially by Media Democracy Fund, a left-of-center media advocacy group in Washington, D.C. that is now a project of New Venture Fund (NVF) and funded by numerous left-wing foundations. Media Action Grassroots Network was folded into the Center for Media Justice (CMJ) in 2009. ^{2 1}

Malkia Cyril (also known as Malkia Devich Cyril) was one of the three founders of CMJ, along with Amy Sonnie and Jen Soriano. Media Action Grassroots Network was absorbed into CMJ, which serves as its fiscal sponsors. ^{2 1}

In 2019, CMJ changed its name to MediaJustice. Its main program is the MediaJustice Network, an advocacy campaign for minority media representation and “communications rights” led by Cyril. ³

Activities

MediaJustice advocates for “community ownership of media infrastructure” to combat corporate mergers in the communications industry. The group alleges that such mergers and acquisitions cause a loss of labor rights for workers, force families to pay more for reduced services, and leads to underrepresentation of minority communities in the media. MediaJustice argues that control over and participation in the media is one of the key issues for the left-of-center social movements and should be pursued with the same force as “economic justice” initiatives. ¹

MediaJustice and its signature program MediaJustice Network have shifted focus to policing supposed “fake news” and social media platforms like Facebook. MediaJustice aims to protect internet access for minorities, serve as a mouthpiece for racial justice organizations aiming to expose police brutality and “mass incarceration,” and challenge surveillance technologies and other examples of “high tech criminalization.” ²

MediaJustice’s Network is open to accepting more member organizations, such as activist groups, TV networks, and radio stations, to join its national campaign. It invites members to educational webinars and gives them access to its country-wide platforms in exchange for having the groups agree to mobilize their supporters and donors for MediaJustice’s causes. ^{4 5}

Funding

MediaJustice has received grants from Astraea Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy, Ford Foundation, New Venture Fund, Open Society Institute, Proteus Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ⁶

In 2019, MediaJustice had a revenue of $2,875,123, expenses of $1,893,780, and net assets of $2,858,458. ⁷

Leadership

MediaJustice boasts that it is led by “youth, women, and vulnerable people of color.” ²

The organization was formally founded in 2009 by Malkia Devich-Cyril, Amy Sonnie, and Jen Soriano. ¹

Cyril is the former executive director of MediaJustice. He is a racial justice activist who had been active in left-of-center media advocacy since the early 2000s. He considers his main issues to be “digital rights, narrative power, Black liberation and collective grief.” As of 2022, Cyril was serving as a senior fellow at MediaJustice as well as the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity. ¹

Amy Sonnie is an activist and the author of two books, one on “queer and transgender youth activism” and the other on the “histories of working-class, interracial solidarity during the 1960s.” She served on the board of MediaJustice from 2013 to 2020. She advocates for librarians to promote “racial equity” educational materials and is a librarian. ¹

Jen Soriano is the co-founder and board chair of ReFrame and the co-creator of RoadMap’s Weathering the Storm crisis prevention and response program. She has also worked with Right to the City Alliance, the Center for Story-Based Strategy, and Rainforest Action Network in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to educate “families of color” about the housing crisis. ¹