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Discovering and Filling Gaps in Funding: The Knight News Challenge, interview with Jessica Goldfin
Posted by Elena Haliczer on 10-01-08G4C: Why don't you give us some background on the Knight Foundation's News Challenge and how that initiative evolved?
Jessica Goldfin: Well, we put a lot of thought into where we could help most, where we fit as an organization. We were interested to see organizations like The John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation begin funding digital media, but saw our role as very different.
We really felt that virtual communities didn't need our help, but that geographic communities might. We saw that the newspaper model was changing and had to change more, and started wondering how we could help those geographic communities and news providers get the news they needed in a way adapted to the digital media environment.
In the News Challenge's First Year Cycle, our winners included a game by Nora Paul from the Institute of New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota to create game prototype tools that will allow community leaders, game makers and journalists to develop games using real community issues.
We also funded a game by Paul Grabowicz and students at U.C. Berkeley called "Saving 7th Street Jazz and Blues" that recreates the buildings and tells the story of Oakland’s jazz and blues clubs, and another by Gail Robinson with GothamGazette to produce three news related games over the next few years.
G4C: What has The Knight Foundation been funding and doing internally to promote the creation of and interest in news related games and other digital media initiatives related to the dissemination of news?
Goldfin: We just funded you, Games for Change, to create a news game track at your annual festival and on your website. We believe that this will foster an interest in creating news related games.
We also awarded almost a sister grant to Ian Bogost, to assess what is and is not working in news games, to categorize types, and also build a community to stimulate a discussion of news related games.
Internally we also have a new hire, Kristen Taylor, who is our online community manager. She's created an online community for our initiative called the News Challenge Garage, to support potential grantees by connecting them with current grantees in mentorship positions. The News Challenge Garage is open to the public and meant to encourage grant seekers to apply. It's only open until November, so anybody interested in applying, go ahead and get on there!
G4C: Why are games an appealing medium for the dissemination of news?
Goldfin: First of all, we think any way we can engage this new generation of news creators and news consumers on a platform they are comfortable with, while also teaching them news literacy and our rights and freedoms under the first amendment, is worth funding.
We know that games are incredibly popular and that alone makes them a medium we should explore. We want to know how or whether we can create a game, that like Jim Gee (who is my hero now) says, can become not just informative to the player, but involve them in a process of preparation for future knowledge.
For example, the game Hush had everyone at the 2008 Games for Change Festival gripped because it was such a powerful game. It achieved a tremendous emotional response. We need games that do that, but are linked to action, long-term learning, and the future consciousness of the player.
G4C: How would you characterize The Knight Foundation's interest in games? Is it something you've had to work hard to sell internally, or has it been accepted easily? Are games an area you'd consider funding exclusively as a separate grant initiative?
Goldfin: We saw how very positive people's reaction was to Sandra Day O'Connor's "Our Courts" game project. We see it as a totally hip initiative, and a sign that games are becoming an important and acceptable way to educate and motivate youth about important issues and aspects of culture.
The fact is we don't have a set initiative for digital media. We're new to this, and we want to experiment; we want to explore and see what else is out there.
It might be worth possibly creating smaller grants in the future to target things like news games. A lot of our learning happens through doing.
Being at the Games for Change Festival this year was extremely helpful, because it gave us a sense of the whole landscape of game development and it helped us understand the funding needs of different kinds of games. One of my favorite moments of the festival this year was at the 101 Workshop, when Alan Gershenfeld gave a breakdown on funding for different size games. Smaller grants allow us to take more risks, and games might be an area to take them in.
G4C: How is funding games and other digital media projects in keeping with The Knight Foundation's mission?
Goldfin: We do a lot of work with journalists and news organizations, and the industry is in flux. It is redefining itself, so we, like the field of journalism, have to redefine our funding areas and explore our new options.
Still, we stay with our core mission--to lead journalism excellence, only now, into the digital age. It's not the values of journalism or The Knight Foundation that are in flux.
G4C: What games are The Knight Foundation looking at as good examples of news related games?
Goldfin: Peacemaker is really great. It's a game that considers all sides and so achieves a neutral point of view you look for in the best journalism.
G4C: What are some trends in grant-making at The Knight Foundation?
Goldfin: Well, as I said, when we launched our News Challenge we saw it as an experiment, and we still do. The News Challenge is showing us new grant-making areas, again for smaller grants, but also new initiatives.
One concrete example of that is our Knight Drupal Initiative. That arose from the News Challenge. We saw a lot of proposals involving Drupal, and some clear themes emerged. We saw a funding gap to fill as a result.
That's really what is so exciting about The Knight News Challenge, is that it exposes the gaps in funding and educates us. It makes us a better funding organization and helps us move the field in new directions, meeting the challenges of digital media while bringing our core values forward.