"We love data and helping people at the same time, so it’s a win-win," Janine Miles, MySocialPulse Co-Founder

My guests this week are Divya Prashanth and Janine Miles, or – as I was introduced to them initially – "super-smart data scientists in the UK who are building a social listening tool that could have huge implications for stopping the spread of misinformation."

Divya and Janine are co-founders of MySocialPulse, a digital dashboard that makes it easy to search for and track public sentiment on social media. They're testing its application in media and advertising, finance and reputation management, but what they're really excited about is its potential to help journalists and help identify how misinformation is spreading around the world.

"Something that I learned during the pandemic: I remembered why I started in this journalism career to begin with, and it was to serve and to listen." – Maritza Félix, Founder of Conecta Arizona

Serving and listening started with a WhatsApp group for Maritza Félix, an independent journalist in Arizona. The group kept growing until it reached the size limit.

“I knew that there was a need for information. But I also knew that the traditional media outlets weren’t providing all of the information that the community needed because they are obviously understaffed and underpaid," Félix said. "They were working remotely without an understanding of how to work like that.”

She saw the need for stories and information during the pandemic in Spanish, so she launched Conecta Arizona as a journalism experiment, bringing on experts and answering questions. Félix thought it would last for only a few weeks, but word spread quickly. Her experiment has turned into a committed team of journalists and other community members.

The journalism world is taking note. She is a JSK Stanford, IWMF, and Listening Post Collective Fellow and part of Take The Lead’s 50 Women Who Can Change the World of Journalism 2020 cohort.

“I’m a big believer that the internet can be a force for good and that there’s a lot of power in the connections that can be formed online.” -- Vidhya Ramalingam

We've talked before about how the internet and social media can spread disinformation and hate-related posts but how can it also be used for good? My guest this week is Vidhya Ramalingam, CEO and Founder of Moonshot, a company that uses technology to identify people at risk of violent extremism. Moonshot repurposes target advertising methods to intervene by connecting those people with humans who can help.

"If it's human connections that are gonna get people out of these movements, then actually facilitating those connections (...) that’s something that we can replicate and we can scale," Ramalingam said.

Her journey to founding Moonshot is pretty unique. She started by attending white nationalist rallies in Sweden and having personal conversations with people involved in the movements. She was surprised by what she learned.

"It's like a war except everyone who's dying are innocent civilians." – Deval Sanghavi, Partner & Co-Founder at Dasra

"Our team members are sick, unable to get a hospital bed, get oxygen. They're scrambling." – Sneha Sheth, CEO & Co-Founder at Dost Education

In the US, more than 44 percent of people are at least partially vaccinated against Covid-19, but in India, it’s a much different story. Only nine percent have had at least one shot. Meanwhile, the health care system is overwhelmed as the country experiences the world’s worst outbreak, with new cases staying well above 300,000 every day.

My guests this week are Deval Sanghavi and Sneha Sheth. They both run non-profits on the frontlines of the Covid-19 crisis in India.

Right now they're hosting a fundraiser to support emergency work through Dasra and local organizations. Donations here will be matched:
https://www.facebook.com/donate/297607202008983/

How does the trend toward content monetization on social media relate to the kinds of videos and posts we see? And do creators really have control over their own content?

My guest this week is Dr. Susanne Kopf, a discourse analyst in Vienna, Austria. Her current research focuses on the digital platform economy, social media and Wikipedia studies. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for English Business Communication at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. 

“It is a very difficult thing to address this and hope that it will fall on people who will believe you. At the very least, you hope you’re not gonna get in trouble or get sued or have people tell you you're a liar." -- Lori Lizarraga, TV news reporter

My guest this week is Lori Lizarraga. She wrote a bombshell article for a Denver paper, detailing allegations of discrimination she says she and other Latina reporters faced while working for 9NEWS. All three women were let go by the station within the last year. Since speaking out, Lori has caught the attention of Colorado politicians as well as upper level news company leadership, who just announced a policy change related to language used in immigration coverage.

*9NEWS declined an interview with the Denver Post regarding Lori's story but sent a statement saying the newsroom will have listening sessions with journalists of color, training on inclusive journalism practices and an upcoming diversity audit by a third-party researcher.*

We've been hearing a lot about the U.S. immigration "crisis at the border." In March 2021, U.S. border authorities took in 18,890 children traveling alone from Central America, the highest monthly number on record.

But the conversation around how to set up a sustainable immigration system that treats people with respect is nothing new.

My guest this week is Cindy Andrade Johnson, a deaconess in the Methodist church and volunteer at La Posada Providencia in San Benito, Texas. She works with immigrants adjusting to life in the U.S. Her Facebook page has become a line of communication between the immigrant community along the border and people in the U.S. who want help.

My guests this week are Nat Gyenes and Megan Marrelli with Meedan, a non-profit building digital tools for journalists, helping them fact check information quickly and turn it around for the public.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year, Nat – with her training in public health – and Megan – with her training in journalism – put together a digital tool called Health Desk. The goal: to make it easier for journalists to understand complex health-related topics and share information accurately.

"Maybe sometimes people don’t understand the value of storytellers. But when you look at history, history has only been preserved by people who captured and documented the stories.” – Georgia Fort, BLCK Press Founder and Video Journalist

Georgia Fort defines her mission as "...changing the narrative by amplifying truth, citing diverse sources and contextualizing social justice issues." She's an independent video journalist based in Minneapolis, and now she's covering the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. (Chauvin is the former Minneapolis police officer facing second and third-degree murder charges over the death of George Floyd.) Georgia also founded BLCK Press, a website that publishes stories from other independent media makers sharing diverse perspectives.

“I wasn’t afraid of being broke; I was afraid of being broken (…) if you don’t seize the life you want to live, who’s gonna do it for you?” — Neki Mohan, journalist & entrepreneur

Our guest this week, Neki Mohan, left her job as a TV news anchor in Miami in August 2020. When her former co-anchor of 10 years, Todd Tongen, took his own life in 2019, she knew she had to make a change. In our conversation, Neki shares wisdom earned through wide-ranging experiences – from growing up in Trinidad and Tobago to working her way through the television news industry as a woman and mother. She says she’s always thought of herself as ‘CEO of Neki Mohan, Inc.’ no matter what job she worked, but now she’s the actual CEO of her own media and consulting company. Neki is also a passionate mentor; she has been mentoring for the Women of Tomorrow program for 20 years.  She has also been an adjunct professor at Barry University and was recently invited to join the board of the Pace Center for Girls, Broward.