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Harnessing the power of influencers to create social change
You’ve seen it before. You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed and you see a celebrity you follow sharing a testimony about a product you’ve never heard of, or maybe they’re advocating for a cause that’s close to your heart. In recent years, influencers have risen as key...
Keep Me Posted - Episode 4: Tech Policy and Cultural Translation
“You should care about what Facebook is doing, regardless of whether you're on the platform or not,” Brandi Collins-Dexter, Visiting Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, told me on the newest episode of Spitfire’s tech and society podcast, Keep...
Advocates across the country are (already) making 2021 a year of bold progressive change
2020 was a year marked by language like, “in these challenging times,” and “unprecedented.” Now that we find ourselves living through the start of 2021…well, we are still using this same vernacular. The acts of violence, injustice and consistent threats to our humanity we saw...
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ComNet 2020 offers great New Year’s resolutions for communicators in 2021
From the pandemic, to racial justice movements, to massive changes in local races, the presidency and the Supreme Court, 2020 was a year of devastation, but one that reminded us of all the weak structures in our country that need bold changes. Social justice leaders continued...
ComNet, the South, and us: Three things we can learn from southern organizers
2020 is officially (and thankfully) behind us, but the work that last year left us remains. Beyond the persistent uncertainty of COVID-19 and the shift towards action to address systemic racism, as we began the new year, we still had two items left in the 2020 electoral season...
Spitfire condemns white supremacists’ assault on democracy, joins calls to remove Trump and GOP leaders from office
In acts of violent domestic terrorism, white supremacists gathered in our nation’s capital, and a mob of extremists illegally entered the U.S. Capitol in a continued attempt – led by Donald J. Trump – to change the results of the presidential election and disrupt the peaceful...
How to communicate with staff after election day
There’s no question that 2020 has been a year unlike any other. From the enduring impact of COVID-19 and racism to the relentless vitriolic and divisive political discourse, this year feels like a bad dream that’s impossible to wake up from any time soon. We’re also facing the...
Keep Me Posted: Standing Up to Anti-Blackness in Tech
Even though public criticism of the biases baked into technology is becoming more commonplace, public interest technologists have been making the connection between critical race theory and tech for decades. “The idea that technology can change your life and in a way that you don...
Keep Me Posted: Our New Podcast’s Second Episode Drops Today!
“In order to try to transform the systems of oppression that we're facing, we have to be willing to be transformed in the work.” This is just one snippet of wisdom imparted by Hannah Sassaman, policy director for the Movement Alliance Project (MAP) in Philadelphia, during our...
Introducing… Keep Me Posted: A New Podcast from Spitfire
It’s true that technology has the power to foster connection, community, learning and promote equity and justice. But it can also easily be used as a tool for surveillance, division, discrimination and to amplify inequality. At Spitfire, we have the distinct pleasure of...
Communicating Ch-Ch-Changes
Best idea ever, or what were they thinking? Communications may be the deciding factor. Let me start with an understatement: We are in the midst of massive change. Globally, as a nation, organizationally and individually. For organizations, the change can be exhilarating, opening...
See What You Mean
Close your eyes. Note what you see when you think of a peaceful protest demanding racial justice. What comes into your mind when you think about nature? What do you see when you hear the words community and family? Now open your eyes. What did you see? Words? Likely not. Pictures...