The Genesis and Ideological Roots of the International Dialogues for Thought Leaders in Media

In June of 2009 the second of the International Dialogues for Thought Leaders in Media will be held at the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.  The first dialogue took place in 2008 at the Fetzer Institute, which is co-sponsoring the series with Images and Voices of Hope (IVoH).  In 2010 we will return to Fetzer for the third dialogue in the series.  Because some of those coming to the dialogue have no previous experience with IVoH, we thought it would be helpful to provide some sense of the genesis of IVoH and the ideological roots of this dialogue series.   Below are some excerpts from our original proposal to the Fetzer Institute originally written in 2007, and updated here, followed by some explanation of the current DNA of the Thought Leader Dialogues.

Brief history
Images & Voices of Hope, now in its 10th year, is a global dialogue initiative that convenes journalists and media professionals in communities all over the world to clarify their personal missions and expand awareness of the ways that their work impacts societies.  Since the first meeting in New York City in1999, we have held over 50 IVoH dialogues in North America, South America,  Central America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The first IVoH dialogue was convened by three partners: one academic, one spiritual, and one social sector. 

• Case Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit, Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry (IAAI) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). IAAI studies examples of partnership and cooperation in the world. IVoH uses the strength-based theory and methods of Appreciative Inquiry, developed by Dr. David Cooperrider, chairman of IAAI and professor at CWRU.

• The Brahma Kumaris is a nonprofit organization established in India in 1937; the Brahma Kumaris encourage the spiritual progress of the individual and work for positive change at all levels of society in over 120 countries. The Brahma Kumaris hold general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

• The Visions of a Better World Foundation (VBWF) served as the fiscal agent for Images and Voices of Hope. VBWF was launched in 1994 to give permanent expression to the global dialogue started by the book, Visions of a Better World, presented at the United Nations in 1993. VBWF's purpose is to engage all segments of society in transforming their visions of a better world into action.

In 2008, IVoH became an independent not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, headquartered in New York.

At the 2006 annual world summit we took up the topic of “Media’s Creative Potential to Impact the Public Space” in a dialogue co-facilitated by Peter Senge and me. During the four days, there was time for personal reflection on the “private space” as well as time for us to look at work being done by journalists and filmmakers and presented in the “public space.”  After the summit, Jon Funabiki, former deputy director of media, arts & culture at the Ford Foundation, and now a journalism professor at San Francisco State University wrote:  “I hope you will continue IVOH.  Many journalism organizations, media reform groups, movements and campaigns already exist.  But it strikes me that your focus is quite different.  It seems to take a strike at helping us to clarify personal mission or purpose, and then to think of ways to amplify and leverage our impact.”  Jon’s short note went to the heart of what Images and Voices of Hope was doing in the media community:  providing a space for those in media to consider what moves us to work in the fields we do and what impact we want to have on humanity.

A Request for Partnership with the Fetzer Institute
In 2007 we wrote to the Fetzer Institute to request their partnership in a series of dialogues with thought leaders in media:

“Given the pivotal role media is playing in the world in these fragile times, we believe the potential for leveraging a more constructive role for the media lies with media thought leaders who are increasingly aware of the potential of media to affect the course of events.  We are seeking Fetzer’s help in creating a series of three dialogues with thought leaders in journalism. 

We would like to deepen our exploration of the link between the personal mission or ‘private space’ of those in media and the social impact they have in the ‘public space.’ By inviting selected thought leaders, we hope to create a cohort of thoughtful, courageous leaders in each field to begin to move the influential field of journalism towards a constructive approach to meaning-making in the world.  We plan to have a white paper written to expand on the insights from these dialogues.”

The Outcomes We Hope to Achieve From These Dialogues
We believe that, with Fetzer’s help, the dialogues with thought leaders in the three fields of media would accomplish several things:

• Create a cohort of influential and courageous leaders in media who will help to broaden awareness of the potential for media to have a constructive impact on societies and may be willing to reconvene periodically to examine the best ways to create a tipping point in media.

• Sharpen the distinctions within the field between “business as usual” and an approach to meaning making that creates resilience in society.  Many see the weariness in the public relative to media, but few understand the different approaches that can be taken to public story telling, message making and image creation that would result in a media environment that strengthens communities and gives life to the societies they serve.

• Open the door for a book or media project to give broader exposure to the ideas generated by the dialogue.

The DNA of these dialogues
It is important to acknowledge three ideological strands in these dialogues. 

• Strength-based dialogue: Although the Thought Leader dialogues do not explicitly use the Appreciative Inquiry method, they do remain focused on strengths and on what gives life to journalism and to the societies journalists serve.  This is a vestige of IVoH’s long-term affiliation with the Institute for Advances in Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve University. For more on Appreciative Inquiry at Case Western Reserve University, http://worldbenefit.case.edu or http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu .

• Reflection and self awareness: The dialogues preserve a space for silence and reflection.  This is the legacy of the Brahma Kumaris, who are committed to exploring the spiritual dimensions of the many social arenas of action. For more on the Brahma Kumaris see http://bkwsu.org .

• Intense discussion, social interaction, and one-on-one conversation: Three of the facilitation team for the International Dialogues for Thought Leaders in Media are affiliated with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit teaching and research institution charged with serving journalism and the academic world by offering educational programs available nowhere else.  The learning environment at Poynter is characterized by intense discussion, social interaction, and one-to-one conversation.  For more on the Poynter Institute for Media see http://www.poynter.org.

A Personal Reflection
I am not a journalist, but I did spend twenty years working in and with big media conglomerates such as CBS, Twentieth Century Fox, and New World Entertainment.  I never wanted to be in media.  I wanted to teach English which I did at a small college for ten years during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.  I taught English at night and worked at a radio station during the day.  One day an ABC sportscaster walked into the radio station and started a conversation with me that ended up changing the course of my life and work. 

At first, there was a rush of excitement that came from working with big media to spread big ideas.  But eventually I began to question whether the video medium was really well suited to creating real change.  In the early 1990’s (after I had resigned from what I hoped would be my last job in media) I began to study post modernism with an international cohort in a course on the “ontology of language.” The readings and lectures explained how we humans don’t so much describe the world we see, as see the world we describe – in other words we see the world that our experience and internal discourse has led us to believe is real. 

We poured through books like The Truth About Truth and Habits of the Heart and Learned Optimism and waded through long philosophical tracks.  Gradually I came to understand that the stories inside our head are powerful things that cause us to make sense of what we encounter in a certain way.  Based on the sense we make, we see a certain way, and act from that vision.  I began to think about the way those stories get in our heads – about our internal discourse and the power it holds over us. 

A few years later, I met the Brahma Kumaris, and began to study raja yoga.  The premise of raja yoga is that the being inside of the human being, the soul, has within it the patterns of understanding of the soul and the capacity to discern and make new sense of its experience.  The attitude, they said, informs the awareness.  The awareness affects the way we see the world.  And the way we see the world affects the action we take in the world.  We  change our vision of the world by changing our awareness.  But this requires reflective practice.  This deepened my thinking about the inner landscape and how it affects the world we see and the world we create.

At about the same time, I met David Cooperrider, the management professor who created a theory and change method called Appreciative Inquiry.  The premise of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is that we generate a world in the questions we ask.  If we inquire into problems, breakdowns, and failures, we get more of those.  If we inquire into what gives life to a system, we get more life.  I thought about the questions we ask in media.

In all of the years I worked in media, I don’t remember anyone ever asking about the effect that media images and messages was having on the societies who were receiving them.  And I definitely don’t remember anyone ever thinking about how the quality of their awareness, or the questions they were asking, was affecting the images and messages they were creating.  By 1998, I couldn’t think about anything else.

I was involved with all three founding organizations of Images and Voices of Hope: Case Western Reserve University, the Brahma Kumaris, and the Visions of a Better World Foundation. The three organizations collaborated on a big (200 person) conversation among those in media in New York City to look at the question, “what is the impact of public image making and public message making on society?”  It was a great conversation, with David Cooperrider and a graduate student and I facilitating, and the Visions of a Better World Foundation board of directors and the Brahma Kumaris well represented.  What we didn’t know that day, is that it was the seed of a global inquiry into the constructive role of media in society.

That conversation hit a nerve.  It seems a lot of people had been thinking about the role of media and especially about the profound good media must do in the world.  That issue, which seemed important then, has become urgent now.  There are thousands of people involved in IVoH.  I have sat in conversation with them in cities from Sao Paolo to Johannesburg and from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur.  Often they will say that they rarely have time for the kind of reflection and thoughtful conversation we engage in.  I am always grateful they have made the time. I consider it a privilege to be with them in those conversations.  I believe they are real heroes doing world-changing work. 

The Fetzer Institute, with whom we have partnered on the Thought Leader Dialogues, has a long history of providing reflective space for dialogues.  They also have supported the work of a number of journalists such as Bill Moyers and Krista Tippett.  I have deeply appreciated, not only the space and the financial support for the International Dialogues for Thought Leaders in Media, but also the thinking partnership. 

I look forward to the chance to talk and reflect with all of those coming to DePauw for this dialogue.

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