Journalistic Purpose During a Time of Pandemic and Unrest

An executive producer at Margin Media, Sue Schardt believes stories have the power to bring about positive change. Her work is rooted in an understanding how stories make it possible for people to recognize themselves as part of a larger whole, and that media, when directed with clear, positive intention, is an important unifying force when uncertainty and fear prevail.

In a recent post on her company site, she shares her insights into the present moment, with people across the planet converging in ways that, even six months ago, were unimaginable. The emergence of millions of “brave and necessary” protesters moving against racial injustice, a pandemic dismantling normative structures of governance and economies are, together impacting people in every corner of the world. “We must recognize this moment of profound, shared vulnerability, when rigorous journalism and our best storytellers can lead us to a better world,” says Schardt. “There is a new calling.”

Break Form: Making stories with and for the people is a report published by the American Press Institute analyzing “Localore: Finding America,” a production Schardt created and oversaw as Executive Producer for ten years. She stresses the relevance of lessons of Localore for today’s journalists. One of the project’s lead producers Steve Mencher worked with disparate faith communities in Kansas City. He describes how the experience influenced his approach to journalism. “I believe in importance of fairness, objectivity, and balance,” says Mencher. “I’ve learned, too, there is also love. Love and the core tenets of journalism can go together.”

Read Break Form: Making stories with and for the people:
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/break-form/

For the latest on Sue Schardt, visit MarginMedia.org.

 

Anti-celebrity Termite Artist Making Change from Inside Public Media

Sue Schardt operates Margin Media out of a studio located on the top of Savin Hill in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She oversees productions, and, as executive producer, she draws on her extensive experience working as a creative, socially conscious leader in public media. What many in her professional circles don’t know is that Schardt is also a musician and free-form radio DJ on WMBR-FM based at the Massachusetts Institute. She was among the artists featured in a major exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), “One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art.”

Described by the Los Angeles Times as an “anti-celebrity” show, the exhibition had at its centerpiece paintings by Manny Farber, who died in 2008 and was better known to the public as a movie critic than as an artist. One unique aspect of Farber’s colorful, motion-infused still-life pieces is that they were not presented from a side view, but from above, framed on surfaces such as tabletops.

Interwoven with Farber’s still-life paintings were the works of three dozen artists, including Schardt, who were not so much influenced by him but who shared an affinity and sensibility. This was brought together “sympathetically” by MOCA’s former chief curator, Helen Molesworth, as her “swan song” exhibition. As reviewed in the Times, the end result was “user-friendly yet enjoyably strange.”

For a review of the Manny Farber exhibition, visit

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manny-farber-termite-moca-20181019-story.html

Anti-celebrity Termite Artist Making Change from Inside Public Media

Sue Schardt operates Margin Media out of a studio located on the top of Savin Hill in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She oversees productions, and, as executive producer, she draws on her extensive experience working as a creative, socially conscious leader in public media. What many in her professional circles don’t know is that Schardt is also a musician and free-form radio DJ on WMBR-FM based at the Massachusetts Institute. She was among the artists featured in a major exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), “One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art.”

Described by the Los Angeles Times as an “anti-celebrity” show, the exhibition had at its centerpiece paintings by Manny Farber, who died in 2008 and was better known to the public as a movie critic than as an artist. One unique aspect of Farber’s colorful, motion-infused still-life pieces is that they were not presented from a side view, but from above, framed on surfaces such as tabletops.

Interwoven with Farber’s still-life paintings were the works of three dozen artists, including Schardt, who were not so much influenced by him but who shared an affinity and sensibility. This was brought together “sympathetically” by MOCA’s former chief curator, Helen Molesworth, as her “swan song” exhibition. As reviewed in the Times, the end result was “user-friendly yet enjoyably strange.”

For a review of the Manny Farber exhibition, visit
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manny-farber-termite-moca-20181019-story.html