Flying into 2019!!

Happy December from the team at Spaceship Media. We’re so grateful to our extended community, within journalism and without! Your support has been invaluable in so many ways, large and small, philosophical and technical. We are truly lucky to be part of such a rich international community of those working hard to find new ways to support dialogue, restore trust in journalism, reduce polarization and build communities. We would not be able to do our work without so many game collaborators and supporters. We all rise together. xo

The Many in Review: Lessons in Listening

After the midterms, we wound down The Many, Spaceship’s national conversation of women across social and political fault lines (the group was one-third self-identified Democrats, one third Republican and one-third independents). For a bit more about the project, check out this piece by Christine Schmidt of Harvard’s Nieman Lab. “When I spoke with Spaceship Media’s cofounders a year ago, they were about to embark on creating arguably the most ambitious news-centric Facebook group in existence.” The full story is here and there’s more about the project on Spaceship’s site here.

Curious what it was like behind the scenes as a moderator for The Many? Anahita Mukherji interviewed Spaceship moderators and participants to get their take on moderation in The Many — as well as the offline impact of the experience. Her piece, “Mending Democracy, One Euphemism at a Time,” is here.

Talking about Talking about Talking

Do you dream about having calm, pleasant political conversations with family and friends this holiday season? Maybe you fantasize about being able to address, rather than avoid, topics that matter to you? Talking About Talking may be the right place for you! Created and moderated by Spaceship Media, Talking About Talking is a Facebook group for women who have an interest in finding ways to communicate more effectively. The group is here. If you want to join, make sure to answer the questions! We look forward to hearing from you.     

A Marvelous Collaborator

We wish a special congratulations to the kind, generous, intelligent Sandi Lee who is retiring from her tenure as Deputy Director at the Birmingham Public Library. Sandi has been an invaluable part of our work over the past year, heading up an incredibly talented team of librarians who supported our conversations in The Many with their research. We are also excited to wish one member of that team a big congratulations: Mary Beth Newbill, who will be replacing Sandi as Deputy Director! We are so thankful to the Birmingham Public Library for all their hard work and their commitment to rebuilding democracy with us. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the library and a chance to work with Mary Beth and the rest of the team in the future. We wish Sandi and Mary Beth all the best!