How to Make the Internet Care
Should the news be more like "The Newsroom?" Join this CNN-led discussion on the intersection of news and advocacy. We'll look at ways both news orgs and non-profits are working to engage their digital audiences with smack-you-in-the-face stories, powerful Web design and new takes on user participation. The goal? Slowing the constant-scan of Internet users and helping them find, engage with and participate in stories that really matter. This panel includes experts from CNN, Change.org, The Enough Project and the Tampa Bay Times, who have used crowdsourcing to combat genocide, fight modern slavery -- and make people care about 150-year-old Thoreau essays. We'll look at what works and what doesn't, and will offer tips on creating and spreading stories that are so interesting that Internet users have to respond.
Presenters
Amanda is a Campaigns Director at Change.org, the largest petition platform in the world, where she leads a team of campaigners and supports grassroots campaigns for social change in the U.S. Amanda has helped more than 100 people win their campaigns on Change.org and has specialized in issues of international human rights, gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, workers’ rights, and corporate social responsibility. Amanda’s goal is to revolutionize the industry of social good by harnessing the power of technology to empower citizens around the world to break down and shift traditional power structure.
Immediately prior to joining Change.org, Amanda worked with the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human Rights, where she managed projects on human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, genocide and mass atrocities, LGBT rights, and other human rights issues. She has worked for over a decade to fight modern-day slavery and related forms of exploitation and to empower communities to seek rights and protections for their most vulnerable workers and members.
Amanda holds a master’s degree from the American University School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from Elon University. A self-professed geek, in her spare time, Amanda enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy literature, watching cult tv, and conducting science experiments in her kitchen.
Ben is an award-winning enterprise reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and founder of the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com. He's working on his first book about Emma Gatewood, the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, which will be published by Chicago Review Press in 2013.
I'm a columnist for CNN.com, writing about human rights and social change issues.
Director of Communications for the Enough Project and the Satellite Sentinel Project -- the world's first open-source early warning system for human rights and human security.
Sunday, March 10
