Dear This Week in Misinformation reader,
After a few months of being limited to the written word last year, Prism started experimenting with audio content by hosting “Misinfo Meetups” with expert guests in live Twitter Spaces chats. The engagement from those trial runs was fantastic and made me more optimistic than ever about my vision for a multi-modal, all-formats media enterprise dedicated to helping people understand what is happening with misinformation in America. “We can really do this,” I thought.
With some encouragement from friends and even casual acquaintances, I decided to develop an extended treatment of misinformation and January 6th—why we are struggling to agree on what happened, and how it has changed our politics and society—as a “voice essay.” Just me talking through analysis of the events of those weeks and all the fake stuff that cropped up around them, plus weaving in some storytelling to make the key points stick. This is a timely topic about which I have much to say, and I think those aspects will come through when you listen.
I’m really excited to get the Prism Metanews Guide to January 6th out to the world, next month. If it goes well, I’ll tackle other topics with guides on COVID, climate change, and America’s relationship with the rest of the world. If it succeeds in reaching a wide audience with anti-misinformation content, that itself will be a game-changer for our work.
As we got closer to launch, though, I realized I would need help from outside to do this right. The biggest obstacle is that my skill set doesn’t extend to sound design or audiovisual editing. I’m an amateur at best! So I pinged my network, got recommendations for professionals, and solicited quotes for the audiovisual work.
I’ve gone ahead and produced the body of the voice essay out of pocket. What I couldn’t make happen on my own, however, was the cost of the trailer. This one minute of polish and persuasion is arguably more important than the three hours’ worth of the essay itself! But I need to ask your help to make it happen.
I’ve created a project page on GoFundMe to make it easy to join us in this launch. It has details about what funds raised will be used for, and I’m also happy to answer questions you have (email works both ways!) or share a preview of the audio essay content with anyone who is curious. Even if you can’t donate, I really hope you’ll reach out so I can hear what you think of this project.
My sincere thanks go to the several Prism supporters who have stepped up and gotten us about halfway toward the target for this project as of this writing. That is huge already! I appreciate every contribution, and you will feel awesome for helping our cause grow into the next phase that this voice essay represents.
For contributors who will allow it, I will include a message of thanks for you by name in the voice track of the essay’s conclusion.
Yours in anti-misinformation,
Kevin