If you don’t know Cara Lisa Powers, Founder of By Any Media Necessary and Co-Director of Press Pass TV, then you will – and you should. Cara’s passion for accessible, fair and transparent media is undeniable; and she’s holding others accountable for their actions. She’s not just forcing change, but is a force!

As news and information is shared with the public through more community centric channels, traditional “big” media is walking a fine line. While some are openly collaborating with community media and citizen journalists, others are yet to do so.

The result: an unfortunate portrayal of situations and communities as well as lacking credits to the appropriate (and original) sources of reporting. The Boston Globe is guilty of this and this issue cropped up again past this week when NBC reported a story that had been previously broken by Press Pass TV; NBC Steals story from Kids.

Part of the mission here at Press Pass TV is to use the news as a source of empowerment, community building and to inspire people to action. We were happy to feature Darrin Howell, Cassie Grice and their neighbors in their dialogue about solutions to keep their children and their neighborhood safe. The story featured here on Channel 7 does none of those things, and instead perpetuates a lot of the hopelessness and fear we see young people already feeling about their communities.

As literacy, news and access to information shifts daily, Cara works to build a space that ensures there are opportunities to empower others to better leverage media to advocate, educate and promote social change for their communities and themselves.

Cara’s passion and commitment is an inspiration – she makes it known that we’re not simply going to sit back and let media and communities be exploited, but rather continue to strive (and demand) fair collaboration, transparency and change!

Learn more about Cara Lisa Powers, By Any Media Neceassary and Press Pass TV.