The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has donated $15,000 to the Journalism That Matters nonprofit organization to support “Create or Die 2” (http://www.createordie2.org), a design | build | pitch event in Greensboro on June 2-5.
Other major sponsors for the event include the Elon University School of Communications, the Elon University Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
The four-day event brings together journalists, technologists, funders, venture and angel investors and community activists to create journalism innovations for diverse and underrepresented/underserved communities.
“The goal of the Greensboro gathering is to spur innovation in media content, platforms, distribution, participation and structures,” said Dr. Michelle Ferrier, associate professor at Elon University and chief initiator for the gatherings.
“We want to imagine how to better serve diverse communities with the technology and media options now available,” she said.
Three North Carolina entrepreneurship incubators have pledged start-up packages to region-based companies that develop out of Journalism That Matters “Create or Die 2″ to be held in Greensboro, NC from June 2-5, 2011.
The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship based in Greensboro, the Wake Forest University Babcock-Demon Incubator in Winston-Salem and the Center for Entrepreneurial Development in Durham have all pledged shared-office space, mentoring, networking and interns where possible to help launch the journalism start-ups from the gathering.
Other event partners include the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, The G. W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, the Media Giraffe Project, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists among others.
The Mott Foundation, established in 1926 by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy based in Flint, Michigan committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society.
For more information about Create or Die 2, visit www.createordie2.org.