Copaganda Clapback is a project supporting abolitionist movements in sowing narrative power and building relationships between journalists and organizers across the country. Co-created alongside journalists, independent media makers, organizers, and researchers, Copaganda Clapback filled the gaps of transforming what we know about media and policing into actionable learnings for our movement. Today we are releasing a video celebrating this work highlighting the people who shaped it:
Brandi Collins-Dexter, Research Fellow with the Shorenstein Center on Media, Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Nadia Sharaawi, independent media maker, journalist, and organizer working as a Production Coordinator with Line Break Media
Rumsha Sajid, National Field Organizer with MediaJustice
Below are facts about what Copaganda Clapback accomplished since May 2023:
Copaganda Clapback is a resource that reached our MediaJustice community globally and was downloaded over 500 times.
MediaJustice’s Field Organizer Rumsha Sajid facilitated spaces with over 300 people with Copaganda Clapback through attendance at our national webinars, trainings, and in-person workshops.
MediaJustice co-authored the curriculum with 20 journalists, organizers, youth radio hosts, researchers, and media makers across the country from various organizations, including:
- Line Break Media
- Generation Justice
- CreatTV San Jose
- 18 Million Rising
- Harvard Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Interviewed 11 members of the MediaJustice Network in 2022 to shape MediaJustice’s approach to disinformation and policing.
Debunked 9 common copaganda narratives as both narrative and action.
Field Organizer Rumsha Sajid interviewed Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition on their copwatch tool called Watch the Watchers in a webinar hosted by MayFirst Movement Technology.
In addition to national webinars, we hosted 7 workshops virtually and in-person in 3 cities:
- San Jose, CA
- Albuquerque, NM
- Minneapolis, MN
Created 6 activities and a facilitator’s guide that you can use now in your community to fight back against copaganda.
Co-authored case studies on 6 different topics shaped by copaganda narratives identified by local communities members and studied by researchers, including:
- Deconstructing falsified crime waves by Walgreens to unveiling the relationships local police in the Bay Area
- NextDoor app’s complicity in sewing harmful narratives about safety in the Bay Area
- Reality TV’s relationships with local police in Albuquerque
- White supremacist symbols used by police in Albuquerque
- Stop Asian Hate and its complicity with policing, anti-Black racism, and criminalization
- Journalists riding along in police cars in Minneapolis
We coordinated, facilitated, and co-hosted these trainings in our values of community-centered partnership, abolition, and centering the voices of those who are most marginalized by copaganda. We are proud to host these workshops with adherence to MediaJustice’s commitment to disability justice by requiring covid-19 testing and masking at all our in-person convenings.
Thank you to our collaborators across the field and movement in shaping Copaganda Clapback. We are honored to have listened to your stories. We are grateful to share the strategies our communities are using across the country in fighting back against copaganda.
