There is power in naming things, no doubt about it, which is why the Paley Center team and I have finally hit upon a name for ourselves and our network that we find actually fits: mediastes.
 
Mediastes consume media strategically and, okay we admit it, a bit ravenously. We adapt, engage, and interact with new technologies and platforms, unafraid to be first adopters. We aren’t naïve, but we are hopeful about the future of media and how it will continue to inform our world and shape our culture.  
 
After all, film enthusiasts call themselves CINEASTES. Why shouldn’t we have a short hand?
 
So mediastes, this and all the rest of the content available here on paleycenter.org, and in both our centers in New York and Los Angeles is especially for you.

From time to time, I’ll use this space to share thoughts about media and its social, cultural, and political significance, plus give you the latest on the insider conversations that happen on stage and off at the Paley Centers.

And sometimes, like today, I’ll introduce new initiatives.  
 
She’s Making Media is a new series of programs that puts a slightly different lens on the subject of women’s role in media. We are going to celebrate, curate, and build a special collection (and a new television series) with women who are making media for a very specific purpose.

In some ways, this is an evolution of our She Made It initiative, which was launched in 2006 with the objective of selecting fifty women a year whose work in radio, television, and advertising broke new ground. For three years, a committee of their peers inducted producers, writers, journalists, actors, and executives who had made a big difference in the media industry and whose work we wanted to ensure would be featured in the Paley Center archives. The result is a vibrant She Made It collection, which you can view at the Paley Center with highlights available here.  We have plans to continue this curation of these trailblazers with a focus on the women who are creating, designing, and blazing new “trails” in technology and social media. More on that a bit later.

We launched the first of our She’s Making Media programs on June 1 with playwright, performer, artist, and activist Eve Ensler.  She is making media that makes the world safer for women and girls. From her productions of the groundbreaking play, The Vagina Monologues (5000 performances a year in 140 countries raising 80 million dollars to end violence against women and girls) to her television documentaries, books and social media campaigns, Eve and V-DAY, the organization she built, are inspiring examples of making media that matters and, in fact, changes lives. My hour interview with Eve, featuring excerpts from the plays and films, will be posted on Paley Center’s video section within the next couple of weeks and an edited version will be part of a new TV series, network to be announced later.
 

Tonight, June 6, the second program in the She’s Making Media series will  take place with Marlo Thomas. Read more on what Marlo’s been up to here. 


On June 15 in Los Angeles, Jane Fonda will talk about her broad and ever-expanding use of media to make girls and women’s lives better.

And Glenn Close will be our She’s Making Media guest on June 27 in New York. We’ll talk about her new movie, her work on the TV series Damages, and how the media she makes challenges conventional wisdom.

Won’t you join us?