FUSION — FUSION to Broadcast the All Def Movie Awards as...

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FUSION to Broadcast the All Def Movie Awards as Part of Multi-Year Partnership with All Def Digital

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All Def Digital (ADD) and FUSION have agreed to a multi-year strategic partnership to broadcast the All Def Movie Awards. FUSION will be the exclusive broadcast partner and will partner with ADD to build the new awards season franchise. FUSION’s cable network will air a special one-hour broadcast of the All Def Movie Awards on Sunday, February 28 at 7:00 PM and re-air it throughout the night. FUSION and ADD will also feature content from the event across their respective digital and social platforms, including FUSION’s Snapchat Discover channel. The announcement was made by Russell Simmons, founder and Chairman of ADD, and Isaac Lee, CEO of FUSION and Chief News and Digital Officer of Univision. 

“We are thrilled to have a like-minded network partner helping us build what will be an explosive media property and franchise in the All Def Movie Awards,” said Simmons. 

“Elevating underrepresented voices is core to FUSION’s mission and we are thrilled that the All Def Movie Awards will be an event for us to celebrate the diversity that makes our culture so rich,” said FUSION CEO Isaac Lee. “Last year, FUSION partnered with All Def Digital as we sparked a dialogue about our country’s broken juvenile justice system and now we are excited to build on the success of that partnership to provoke another important conversation." 

“The All Def Movie Awards are meant to fill a generational and cultural void – just as the MTV Movie Awards did,” said Sanjay Sharma, President and CEO of ADD. “FUSION is the perfect partner to celebrate the uncelebrated, and use comedy to encourage honest dialogue and action." 

The All Def Movie Awards celebrate the year’s best films in categories that are both traditional and light-hearted. Members of the public are currently voting in two categories, which includes Best Picture contenders BEASTS OF NO NATION, CHI-RAQ, CONCUSSION, CREED, DOPE and STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. Votes can be accepted now online at http://bit.ly/AllDefMA through midnight on February 23. 

Other awards during the show will honor Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director as well as Best Bad Muh F**ka and other often overlooked categories, such as Best Helpful White Person and Best Black Survivor in a Movie. Legendary actor and recording artist Will Smith will be recognized with the ADMA’s first Lifetime Achievement Award, and writer, producer, director and social activist Norman Lear will receive the Vanguard Award for his enduring contributions to entertainment that helped foster an essential dialogue about race and race relations. 

Tony Rock hosts the special which features celebrity guests including Tyrese Gibson, Nick Cannon, Terry Crews, Marlon Wayans, Vivica A. Fox, King Bach, Sannaa Lathan, Regina Hall, Robert Townsend, Bill Duke, Gary Owen, and Jerrod Carmichael, among others to be announced. 

The All Def Movie Awards was partly inspired by the success of ADD’s All Def Comedy Live, the hottest live weekly comedy showcase in stand-up today. HBO is currently developing a series around that weekly event, which routinely draws celebrities and the best new, emerging and established artists working America’s comedy stages. 

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Latest News About Fusion Media Group

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For the latest news and announcements from the Fusion Media Group (FMG) visit http://fmg.kinja.com.

FMG, a division of Univision Communications Inc, serves young, diverse audiences with content that reflects their shared values and passions across platforms and languages. 

FMG’s English-language properties include two cable networks, FUSION TV and UCI’s interest in El Rey Network, as well as a collection of leading digital brands that span a range of categories: technology (Gizmodo), comedy and satire (The Onion, Clickhole), sports (Deadspin), pop culture (The AV Club), music (TrackRecord), lifestyle (Lifehacker), women’s interests (Jezebel), news and social justice (Fusion), African American news and culture (The Root), gaming (Kotaku) and car culture (Jalopnik). 

Other assets include Univision.com, the leading Spanish-language website for U.S. Hispanics; Univision Creator Network, a leading U.S. Hispanic focused network of YouTube channels; as well as Univision Story House, a content development and production unit, which produces original content for UCI’s portfolio of owned networks as well as third party networks and platforms. 

For the fourth quarter of 2016, when FMG included all these properties, FMG reached an average of over 65 million unduplicated unique visitors per month in 2016 across its owned digital properties and 90 million when including its network of partner sites.

FUSION Recognized with Polk Award for Contributions to Historic Panama Papers Investigation

Long Island University (LIU) has recognized FUSION, along with the partner organizations working with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, with a George Polk Award for its reporting on the Panama Papers. The investigation is being recognized in the financial journalism category. 

The Panama Papers marks one of the largest investigations in journalism history with more than 100 media partners and 400 journalists collaborating on the reporting. The papers are a trove of leaked documents from inside Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm that creates offshore companies to hide financial activities of the rich and powerful. A leak to Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung of 11.5 million documents involving 210,000 companies was shared with CPI’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which coordinated investigative work with media partners such as McClatchy, FUSION, The Guardian, Le Monde and others. As one of the few English-language partners in the United States, 

FUSION produced a series of digital reports as well as a one hour documentary “The Naked Truth: Dirty Little Secrets.” That reporting is available here.

The Polk Awards honor and celebrate the impact of courageous and authentic journalism on our national and global discourse.

Fusion Gives Voice to Those Fighting for ‘Justice Now’ as it Commemorates World Day of Social Justice on February 20

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Dedicated Day of Programming will Include Series of Documentaries and Specials as well as Voices from Over 40 Organizations Who Champion Social Justice Issues Everyday

FUSION will commemorate the United Nations’ World Day of Social Justice on Monday, February 20 by recognizing those fighting for social justice issues across the country with a day of dedicated programming entitled ‘Justice Now.’ In addition to special programming, ‘Justice Now’ will highlight and give a voice to individuals from over 40 organizations who work on a range of issues including immigrant rights, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, disability rights, environmental justice, access to education, criminal justice reform, and economic justice. These features will air throughout the day’s programming as well as across the network’s digital and social channels including on Twitter and Facebook.

“Amplifying the voices of the rising mainstream and covering stories that matter to them is core to FUSION’s DNA. At a time where there is so much at stake, it has never been more important that we keep the issues that impact diverse communities and future generations front and center,” said Daniel Eilemberg, President of FUSION. “FUSION is proud to highlight the organizations who share our commitment to sparking dialogue and driving action to help ensure we build a more just and inclusive society for our diverse country.”

“With exclusion and inequality on the rise, we must step up efforts to ensure that all people, without discrimination, are able to access opportunities to improve their lives and those of others,” former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

Special programming will kick-off @ 6AM on FUSION TV (channel listings) with a range of documentaries and news specials. In primetime FUSION will premiere a special from Jorge Ramos, ‘Show Me Something,’ featuring interviews with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and celebrity chef and immigration rights advocate José Andrés. ‘Show Me Something’ will air at 8PM followed by ‘Fusion Presents: Justice Now’ a half-hour series of reports from the diverse voices of FUSION. Additional programming throughout the day will include:

  • Prison Kids: A Crime Against America’s Children | “Prison Kids” follows the stories of kids who grew up behind bars and exposes the devastating consequences incarceration has on their lives, families and communities.
  • Hate Rising | This timely film shows the astonishing rise of hate in America through the lens of award-winning news anchor Jorge Ramos. From the Klu Klux Klan to the so called Alt-Right movement, White Nationalists are emboldened by the recent political rhetoric and growing in numbers.
  • Fightin’ Talk: Muhammad Ali | Muhammad Ali: a champion in the ring and a hero outside it. Guests like Jessie Jackson remember the social justice fighter whose words hit harder than his punches.
  • Number One with a Bullet | Featuring Ice Cube, Mos Def, Prodigy, KRS-ONE and Young Buck among others, this documentary pulls back the curtain on gun violence in urban America.
  • Sex Trafficking: Red Light/Green Light | As nations around the globe attempt to fight sex trafficking, many consider legalizing prostitution. Two filmmakers travel across ten countries to explore the issue and address how can we prevent sexual exploitation before it happens.
  • TASERED: The Israel Hernandez Story | Investigation of the death of an 18 year old Miami artist and the Taser, the ‘non-lethal’ weapon that killed him.
  • The Naked Truth: Standing Rock | Mark Ruffalo speaks about protests at Standing Rock
  • The Naked Truth: Women March in D.C | Women have the been the driving force behind some of the biggest mass demonstrations in history. Now Fusion’s “The Naked Truth” reports from The Women’s March on Washington.

‘Justice Now’ is an extension of ‘FUSION Fights,’ a recently announced cross-platform initiative. ‘FUSION Fights’ builds on the network’s commitment to amplify diverse voices in America and the issues that matter most to them. Throughout the year ‘FUSION Fights’ will also include specific calls to action driven by FUSION’s Rise Up social impact unit.

‘The A.V. Club’ Hosted by John Teti to Premiere March 16 on FUSION TV

FUSION TV today announced that the first season of ‘The A.V. Club’ will premiere March 16 @ 9PM. The weekly show will be hosted by The A.V. Club’s editor-at-large John Teti (photo below) and feature the editorial brains behind the iconic pop culture site sharing their distinct perspective on movies, music, television, and more. 

“Last year, my A.V. Club colleagues and I surveyed the media landscape and reached a troubling conclusion: There simply aren’t enough television shows. To remedy that shortfall, we’re taking matters into our own hands,” Teti said in a post today.

The A.V. Club is an entertainment website for pop-culture obsessives, by pop-culture obsessives. Publishing since 1993, The A.V. Club’s videos, reviews, interviews, and features can all be found at AVClub.com.

‘The A.V. Club’ show is produced by Onion Studios. Alicia Haywood, MaryBeth Searls and James Fleischel serve as executive producers. This marks the first series to premiere on FUSION TV from a Fusion Media Group digital brand; last fall the network aired an election special from the editors of The Onion.

“FMG’s collection of digital brands serve young, savvy, and highly engaged audiences – and now we have a unique opportunity to extend the reach of these leading brands across new platforms,” said Daniel Eilemberg, President of FUSION. “We are excited to bring the passionate, pop culture obsessed voice of The A.V. Club to a broader audience on our FUSION TV network.”

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FUSION and The Root Join Forces with the Peabody Media Center to Celebrate Black History Month

Series Kicks Off Partnership That Brings Together Award-Winning Content and Diverse Voices to Elevate Important National Issues

FUSION, The Root and the Peabody Media Center have launched a content partnership that will bring Peabody’s rich media archive together with FUSION’s diverse voices to explore issues of contemporary social importance; content will appear across TV and digital platforms.

The first project will celebrate Black History Month in a digital video series that revisits African-American history from several perspectives including: an examination of how race has been a defining feature of the struggle for equality and justice for all of Baltimore’s citizens; black power and creative expression in the civil rights era; and historical documentaries that focus on the rich tapestry of what it’s like to be black in America.

The series will be featured throughout February across the digital, social and OTT platforms of FUSION and The Root, the leading news and culture site for African-Americans, and will include contemporary Peabody-winning programming by some of the most creative African-American storytellers working in television today:

  • “Baltimore: Then & Now” | Baltimore has been a case study of race relations in America since the mid-1950s. The Peabody Media Center revisits its archive for content that demonstrates how the city’s conversation about race has evolved over the years, finding that poverty, class and lack of investment in infrastructure have long been key factors in the city’s struggles. See the first installment now on The Root and FUSION.net.
  • “Black Power and Creative Expression” | Both local and national programming provided African-Americans vehicles to express themselves through art and performance. From spoken word performances on productions such as “Tell It Like It Is!” and “Colored People’s Time” to appearances by James Brown and Nina Simone on national TV, the medium captured the voices of a movement.
  • “Storytellers: Giving African-Americans a Voice” | From obscure entries such as Ossie Davis’ “Slavery” to transformative programs such as “Roots,” a look at the role of African-Americans from behind the lens, featuring conversations with Stanley Nelson and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the co-founder and Chairman of The Root.
  • “African-American Narratives Today” | Race remains a central talking point in the U.S. and Peabody continually recognizes stories and storytellers that address the issue in innovative, unexpected ways—now it examines a few examples of voices that are changing and continuing the conversation. Segment includes a special conversation with Key & Peele.

Peabody Spotlight is a digital series produced by the Peabody Media Center at the University of Georgia. Each piece draws from the vast Peabody Awards archives, the third largest repository of audio-visual materials in the United States. The Peabody Spotlight will focus on significant societal issues as represented through the storytelling of Peabody winners and finalists, as well as 75 years of broadcasting’s best programming.

FUSION Nominated for Two GLAAD Media Awards

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FUSION received two GLAAD Award nominations this week. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives. 

FUSION was nominated in the Outstanding Digital Journalism category for two reports, one in English and one in Spanish:

Outstanding Digital Journalism - Multimedia

Outstanding Digital Journalism - Multimedia (Spanish Language)

FUSION’s colleagues at Univision were also nominated in numerous categories. Full list of nominees here.

Univision and Fusion Media Group Launch New ‘Rise Up for Social Change’ Project with American University

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Univision, Fusion Media Group and American University’s Center for Media & Social Change Will Produce Research to Shape and Evaluate the Portrayal of Social Issues in Media

Univision, Fusion Media Group (FMG) and American University’s Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) today announced the launch of a new research-based initiative that will shape and evaluate the depiction of key social issues in entertainment media. The project will inform content produced across Univision’s leading Spanish-language broadcast, radio, and digital platforms as well as FMG’s English-language platforms including FUSION TV, The Root, The Onion, among others.

‘Rise Up for Social Change’ at CMSI builds on Univision and FMG’s commitment to create positive social change through its Rise Up social impact unit and builds on CMSI’s track record in research, production and strategy in storytelling designed for social change. CMSI will serve as a research, strategy and evaluation partner on several of Univision and FMG’s grant-funded pro-social storytelling projects, beginning with the following grant-supported cross-platform storytelling initiatives:

  • Explore the importance of closing the educational achievement gap.
  • Seek to increase awareness of, and access to, affordable healthcare.
  • Provide information about reproductive health issues and resources.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of media and campaign tactics in getting out the vote in the 2016 election.

The project also includes a 12-month graduate fellowship and student team at CMSI and will be housed at American University’s CMSI, an innovation lab and research center that examines the social influence and impact of entertainment and other mediated storytelling.

CMSI director Caty Borum Chattoo will lead the project. Borum Chattoo, an award-winning social-change communication strategist and media producer, is also a full-time professor who serves in an appointment as executive in residence at American University’s School of Communication, within the Public Communication division. Chad Boettcher, Senior Vice President of Social Impact at Univision and FMG and Managing Director of Rise Up, will serve as the project’s liaison with all Univision and FMG brands, producers, and executives.

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“Diversity in Media and Where We Go Next in 2017” – An Event Hosted by Univision and Fusion in the Nation’s Capital

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As we prepared for a major transition of power in Washington DC, Univision and FUSION teamed up to host a critical discussion in our nation’s capital about diversity and representation in media – and most importantly, where we go next.

Held last Wednesday at the Sofitel Lafayette Square, the event featured a diverse group of journalists from FUSION and The Root who also hold a diverse set of roles at their respective organizations. The conversation was moderated by FUSION TV Correspondent and anchor of “Nightline on Fusion” Kimberly Brooks with contributions from Laura Wides-Munoz, VP of Special Projects and Editorial Strategy at FUSION; Dr. Jason Johnson, Politics Editor at The Root; and Joyce Tang, Managing Editor at FUSION.

Kim led an engaging conversation on diversity in media amongst the panelists and audience members, with observations touching on language use, community involvement, hiring practices, the impact of technology, and more over the course of the hour-long interactive discussion.

On the importance of language

The panelists all agreed that language and the way it is used is critical in ensuring diversity in journalism. “Journalism is all about being accessible to readers,” Joyce Tang noted – and that accessibility means representing readership diversity appropriately through coverage, perspective, and voice. Part of journalists’ responsibility in connecting to that readership is also to, “in small ways, update and change the way that we talk about people,” she said.  

Jason Johnson added that a linguistic challenge for the media industry going forward is the “need to identify things for what they are and stay consistent in those definitions.”

On different forms of diversity

Jason recalled when a network reporter covering the Ferguson demonstrations in 2014 had assumed the community to be economically depressed, based on his perception of low real estate rental costs. A better understanding of the socioeconomics of the community – that while Ferguson has impoverished areas, the city itself is not particularly poor – would have led to more accurate, representative reporting, he argued. “Sometimes economic diversity and class diversity is as essentially to how we cover these stories especially when it intersects with race and gender,” he said.

On defining “Authentic America”

Jason lamented the romanticizing of the “Midwesten bubble” by “some, not all” media people in the NYC-DC corridor. “We have to stop pretending,” he said, “that somehow certain parts of America are more authentic than the other … it’s just that different kinds of people live in different kinds of places.”

On journalism hiring and training

In a conversation around how media companies could build better, more representative newsrooms, all panelists stressed the importance of championing diversity, starting at the very top of organizations, and hiring reporters with a wide-range of perspectives, backgrounds, and abilities.

“We’re missing the true story of our country right now,” Laura Wides-Munoz said. She suggested that we need to look “beyond the journalism students and the people who would already be on a path to a career in the media” and to “reach back into our communities and tap the talent that exists, and be committed to help shaping it.” Laura highlighted FUSION’s own efforts to promote this approach through its “Rise Up Be Heard” fellowship program as an example. In partnership with the California Endowment, FUSION empowered students and community leaders with journalism training and a platform to cover and distribute stories that matter locally.

FUSION Announces Winner of 3rd Annual FUSION Doc Challenge at Slamdance Film Festival

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Top 12 Finalists Screen Films at Slamdance, ‘Sanctuary’ Named 2016 Doc Challenge Winner

FUSION announced the winner of the 2016 FUSION Doc Challenge at the Slamdance Film Festival this week. The winning film selected by FUSION was ‘Sanctuary’ which profiled an abandoned church that was given an unexpected second chance; ‘Seeking Shelter’ was recognized with an honorable mention. This year marks the third annual FUSION Doc Challenge, which challenges young filmmakers around the world to create short-form documentaries (4-7 minutes) that revolve around the shared values and passions of diverse youth.

The winner receives a cash prize and the top 12 finalists will see their films distributed across FUSION’s television and digital platforms over the next 18 months. Additionally, the finalists will make their Los Angeles premiere at the Audience Awards Film Festival on Friday, April 7 at the El Portal Theatre. The top 12 films, which premiered this weekend at Slamdance, included:

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