Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen at SipConnect2015 digital media conference
MIAMI, Florida (June 24, 2015)—The president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Alberto Ibargüen, today formally opened the SipConnect2015 Hemispheric Conference on Digital Media, declaring that a “change in mindset” is the biggest challenge remaining to be met in the application of new information platforms.
“The biggest change in the digital era is that which requires a new way of thinking,” declared Ibargüen, former editor of The Miami Herald and member of the American Academy of Arts and Science.
The foundation that Ibargüen directs, based in Miami, this year celebrates the 75th anniversary of its launch. Over the last 10 years it has donated $235 million in support for various projects of innovation of journalism and the arts.
Ibargüen drew a parallel between how artistic creativity serves as an example in innovation and boldness in modern journalism. “(Piet) Mondrian through his painting promoted reconciliation between what is individual and what is collective: scenes of primary colors and straight horizontal and vertical lines…. These are essential themes for transformative philanthropy,” he added.
In this regard Ibargüen recalled that the most successful Internet companies, Google and Facebook, among many others, are distinguished by being “generous,” for conceding power and service to their users who, in response, return in large numbers.
Finally, the Knight Foundation president gave priority to the “engagement” of digital media with their audiences, making them participants not only in content but also in its own production.
In that regard he announced that his Foundation is working with major United States media firms to create more advanced platforms that enable an ordered and reliable participation in the public debate that information and digital content is giving rise to.
For his part the editor of the Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy, Fabricio Altamirano, who introduced Ibargüen, declared that “for years he has been indicating the path not only to new businesses or new ways of creating and distributing content for digital platforms, but above all he has made us be aware that the democratizing power of the Internet should be our central concern.”
“He has shown us,” added Altamirano, “that the digital change is based not only on social media or smart phones but on the unique technological opportunity to build better, more informed and more audacious societies in the pursuit of the common good.”
IAPA Executive Director Ricardo Trotti stressed the strategic importance that the SipConnect2015 conference has for the hemispheric media organization, which for more than 60 years has worked in defense of freedom of the press and of expression. “We have to promote digital change in order to be sure that those freedoms will always continue to be defended in the new media environments,” Trotti declared.
The SipConnect opening panel discussion was made up of the chairman of the board of the IAPA Press Institute, Matthew Sanders of Deseret Digital News, Salt Lake City, Utah; Press Institute President Silvia Miró Quesada of El Comercio, Lima, Peru, and IAPA Internet Committee Chairman Ernesto Kraiselburd of El Día, La Plata, Argentina.
MIAMI, Florida (June 24, 2015)—The president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Alberto Ibargüen, today formally opened the SipConnect2015 Hemispheric Conference on Digital Media, declaring that a “change in mindset” is the biggest challenge remaining to be met in the application of new information platforms.
“The biggest change in the digital era is that which requires a new way of thinking,” declared Ibargüen, former editor of The Miami Herald and member of the American Academy of Arts and Science.
The foundation that Ibargüen directs, based in Miami, this year celebrates the 75th anniversary of its launch. Over the last 10 years it has donated $235 million in support for various projects of innovation of journalism and the arts.
Ibargüen drew a parallel between how artistic creativity serves as an example in innovation and boldness in modern journalism. “(Piet) Mondrian through his painting promoted reconciliation between what is individual and what is collective: scenes of primary colors and straight horizontal and vertical lines…. These are essential themes for transformative philanthropy,” he added.
In this regard Ibargüen recalled that the most successful Internet companies, Google and Facebook, among many others, are distinguished by being “generous,” for conceding power and service to their users who, in response, return in large numbers.
Finally, the Knight Foundation president gave priority to the “engagement” of digital media with their audiences, making them participants not only in content but also in its own production.
In that regard he announced that his Foundation is working with major United States media firms to create more advanced platforms that enable an ordered and reliable participation in the public debate that information and digital content is giving rise to.
For his part the editor of the Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy, Fabricio Altamirano, who introduced Ibargüen, declared that “for years he has been indicating the path not only to new businesses or new ways of creating and distributing content for digital platforms, but above all he has made us be aware that the democratizing power of the Internet should be our central concern.”
“He has shown us,” added Altamirano, “that the digital change is based not only on social media or smart phones but on the unique technological opportunity to build better, more informed and more audacious societies in the pursuit of the common good.”
IAPA Executive Director Ricardo Trotti stressed the strategic importance that the SipConnect2015 conference has for the hemispheric media organization, which for more than 60 years has worked in defense of freedom of the press and of expression. “We have to promote digital change in order to be sure that those freedoms will always continue to be defended in the new media environments,” Trotti declared.
The SipConnect opening panel discussion was made up of the chairman of the board of the IAPA Press Institute, Matthew Sanders of Deseret Digital News, Salt Lake City, Utah; Press Institute President Silvia Miró Quesada of El Comercio, Lima, Peru, and IAPA Internet Committee Chairman Ernesto Kraiselburd of El Día, La Plata, Argentina.