What does it take to build thriving media organizations, accountable to the communities they serve? At a time of global platform monopolies and local newspapers struggling to survive, the future of media will depend on the kinds of business models we design today.

The Media Enterprise Design Lab is a think tank for community-oriented media organizations. It creates space for researchers and practitioners to challenge the conventional norms and explore possibilities offered by neglected histories and possible futures. Drawing on diverse fields such as cultural studies, law, management, media archeology, organizational communication, and sociology, MEDLab holds space and time for better kinds of business.

Programs

  • Collaboration with startups and established organizations alike to imagine and develop transformative business models, ownership structures, and governance practices
  • Research on under-explored strategies for organizational design, with a particular focus on models that support community wealth-building and appropriate accountability
  • Education on media enterprise design through student fellowships and collaborations, together with public events and publications

MEDLab offers consultation services and public events for community-oriented organizations. For more information on these and more, contact us at medlab@colorado.edu.

Personnel

Director

Nathan Schneider (assistant professor, Media Studies) is a journalist who works at the intersections of technology and social change. He co-organized the New School in 2015, Platform Cooperativism, and has been a leader in efforts to develop more democratic business models for the online economy. He is the author of three books, most recently Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy, and he co-edited Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet with Trebor Scholz. His articles have appeared in publications such as Harper’s, The Nation, The Guardian, Vice and The Catholic Worker. Find more information at nathanschneider.info.

Research fellow

Katy Fetters (MA student, Media and Public Engagement) is from Southern California and sometimes wishes she still lived near the beach no matter how charming Boulder is. She once lived out of a car and traveled down south for a good while to experience the allure of Patagonia with her boyfriend. To lend her voice and experience to issues around disability and identity, she started Cerebral Palsy Strong, #cpstrong in 2017. She came to CU to expand her understanding of media and culture to help build upon this work and hopes that it will start to change the way we think about what disability looks like. Katy holds a BA in Liberal Arts from Soka University of America.