United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry

09/24/2026

What a day! We can’t believe the 44th Annual Parker Lecture & Awards Luncheon was two weeks ago.

Read the full recap on the blog: https://buff.ly/nuosoHf
View clips from the event: https://buff.ly/1JEBW1D

09/23/2026

We’ve teamed up with the United Church of Christ Environmental Justice Ministries to take a hard look at AI data centers. These facilities are draining local water supplies, pulling huge amounts of power from community grids, and in some cases getting approved through deals hidden behind non-disclosure agreements. Our study circle is researching the impacts and hearing from UCC members who are seeing this play out where they live.

Learn more:

We've teamed up with the United Church of Christ Environmental Justice Ministries to take a hard look at AI data centers.

09/22/2026

The Universal Service Fund pays for Lifeline, E-Rate, and rural broadband, and Congress is deciding how to change its funding structure. We joined The National Urban League and more than 25 organizations to tell the bipartisan working group that the companies profiting from the internet economy should contribute, rather than shifting costs onto families who already can’t afford broadband.

The Universal Service Fund pays for Lifeline, E-Rate, and rural broadband, and Congress is deciding how to change its funding structure.

09/21/2026

Jesus calls us in Matthew 25:35-40 to visit and care for people in prison. We can’t fulfill that calling if families are priced out of connection.

Incarcerated people at a Kentucky prison are being capped at four 15-minute calls a day while corporations profit from every minute.

More from Prism:

Kentucky prisons have restricted incarcerated people’s access to tablet video and phone calls, citing security concerns.

09/20/2026

Media justice means the media has a responsibility to the people it covers. In Mexico, a WACC - Global-supported project built codes of ethics for covering gender-based violence, shaped by the families of victims and the journalists who report on them.

11 Sep 2026 Project develops tools for ethical, rights-based media coverage of violence against women Posted at 19:46h in Gender, News, One Year Projects by Terri R. Miller A WACC-supported project in Mexico has placed media’s social responsibility for gender-sensitive reporting – particularly o...

09/19/2026

At our Parker Lecture last week, Dr. Ruha Benjamin highlighted the work of Kanaka ʻŌiwi scientist Keolu Fox and his team, who are building small, renewable-powered computing systems that keep data and decision-making in community hands.

In this op-ed, Fox and his colleagues make the wider case for why AI can support livelihoods, prosperity, and culture in Hawaiʻi, but only if island communities have a real say in how it’s built.

AI can support livelihoods, prosperity and culture, but only if island communities have a real say in how it is built and governed.

09/18/2026

We joined The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and seven other organizations to oppose a provision in the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that would let financial firms test AI systems on real people while exempting them from fair lending and fair housing laws.

These experiments would harm real people. So the Senate rejected it earlier this week!

READ: https://buff.ly/Z1L9LpK

09/15/2026

When the FCC threatens a network until it pulls a candidate interview off the air, that’s government censorship.

We have been holding the FCC accountable since 1959, when our founder went into the Jim Crow South to force it to act against television stations that were ignoring the civil rights movement.

We know what this looks like, and we won’t stop fighting back.

Jimmy Kimmel says the federal agency regulating television has "threatened" his show. An interview with James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for U.S.

09/14/2026

Tech industry leaders want you to believe democracy is outdated software. At the 44th Parker Lecture yesterday, Dr. Ruha Benjamin told them they’re wrong and showed us what fighting back looks like.

Richard Prince received the Parker Award after spending decades holding the news industry accountable on race. His numbers are damning: the Black press has lost 80% of its revenue since the backlash against DEI intensified, and Black journalists hold roughly the same share of newsroom jobs as they did 50 years ago.

Read our full recap:

Recapping the 44th Annual Parker Lecture & Awards Luncheon

09/12/2026

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown tonight, and we want to wish our Jewish friends, neighbors, and partners in the work of justice a sweet and peaceful new year.

Shana tova!