We need your input + feedback

A couple of days ago, I shared an update on MEDIA INDIGENA's progress. It took the form of a mini-podcast (a transcript of which you can find below.)

Towards the end, I mentioned that we'd soon send out a survey, one meant just for you, our podcast sustainers. Well, it's now ready to go, eager to record your responses. (If you don't see the link elsewhere in this post, you can see it here: http://bit.ly/MIquestions 

Unless you want us to follow up later, your answers are anonymous by default. We encourage you to be honest and frank. Thank you in advance for setting aside the time to formulate and share your thoughts about the podcast: we can't wait to read them.

:) Rick Harp MI Host/Producer 

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TRANSCRIPT: Sustainers Update #1

Tân’si, nitotemak: Hello, friends, how are you? This is Rick, here with a brief, patrons-only message of gratitude for your support of MEDIA INDIGENA, including a rundown of what your recurring support has enabled. In that very real sense, the success of MEDIA INDIGENA is as much your success as it ours. So what have you and I accomplished together? Well, beyond 45 consecutive episodes of the weekly podcast (a feat unto itself), for me, the biggie is the new and improved mediaindigena.com website, modernized for the smartphone era. Now the site works on all devices: iPhones, Androids, desktops, tablets, you name it. The new site design also displays our audio content more prominently and conveniently: now you can see it, and play it right from the main page. (Of course, you can still access the over 300 articles written by our original 10 contributors. But our shift to audio doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned the written word. Far from it, in fact: take Robert Jago’s recent thinkpiece, “Their Country, Our Land: Why Indigenous peoples have a problem with #Canada150.”) Again, there was a price tag that went with the time, labour and skill involved in changing the site’s feel and functionality, resources we do not possess in-house. Your monthly contributions—your investment—made this happen, and, because of you, these changes will enable more people to discover and enjoy the podcast. Now, as you may recall, MEDIA INDIGENA’s next big monthly crowdfunding milestone is $500, the point at which revenues roughly equal the bare-bones production and distribution costs. As of January 15, 2017—the date of this recording—we sit at just over $400 a month thanks to 50-plus sustainers. I gotta say, 45 episodes into things, it’s exciting to finally see that break-even point on the horizon. Largely because it means there are a growing number of people out there who, like us, believe in what MEDIA INDIGENA is about, and literally value the time and energy of those who make it happen. And we’re only getting started. These first 45 weeks (seven shy of exactly one year!) have been mainly about building a foundation. Just learning how to do this thing called podcasting and all the associated architecture and administration that needs to happen behind the scenes for this program to exist and persist. Going forward, we want to take serious steps toward the fuller realization of the larger vision driving MEDIA INDIGENA. Allow me to quote our quasi-manifesto posted on the website: “From day one, MEDIA INDIGENA’s raison d’etre has been to inspire and conspire with those sharing our passion for advancing the well-being of Indigenous peoples. Over the months to follow, our ambition is to augment the podcast with a series of face-to-face MEDIA INDIGENA events. In the same way we create and curate content on our site and social media, we intend to organize or jointly sponsor an ongoing series of quality, Indigenous-oriented events. We also seek to supplement the experiential with the more material: as fans of Indigenous creative expression, we want to both highlight the works of others and contribute our own, from apparel to art to food and beyond.” But, again, we alone cannot even hope to make this happen. Which is kinda the point, right? To catalyze an active community, not amass passive consumers of content. To help us get there, we need your help: more specifically, your feedback and input. In the coming while, we’ll be sending you a link to a survey. A special set of questions designed just for podcast sustainers. You’ll be asked to rate the quality of what we’re doing now, and to rate ideas we’re exploring for the future. It’s your chance to shape the direction of the program even further. None of the questions are mandatory, and you’ll be happy to know the only personal data we’ll be mining is where you live. That said, it will be anonymous, so please be honest, be frank with us. But, if you prefer we follow up with you directly about your feedback, let us know. We’d be happy to do so. Our intent is to share the results (in aggregate form only) at a later date. Alright, this so-called brief message is on the verge of being anything but. So let me sign off with renewed appreciation for your investment in independent Indigenous media, for your faith in me, and I hope we will continue to grow the show together. I also want to take this final moment to thank my long-suffering family, the two amazing iskwewak who put up with my many hours of nonsense so that this show can happen every week. Kininâskom’tinâwaw. Thank you all. Ekosi.