Who We Are

ActionMedia provides training, research, and consultation services on issue framing and strategic communication to people working for positive social change.

ActionMedia was founded in 1994 by Dick Brooks and Michael Goldberg, who brought three decades of journalism and broadcast management experience and insights.  They had been working behind the scenes to help a small Chippewa Reservation fight an Exxon metallic-sulfide mining project.  In that battle they saw first hand that advocates – armed with solid facts, great ideas, and the best of intentions – were unable to communicate effectively outside small circles of like-minded experts and supporters. People tend to overestimate the value of the media they have the least access to, such as national newspapers and broadcasts, and underestimate the power of the media they have the most control over – their own voices.

At ActionMedia, we apply our experience in journalism and social activism. Through workshops, consultation, media analysis, focus group research, interviews and close readings, we ask deceptively simple questions, to increase the clarity and power of communications for action. We learn from our clients and colleagues, and contribute to their ability to say what they mean.