Jack Myers of MediaVillage: 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society
Recognizing, acknowledging, and inducting those who successfully established a diversity initiative within their own organization.
As part of our series about ‘5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and Equitable Society’ I had the pleasure to interview Jack Myers.
Jack Myers, founder of MediaVillage and AdvancingDiversity.org, is the nation’s best-known practicing media ecologist. Renowned for his entrepreneurial leadership in media industry innovation focused on growth, Myers has been recognized with the Excellence in Education Award for his outstanding contributions to the industry by GLEF (Global Forum on Education & Learning). MediaVillage’s mission is to advance media industry growth through investments in diversity and education, highlighted by the industry’s first-ever Advancing Diversity Week taking place September 20–23, culminating with the 4th annual Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors Induction Experience. Prior to launching MediaVillage in 2009, the author of multiple books, built a leading consulting firm that led strategic innovation for more than 200 media, advertising, and marketing clients. He began his career with ABC Radio, CBS Television and Metromedia Outdoor.
Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up in Utica, New York in an Italian neighborhood. Typically, being the only Jew or one of two Jews in school, it gave me a sense of being “other” at a very early age.
My parents really didn’t believe in television, so my earliest media memories are sitting on the living room floor in front of a big console radio, listening to early radio shows. At nine years old, I built a crystal radio and hung an antenna outside my house, so that I could pick up radio stations from Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, and some of the first rock and roll stations.
When my parents finally had a TV, I was seven years old. I remember Steve Allen; the start of the Today Show; so, I experienced the transition from radio to television. You couldn’t get me away from the TV; I would fall asleep with it on, it was just my constant companion.
In high school I started a speech club and was the announcer; I wanted to be a DJ. My father drove me to Syracuse to get my third-degree FCC license, which you needed to be on the air. Most of my memories around childhood relate to TV and radio. And when I got to college, I was extremely active in the campus radio station. I majored in radio and television, as it was just always the passion; always what I loved.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business,” not only made an impact on me, but my Master’s program was in media ecology. Neil Postman was the founder of media ecology and my mentor.
Also Marshall McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage” and “The Global Village,” based on which my company, MediaVillage, was named. It all dates to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” They’re interconnected and intertwined in what goes on in my brain.
“Amusing Ourselves to Death,” which was written in the early 1980s, is basically a warning. Neil Postman not only saw media as it was at the time in the ’80s, but he anticipated that in the global village of media, which Marshall McLuhan also anticipated, we will all be interconnected, and the world will be one from a communications point of view. Neil, Aldous Huxley and Marshall McLuhan all saw the downside of that from a potential global totalitarianism point of view (“Brave New World”). Postman anticipated public discourse in the age of show business. People thought it was about Ronald Reagan; it was about Donald Trump — — 40 years before Donald Trump.
In fact, I did a Think Tank about Donald Trump and what Neil Postman would say about how to defeat him. When it was originally written in 1985, it really impacted me. He talks about Aldous Huxley; and how Aldous Huxley believed with H.G. Wells, that we were in a race between education and disaster. The final paragraph in Postman’s book he wrote continuously about the necessity of our understanding of the politics and epistemology of media. For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in “Brave New World” was not that they were laughing instead of thinking. He was saying that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking. The notes I wrote in the book in 1985 still ring true today: “With data dependence, we stop thinking. We activate thinking by building communities through ideas and education.”
I also experienced, in my career, a transition from AM-only to AM/FM (at ABC-FM), from broadcast to cable (at CBS-TV and UTV), and to the Internet (as a consultant).Today the communications industry is facing more than a transition or even transformation. It is a metamorphosis.
MediaVillage is a collective of 90 companies, organizations and thought leaders focused on a rising tide mode through B2B marketing. Our model transforms B2B communications from traditional models to education via online learning, with an emphasis on building and retaining a diverse workforce. We create communities and connections through ideas and education. “Amusing Ourselves to Death” has been at the foundation of my career. We have moved into a data dependent world. A world, especially in media, where data and algorithms are driving decisions. We’ve moved away from relationships and away from communities. People have stopped thinking and they’ve started acting based on algorithms; based on what the computer tells them they should be doing. They are no longer required to think. So, the challenge is how do you reconnect people. And the answer is to restart their thinking through ideas and education.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“When you’ve made up your mind, no use lagging behind; go ahead and no relenting, let your youth have free reign, it won’t come again, so be bold and no repenting.” It was written by one of the most ubiquitous writers of all times.” Anonymous.
The reality is that I still act on that. I move forward aggressively and fairly quickly with ideas; some of which are good, some of which are not. I’m enthusiastic about what I believe in and what I’m committed to, and I think it starts with that quote.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
You know I had a conversation with one of our younger team members who’s here in an age when the average first job is nine months. This is her first job and she’s been with us 28 months.
I think the way that she and I work together defines my philosophy of leadership, which number one is being clear about what my passions are, what my commitments are, what my expectations are, what my goals are. I’ve been overly transparent to my team members, because I believe that they are along for the journey. They should know what’s happening, not only in their day to day and in the materials that they see developed or presented, but they should be clear what’s on my mind. Beyond that it’s listening to hear what their goals are; what’s on their minds.
My colleague joined us with one set of responsibilities and over the course or her job it evolved dramatically. Today, 100% of her job is dedicated to what was maybe 5% of her job when she started, which is video production. And that’s because I kept listening to her ambitions and goals, and we found the path together to connect them with my own.
Whether it’s her or whether it’s younger team members or those who are further towards the final decades of their careers, it’s the same principle of understanding connecting our respective goals and objectives.
As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?
I do my homework but not too much homework; I’m much more top line. In fact, that’s reflected in the launch of www.MeetingPrep.com, which is designed around 10-minute knowledge modules. The reality in today’s business world; many of us don’t have more than 10 or 15 minutes to prepare for meetings.
As far as critical meetings, when I was presenting my The Future of Men talk at TEDWomen, it was intense. I’ve never been good at memorization. Not only did I have to memorize it, but I had 70 slides that were professionally produced; I had to hit every cue, I could not miss a word. I prepared by separating the 14-minute talk into pods, each independent and each keyed to trigger words. Preparing for a meeting is knowing what it is you want to achieve and organizing goals to be discussed independently but to weave together into a full story. It’s important to understand the audience to be responsive. But absolutely do not memorize the presentation.
In today’s business world, you’ve got to be able to move in many, many different directions and have a very wide spectrum of knowledge. It’s more important to have that wide spectrum of knowledge about the conversation or the presentation.
The United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This is of course a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on how this crisis inexorably evolved to the boiling point that it’s at now?
We’re seeing it in White nationalism; underlying the reality of the depth of White nationalism is a White privilege that society, that culture has elevated as a human priority. It’s reflected in the 1%; it’s reflected in our laws; it’s reflected in our policing; it’s reflected in every single part of our culture, society, our business world. And it’s not a matter of changing some rules, or introducing some new hiring practices, because we’ve been trying to do that for years unsuccessfully. Until we come to terms with White privilege, we’re going to continue to fail in achieving the goals that many of us who are white and privileged would like to break down.
Can you tell our readers it a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote diversity inclusion?
It is important to know the evolution of that. You look back at my career and there are probably more women that I’ve been responsible for advancing in their careers than the vast majority of executives in the industry. Especially looking back at my CBS career and my ABC career, women were always at the forefront of my hiring priority. But the AdvancingDiversity.org initiatives evolved out of my media ecology background and understanding the impact of media on culture, society, and business and vice versa. When the Internet began in 1993 and 1998, I started doing research on the cultural impact of the Internet. In 2008 I wrote “Hooked Up: A New Generation Surprising Take on Sex, Politics, and Saving the World,” which recognized the emergence of women as the dominant force in this next generation.
That led me to launch WomenAdvancing.org, because there was no institutional organization in the media and advertising industry to welcome the new generation and not just mentor them but recognize them as mentors for us. WomenAdvancing.org was started as Women in Media Mentoring Initiative, for senior women with more junior women coming together for dual mentorship. I believe that was one of the very first dual mentoring initiatives.
Why is it important for business to have a diverse executive team?
It’s important to have a diverse culture but having a diverse executive team without a diverse culture is counterintuitive. So, if you want to inspire a diverse culture within your organization to reflect society, to reflect your customer base, you must have a diverse executive team. Otherwise, there is no sense of upward mobility in the organization.
Five steps we must take to create an inclusive representative and equitable society; share a story or example.
The story is the launch of AdvancingDiversity.org and the principles that AdvancingDiversity.org was built on:
#1: Recognizing, acknowledging, and inducting those who successfully established a diversity initiative within their own organization.
#2: Evangelizing that success throughout the organization to spreading it across the organization.
#3: Evangelizing the model outside the organization to the industry.
#4: Demonstrating that your commitment to diversity has led to business growth.
#5: Quantify that business growth, publish it, put it out there and make it a competitive difference for your business.
These all go together and ultimately, they follow each other.
Are you optimistic that this issue can eventually be resolved?
It is inevitably going to be resolved. There will be increasing evidence that a failure to build and retain a diverse workforce will lead to failure and those failures will become increasingly apparent and obvious. There are certainly going to continue to be, not just pockets, but a dominant threat of White nationalism and voter repression. Because I’m a media ecologist and because my career has been built on the heels of Neil Postman and Aldous Huxley, I am also fearful of the future.
The other day that MSNBC was reporting that 60+ percent of the country believes that the country is moving in the right direction. It didn’t say an x number of Republicans or Democrats feel that the country is moving in the right direction. It’s a critical challenge to really understand what percentage of people feel that the growth of White nationalism reflects a positive movement in the country. White nationalism and Trumpism — — historically, inevitably progresses to dominance in the political and societal reality. I do not feel that as an industry media is doing anything near enough to confront this challenge and to stop the trend toward fake news.
There, if there is a person in the world, or the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch.
There are two people.
Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is an American billionaire heiress, businesswoman, executive and the founder of Emerson Collective, an organization that, among other investing and philanthropic activities, advocates for policies concerning education reform, social redistribution and environmental conservation, and a major donor to the Democratic Party candidates including Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. She is also co-founder and president of the board of College Track, which prepares disadvantaged high school students for college.
We share many common interests and I’d like to share with her the work that AdvancingDiversity.org and the American Advertising Federation (AAF) are doing to introduce advertising and media as a career to underserved high school students in predominantly Black communities. I would like to explore how to connect our work with College Track, and more importantly how she has merged advocacy with activism.
Because Laurene has become active as a documentary producer in partnership with Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan King, and Reese Witherspoon, and I have a passion to return to documentary filmmaking as a path toward cultural and societal change, I’d welcome the opportunity to share my vision for converting large marketers’ advertising budgets into film investments. The emergence of streaming platforms creates an opportunity that did not exist when I built Television Production Partners in the 1990s with investments from 10 of the world’s leading marketers. The business model we created, which produced multiple award-winning documentaries, is more viable today and Laurene and her colleagues are uniquely positioned to rebuild the initiative.
Second is Bob Dylan. I read his Pulitzer Prize acceptance talk and was moved by his command of musical history and the influence of music on culture. I don’t expect it would be especially rewarding, as he’s not known as a talker, but meeting Bob Dylan and spending time with him would be the fulfillment of a lifetime dream.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can stay up to date on how MediaVillage continues to advocate for an inclusive, representative, and equitable society within the media, marketing, and advertising communities at www.mediavillage.com and advancingdiversity.org as well as on the following Twitter channels @MediaVillageCom, @AdvDiversity and @JackMyersBiz.
Jack Myers of MediaVillage: 5 Steps We Must Take To Truly Create An Inclusive, Representative, and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.