Spring 1995
It started with a phone call. Would Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism Director Jon Funabiki be interested in working for the Ford Foundation?
When Funabiki said yes, Ford started the very deliberate process of phone calls, interviews in New York and Atlanta during the Unity convention, more phone calls, and one more interview before offering Funabiki the position.
In San Francisco for a conference, Funabiki visited former colleagues and took time out for an interview to tell us about his new position at the Ford Foundation.
"They put out a really wide net, and they took a proactive approach to finding someone," Funabiki says. He explained that the people at the Ford Foundation weren't trying to fill an immediate need, but were looking for the right person to join their organization and create a program.
Funabiki is still getting his feet wet, and he hasn't figured out exactly what he'll be doing as a program officer in the Rights and Social Justice Program.
"It wasn't until I started working for them that I realized how immense they are," Funabiki says. "It's exciting because it's so new, and I'm doing things I've never done before."
Funabiki believes Ford was looking for someone with a broad media background. While his experience is in print, interviewers asked Funabiki about television, if he understood how television news worked, his ideas about the advertising industry in television and print, issues he was concerned about and what he would do about them. Just as Funabiki's interests had to be general, so are Ford's.
Project areas covered by the Ford Foundation include women's rights in Bangladesh, rural development in Tennessee, immigration, refugees, civil rights and integration of the media.
"It's mind-blowing to see in one room that range of interest," Funabiki says. "Each (co-worker) has a specific area and background in it."
Funabiki's work at Ford as a logical extension of what he did at CIIJ by allowing him to help reform the news media. While he is covering the same topics, the scope has become larger. He uses a couple of analogies to describe the differences between being at CIIJ and Ford.
"In the valley, you see your program and those near you," Funabiki says. "At Ford, I'm on the mountain top looking down on the valley and seeing what lots of people are doing." Another analogy that Funabiki uses is the relationship between reporters and their editor.
"A reporter works on a specific story; an editor works with a bunch of reporters working on lots of stories," Funabiki says.
The conference that Funabiki attended was on how foundations work. One technique that foundations use to distribute money is called a strategy, which helps them decide who to give their money to.
After a strategy is formulated, people or groups apply for funding, and then receive a yes or no answer. One of the activities that Ford funded was last year's Unity convention, which helped promote improved relations between minority groups. Funabiki sees not only minorities benefiting from the diversity- and
affirmative-action push of the newsroom but women also, especially white women. An example he uses is the numeric parity between men and women in the newsroom with more women now getting into management.
Part of the reason Funabiki is doing so much travelling is to visit his wife who is trying to sell their house before they can get a permanent place in New York. They manage to keep in touch with phone calls everyday, letters and a long commute about every two weeks. The long commute makes Funabiki a little homesick for the Bay Area but excited about New York.
"I love it...I really do miss San Francisco, but right now, it's (New York) an exploration," Funabiki says. The touch of homesickness for SF State has Funabiki missing his coworkers and hoping that the next person to fill the director's position can take advantage of the resources available.
"I hope the person has as much fun as I had, " Funabiki says. "I hope they appreciate the resources, not only in the department, but the journalism community in the Bay Area -- writing coaches, workshop leaders, researchers, students and high school teachers."
Dawkins appeared the day before press deadline.