Among unprecedented funding cuts to journalism, the seventh Ifill Forum brought together students, alumni and professionals to discuss the importance of journalism on all levels.
This year’s topic was “Storytelling That Matters.” The event included the awarding of the Gwen Ifill Next Generation Award and a presentation by Susan Goldberg, the president and CEO of GBH. The 2026 Gwen Ifill Next Generation Award was presented to Arielle Gray, a reporter at WBUR.
In her acceptance speech, Gray called the work of journalists “resistance against forgetting.” She brought up the work of Black women who have historically been the record keepers for their families. According to her profile on the WBUR website, Gray “reports on Black and brown communities through the lens of arts and culture.”
Afterwards, Goldberg, the former editor-in-chief of National Geographic, focused on the work that GBH has done despite its funding being cut, the results, and why public media is so important.
Among the highlights was Goldberg’s emphasis on journalists’ responsibilities to continue telling stories.
“I think one of the worst things that’s changed is the issue around trust. People used to trust what they read. They might not agree with everything they read in a specific publication, or saw on the television, or heard on the radio, but they tended to trust it,” she said in an interview with the Voice.
According to Goldberg, GBH’s approach to building trust leans into the pillars of journalism.
“I think our responsibility is to get it right, to be fair, to be accurate, to be timely. But it’s more important to be right than first.”
After Goldberg’s presentation, she sat down with moderator Anne Fudge, a Simmons alum, to discuss the themes from her presentation. The two discussed the themes of Goldberg’s presentation and the current landscape of journalism before a brief Q&A session with the audience.
“I don’t actually feel hopeless at all,” Goldberg said to the Voice before the event. “I feel like what we need to do is double down on factual storytelling.”
“It can’t all be bad news all the time. We’ve also got to shine a light on the good things so they can be emulated,” Goldberg said, a sentiment she echoed again in her presentation.
