There is tons of content around the web surrounding black news but what we haven’t seen is an entirely crowdsourced platform.
Darren Harris, a serial entrepreneur and Wall Street professional with over 10 years of experience in investment banking and sales and trading, and business partner Quincy Ewell, a seasoned business attorney who is admitted to practice in California, New York, and Washington, D.C., are the co-founders of PANN, a premier video sharing app that enhances the capabilities of crowdsourced news shared in black communities.
Black Enterprise caught up with the two and we got the inside scoop on why they founded PANN, what makes it different from other black media outlets, and how they see it changing the landscape of the way black news is being delivered.
What is PANN’s major function?
PANN’s basic function is to provide a voice during breaking news events and celebrate black culture, community events, and spread awareness. However, PANN offers a technology not available elsewhere—it alerts users of local breaking news events in the black community, allows users to share video content in a seamless manner, improving the quality of citizen journalists’ content.
Why did you start PANN?
PANN was born out of our passion to portray black people, culture, and news in a way that’s not being covered in mainstream media. The misrepresentation and media bias continues to proliferate inaccurate stereotypes and undermines civil rights causes and the general worldview of the Pan-African community. To combat this issue, we developed PANN, which decentralizes news in an innovative way.
Over the last year, Quincy and I have threaded together our collective experiences, interests, and influences. My father, Reggie Harris, was a big part of our desire to create a dedicated platform [for] black news and interests.
He was an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist and was part of the first all-black team to anchor a newscast in New York. From him, we not only learned the importance of trailblazing, but the significant role media plays in uplifting, unifying, and informing all communities.
However, media bias limits that ability and there needs to be black ownership in media. By utilizing technology, it has allowed us to be inclusive of all voices, cultural moments, events, and news with one of the first crowd-sourced black news networks.
How is PANN different from the other news media platforms based on black content?
The main differences are that the content is crowdsourced and PANN’s unique technology. Users create profiles, upload stories and collaborate, which improves the quality of citizen journalists while bringing the community together. PANN offers unique technology not available elsewhere—it alerts users, through push notifications, about breaking news in the black community and we allow users to share tips with PANN so we can guide other users to cover the submitted topic. The internal “PANN Cam” allows users to share high-quality video content in a seamless manner and creates a single hub for all news and topics about the black diaspora. This incremental component embraces the common good of users and is the critical feature that separates the app from others of its kind.
Additionally, PANN helps to improve the quality of citizen journalists while bringing the community together to be more informed through alerts, push notifications, and more.
User Interface (Image: PANN)
What type of stories are being sourced and showcased?
PANN is representative of all moving pictures in the black community. From street performers, art shows, health and beauty news to activism taking place on college campuses, PANN aims to capture all transformative moments in the black community and truly celebrate, support, and uplift users. We welcome content creators that are focused on the black diaspora, specifically the unheard.
Do you see this changing the landscape of the way black news is delivered?
Yes. It’s our desire to give a voice to the forgotten and amplify community leaders, advocates, and black pundits. PANN will be an invaluable tool in addressing media bias and challenging the way we all see mainstream media. PANN will shine a light on the overlooked/underrepresented stories that shape, build and advance our communities.
To check out the PANN app, click the link here.