Seattle's Dan Savage, Starbucks Win "Make The Change" Digital Disruption Award

SEATTLE, WA -- The University of Washington's Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program has awarded two Seattle-based initiatives with its Anthony Giffard "Make The Change" Award for digital disruption in communication. The awardees are Dan Savage and Terry Miller for their "It Gets Better" campaign on YouTube, and the Starbucks Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo!

The Anthony Giffard "Make The Change" Award is given annually to a local individual or organization that disrupts traditional communication models with innovative digital solutions. The MCDM seeks to identify the seismic shifts occurring in media, and "Make The Change" Award signals where these types of shifts are having the most significant impact on society.

"Digital technology has dramatically leveled the playing field in communications, making it easier for change-making ideas to be recognized and shared with the world," said Hanson Hosein, Director of the University of Washington's Master of Communication in Digital Media program. "With their passion and innovative work this past year, Dan Savage and Terry Miller and Starbucks have shown just how powerful a great idea can be in today's digital society."

The Stranger editorial director and columnist Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller merely wanted to provide a beacon of hope to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens when they created their own video, "It Gets Better." Within weeks, regular citizens, movie stars, musicians, mayors and heads of state were posting their own videos of support and sharing them on the YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject). The campaign has produced more than 20,000 videos and substantive policy change. "It Gets Better" exemplifies the ability of anyone to effect seismic social change at a near instantaneous pace -- through the equalizing access of readily available digital platforms.

"I want to thank everyone for awarding us the Giffard 'Make the Change Award,'" said Dan Savage. "As Tony Giffard used media, words and stories to disrupt apartheid, everyone whose participated in the 'It Gets Better Project' is using social media and their stories to disrupt homophobia and self-hatred."