Media is one of the most powerful forces shaping how young people see themselves and the world. Yet, too often, they’re left to engage all kinds of content, value systems, and voices without the skills or mentality to navigate them safely.
We believe they deserve better.
As a values-driven media company, The Message equips youth and young adults to think critically, find their voice, and engage with media in ways that reflect prosocial values like empathy, responsibility, and integrity. We provide media literacy education and social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, content, and tools that are culturally relevant, accessible, and fun.
Where values, media, and mindset meet to shape a generation of world-changers.
We empower youth with media literacy and SEL skills to think critically, make better decisions online and in real life, and become their best selves. Our approach is rooted in culture and shared values, centering young people as developing humans rather than just ‘learners.’ We help them question the narratives they internalize, the mindsets they adopt, and the messages they communicate to themselves and each other.
CURIOSITY
We uphold curiosity as a mode of inquiry rooted in genuine desire to learn who, why, and where someone is with no behavioral outcome strings attached.
UNDERSTANDING
Understanding is an intentional act of resisting our instinct to judge. It’s about appreciating someone else’s perspective, even if we don’t agree with it, and respecting their right to ‘be’ – as they are.
RESPONSIBILITY
We’re in this together. Our words and actions carry more weight than we realize sometimes, and their impact extends far beyond us. We lift social responsibility as a core value and the cornerstone of community, connection, and safety.
EMPATHY
Empathy is emotionally availing ourselves to someone else in a spirit of transparency and vulnerability. It is recognizing any of our own psycho-emotional privilege in the moment and willingly abandoning our comforts to feel anxious, afraid, or excited with another human.
Who we are and the values we uphold are among the strongest predictors of human behavior. Yet, society often rushes to put out the fires that ignite in our institutions, communities, and families without examining who lit the match, or why. Only after the damage is done do we begin to ask deeper questions about the beliefs and motivations that fueled the crisis. It’s at that point that values, attitudes, and mindsets are finally put on trial in the court of public opinion.
Put simply: we wait for a serious problem or disaster to arise before we take a serious look at the person. Humanity is facing multiple existential threats—from misinformation and AI governance to social media addiction, depression, and more. Our core belief is that we can’t afford to keep reacting. That’s why our work addresses root causes, focusing on the value systems and mindsets that research shows frame human behavior.
In that spirit we believe:
• Skillsets without mindset are a half-step
• Education without relationships will misfire
• Cultural relevance is more meaningful than cultural responsiveness
• Humility over hubris: shared humanity is king
The Message was founded by Juma Inniss in 2014, but the vision took root years earlier when he co-led a hip-hop songwriting program for underserved teens. One young man in the program frequently rapped about “Taking your kufi”—a slang term at the time for shooting someone in the head. Life imitated art, and he was shot in the face at point-blank range. Miraculously, his braces stopped the bullet from traveling through to his head, and saved his life.
He returned to the group, face bandaged, eating through a syringe. When asked how he was processing what happened, he said: “I’m like 50 (Cent) now, dawg!” After a year in the program, his mindset hadn’t shifted. That moment left Juma with a question: How might young people’s output change if we improved the way they filter input from media, culture, and society?
The search for answers revealed a major gap—media literacy, a crucial 21st-century skill, was undervalued and disconnected from most teens’ reality. In response, Message Tour was launched, the world’s first live music show promoting critical thinking in digital culture. Over time, the work expanded to include talks, a consultancy, and Message Academy. Today, that evolution continues with a focus on Message Academy and the development of new tools and content, but the mission and vision is the same. The Message is and will always be about helping youth become the best selves, and shaping a generation of values-driven leaders and world changers.
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