Session hosts: Megan Lucero, Lillian Ruiz, Bernardo Motta
Session reporter: Megan Lucero
Participant list: Megan Lucero, Lillian Ruiz, Bernardo Motta, Julia Knoerr, Kat Nagasaura, Mantza Felix, Dylan Smith, Sadie Scott
Key points raised
- We need accreditation for the future – “Currently the training is largely in what’s been done before, not in what’s needed to come”
- Need to bring mentorship and to reach out to directly to those who don’t normally come through journalism training pathways + provide infrastructural support along the way
- We have a free labor problem in dynamic with student journalists, which is part of a larger problem of unpaid publishing
- Debt accumulation is a problem when trying to get into the journalism industry
- We need to ‘deprofessionalize’ the industry and equip people in new and creative ways. As a collective we need to link up so the skilling can match with newsroom roles and opportunities – sometimes even changing the language of the roles/work/accreditation
Why we joined this session
- “Too many walls”, “not enough bridges” (work on the Arizona and Mexico border but also applies in our newsrooms and institutions)
- “I wouldn’t be here without a grant that offered coverage on community health reporting in my community”
- “Appreciated being from the ‘outside world’ of the journalism industry because I could talk to my neighbors properly
- “Community health in different contexts is of interest to me”
- “Writing workshops in the library + photo workshops +co-reporting, don’t want to set up people with unrealistic expectations”
- “Came through public media + J school but want to broaden who we partner with”
- “Changing how people are able to become reporters. I don’t have a degree. It’s a craft, doesn’t need to be a ‘profession’. Don’t need to go into debt to do this”
- “Ridiculous to go into debt for a job that doesn’t pay and ends up pushing people into higher paying jobs that don’t always align with values, etc.”
- “We are the problem (educators). We are meant to teach it and define the ethics in an unethical way – ivory tower creating a ‘profession’- harmful because it’s all about making money”
- “Professionally skirting along institutions that never broke though because of venture and philanthropy. Now, I ask how do we re-shape the definition of what journalism is (and gain support) and make pathways for more grassroots growth”
- “Journalism educators and students under attack for reaching journalism – journalism education that matters, need safety, care, ethics, education to report with care”
- “Education needing reflection – individualism, competition, plagued the newsrooms. We need a civic education ecosystem. Educators not jus in classroom”
- “Take what journalism is and keep it connected to communities and committed to communities we serve – accountable (and responsible) “
What’s needed:
- No more ‘us’ v ‘them’
- Need better representation at all levels of the newsroom so new reporters and our audience see themselves
- Would love for newsrooms to fund actual members of a community do their own local news assessments and community listenings (instead of outsiders)
- “We do have a voice!” It’s not ‘giving voice to the voiceless’ you just haven’t listening to amplified them
- Started from need, then went from fellowship to fellowship but my peer community has been the most useful, but I still don’t have sustainability tools
- Not just about how many students we have but how many educators are sharing and growing the knowledge
- How many academic orgs are running programs in a community?!
- Need courses in being a digital citizen
- Systems thinking module always eye opening – opens minds to new doors
- Education has largely been focused on ‘news education’, not wider digital education, system and design education, etc. Some of the projects at the end can be a generation of new projects or simply skills that allow them to see whatever they do that they can be in service to their community
- With accreditation, what do people and orgs need for validation?
- Doesn’t have to be a diploma, could be a proof of concept, letter of rec, etc.
- You don’t need to go through the uni process to be a journalist
- Problem of professionalization
- Expand title for the roles in newsrooms, so it reflects the accreditation – ‘community ambassador, ‘info hub captains’, ‘documenters’
- As a group of educators and newsrooms, we can acknowledge and validate this work together
- Money/grants to fund community members for these roles above – there is also gatekeeping in fundraising
- Convo around gatekeeping is around ‘risk’ but doesn’t acknowledge risk that is already happening or redefining risk – “ the risk of a homogenous newsroom’, the risk of not representing our communities , etc”