Category: SessionNotes

Is the increase of funds for nonprofit news giving communities healthier news and information ecosystems?

joeamditis

Host:

Angilee Shah

Intro: Accountability session

  • Community, internal, funding

This session is about the funding piece.

Starting point: nonprofit news funding is increasing, beyond public media and in some growing and consolidating public media spaces. I love personal money journeys — this is not that. Structural questions through the lens of money.

Notes, but please say if you don’t want something in the notes. We’ll leave it out.

Exercise: Introduce yourself, tell us about your relationship to money in your work or organization. Your feelings, your current goals or struggles.

OFF THE RECORD

We had just a couple people so we talked for a while and then dispersed.

Sorry, no notes.

Accountability in Journalism (individual to structural)

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Host:

Andrea Wenzel & Jingyao Yu

Participants: 

Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, Jingyao Yu, Letrell Crittenden, Tara Pixley, Luisa Ortiz Perez, (Eu)Gene “G-Gene” Sonn, Antoine Haywood, Kristin Traniello, Trip Jennings, Andrea Wenzel, Doron Tanssiy, Angilee Shah, Fabiola Sahagun, Sue Robinson, Jesikah Maria Ross, Dylan Smith, Sierra Sargetti-Daniels

Other session notes recommended (as they relate to accountability + care):

Summary

  • What can we do in the daily as journalists to build space for regular accountability…and also what do we need to change in the structures of organization doing journalism to make space for accountability and dismantle the parts that prevent accountability?

Definition of Accountability

  • Tara-Lyn: Recognition of impact over intent, understand harm and sit with the fact that intent didn’t match impact
  • Amy: Bring it down to the small issues and the everyday, better prepared for big issues
  • Kristin: Walking the talk not just talking the talk—action align with values
    • Being held accountable to moral structure of the community in which you sit
  • Letrell: Responsibility we have
    • Whatever means consequences…not living up to expectations and responsibilities
  • Doron: Consequences of action/impact…that there might be consequences for you
    • Letrell: People see that as a negative, doesn’t need to be that
  • Luisa: Nonpunitive and reparation aspect of accountability. Wave of MeToo haven’t resolved that, but opened a lot of doors
    • How to reintegrate perpetrator, bring conversation to the newsroom and leave it there
    • Evolve standards of behavior
  • Trip: Oscillating as punishment…finished a piece on restorative justice
    • Accountability as relationship
    • Universe of obligation…what do we owe each other
  • Tara-Lyne: What does repair look like?—what are we restoring when we stay restorative justice?
    • While being accountable to the harm
  • Andrea: Incentivize keep checking in and check-in back on that
    • Tara-Lyne: PArticular forms of offense…how do we balance that, recognize people are human, not absolving people of fault and responsibility, not taking weight of harm away while do reparative work while making space for people who can’t be repaired, how to keep balance
  • Eugene: What do we build in daily work that facilitates accountability
    • Have been complaint based…who has been able to take advantage of complaint based?—those in power
    • How to build in reporting, to make space and time to look for accountability opportunities instead of waiting for it to find us

What Does the Work of Accountability Look Like

  • Luisa: What it DOESN’T look like—the offenders doing the work of reparation.
    • Black and Brown people explaining why they’re offended
    • Opening the hate of DEI effort, onus on those offended to decide what reparations there are
    • Jingyao: Emotional and intellectual labor of those impacted by lack of accountability
  • Angilee: Accountability is built in for me that I’m a part of, they’re at my dinner table, they’re at my business. When I did a story about South Asians, people knew how to reach me. At national level, that’s magnified
    • Accountability comes very much from community you work on
    • Keeping an open door, recognize that there will be failure
    • Re consequences and incentives, in industry, that kind of accountability isn’t quantified very well. In nonprofit side, the accountability is danger (funder) for you, when it should be incentive
    • When someone is upset, it’s dangerous the smaller the organization you are
    • Doron: What does that look like to rectify?
    • Angilee: Looks like bringing people in conversation, have 2 people have ear of major funder that may not approve
  • Tara-Lyne: Different spaces of accountability
    • Newsroom accountability, where harm committed (DEI efforts)
    • Accountability to community, different structure
    • Accountability nonprofits to funders (where money coming from, impact the community, example taking money from private prisons)
    • How to think about all these things?
  • Tara-Lyne: Emotional labor of education…not the job of the oppressed to educate, then whose job is it? Don’t trust oppressor to educate each other, but what does it mean to not put the responsibility
    • Invite them to a seat at the table and have people who can enact on that work
  • Letrell: Journalism have no accountability infrastructure internally and externally.
    • Was let go in a previous role where vocally critiqued reporting
    • Editor of one newsroom sexually harassed, had a minor demotion for a couple of weeks

What is the role of public, educational, and governmental community access media?

joeamditis

Wednesday, August 22, 2023 (2:30 pm – 4:00 pm)

Host: Antoine Haywood
Session participants:

  • Antoine Haywood, University of Pennsylvania
  • Carole Carmichael, Chestnut Hill Local

This session intended to discuss the role community access media centers should play in the larger effort to “advance journalism for all.”

Despite being the only two participating in this session, we were the right two people in the right space, having a productive conversation at the right time. 

Antoine and Carole started by discussing and comparing observations they made while talking to Philadelphia residents about what news and information that are most interested in receiving. Carole mentioned that most people wanted information about housing and wrap-around services. Support services for youth and seniors were also critical. Antoine said that while many people in the city still have cable television services, many don’t trust or watch local news. 

Antoine and Carole discussed many issues related to cable and broadband connectivity. The two agreed that new technologies don’t always supplant older ones. Many communities, especially older groups, still prefer to get their local information from printed weekly papers and cable television. They also discussed consumer protections, neighborhood connectivity, media ownership, and service affordability. 

A concrete action item that developed in this discussion was forging a relationship between the Chestnut Hill Local and PhillyCAM. 

Carole asked many questions about Philadelphia’s community access media center—PhillyCAM. After Antoine explained what PhillyCAM provides for community groups, Carole suggested that the Local could have a digital media reporter get trained at PhillyCAM and then produce a program to run on community access channels and stream online.

Carole also suggested that this could be a good case study to write about for the paper and publish in the Columbia Journalism Review. Antoine agreed. 

A few questions were noted at the end of the sessions:

  • How can these two organizations support each other long-term? 
  • Could this collaboration serve as a model for future collaborations in other places? 
  • What kinds of funding could this partnership generate?

Antoine offered to facilitate a connection between the Local and PhillyCAM. Carole offered to facilitate an introduction with the Local’s editor, Carla Robinson.

How do we remove gates in journalism education/training/institutions? 

joeamditis

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”