Hey, folks — it’s been a minute since we’ve been in your inbox, and here’s why.As you may know, The Objective is a fully-volunteer newsroom. The money we make goes toward paying our freelancers, and our admin team all has full-time work elsewhere. Last year, our newsletter manager transitioned to a new administrative role, so the rest of the admin team absorbed that work. Various members have dealt with transitions that have lessened our capacity to work on The Objective, including the newsletter. Things are starting to level out for our team, and to ensure we’re sending newsletters out with more consistency, we’re continuing to experiment with our newsletter format. You’ll still get a round-up of links and resources in your inbox every two weeks, but our top story analysis will sometimes be shorter, and we’ll be experimenting with voice and tone. Thanks for your patience!

Since the first tents of the Columbia/Barnard Gaza Solidarity Encampment were hoisted up last week, student journalists at radio station WKCR (also posting on X, formerly known as Twitter) and the Columbia Daily Spectator have been on the ground interviewing protesters, sharing their demands and articulating campus life. Before national reporters walked onto the encampment, student journalists — who know their campus and are situated among varied student, staff and faculty perspectives — were present. 

When sharing their interview with Barnard junior Isra Hirsi, one of over a hundred students arrested at the encampment (and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter), on X, Teen Vogue politics editor Lex McMenamin credited Daily Spectator journalists’ reporting: “this ​​piece would not have run without … the reporting done by @ColumbiaSpec journalists!”

Their citation and hat-tip to student campus coverage matters. (Other publications are uplifting coverage in other ways: The Daily Beast spoke to Daily Spectator reporters about their experience, for example.) It’s still far too common in other newsrooms to not cite other outlets reporting, but student journalism is serious journalism and, as with all sources, needs to be cited properly. 

As solidarity actions for Palestine happen across the globe, including on college campuses, the coverage of Columbia is a stark reminder for journalists off-campus to uplift the reporting done by students talking to students — or to talk to students themselves — and to not diminish or hand-wave away young people’s response to Israel’s actions in Palestine, which United Nations officials have already termed genocide.

Israeli military bombardment and siege has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians.

Almost 200 bodies were found in a mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis over the weekend. So reporting on the encampments shouldn’t decontextualize why the solidarity actions are happening: “pledging to occupy the space until the University divests from companies with ties to Israel.”

”The whole point of the encampment was to shed light on Columbia's complicity in genocide and to focus back on the folks in Gaza,” Hirsi told McMenamin.

With passive voice, opaque nouns, and are prominent in coverage describing Israeli bombardment on Palestinians collecting (expired) food aid and former Air Force engineer Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation to “no longer be complicit in genocide,” the New York War Crimes and Media Against Apartheid and Displacement can provide alternatives to mainstream reporting on Palestine. 

The New York War Crimes serves as a direct antidote to the New York Times’ coverage, calling for boycott and divestment of its products while publishing articles highlighting “its present role in fomenting genocide against the Palestinian people." (A recent Intercept exposé included a leaked NYT memo urging the paper's journalists to avoid using "genocide", "ethnic cleansing" and "occupied territory" in their articles.)

And MAAD collects movement journalism articles from a range of partner outlets.

Crucially, it's “a resource, a hub for documentation, and a commitment that the stories of genocidal atrocities–and the struggles against them–will be told, shared, amplified, and never forgotten.” One of its most recent linked stories is a Democracy Now interview with Palestinian Jordanian journalist and Columbia Journalism School student, Jude Taha, sharing her reporting from the campus.

—The Objective newsletter team

The Objective and The Sick Times need your help: We're working on a guide for better reporting on Covid-19 and Long Covid. And we need your feedback, especially from folks who live with Long Covid and/or have a loved one who does! All questions are voluntary and the survey can be taken anonymously, plus we've extended its open date through (at least) the end of April. (Survey feedback link) 

The necessity of a new media movement: The Objective, the Free Press and allies’ published our outro of the Civic Media Series, looking toward a media landscape "that is collaborative, equitable, and premised on the belief of treating journalism as the public good it is. One that focuses not on saving what we’ve lost, but building something we’ve never had.” (The Objective)

The Intercept's internal turmoil: Semafor’s Max Tani reports on the publication running out of money, along with the power dynamics within the publication's personnel — even as The Intercept's investigations and coverage of Israel and Palestine, namely its exposés of the New York Times (on such subjects as the NYT's Oct. 7 exposé and an analysis of its biased coverage) have been widely shared. (Semafor)

“L.A.’s ultimate heartbreak industry is ... local journalism”: That's according to L.A. Times columnist Gustavo Arellano, who in his Apr. 16 column meditates on the future of L.A. journalism amid several newsroom layoffs and crises. Among those affected are the journalists at LA Taco, whom The Objective collaborated with for our reckoning in food media series last year. Arellano spoke with LA Taco’s editor-in-chief, Javier Cabral, about the publication’s life-or-death push for 5,000 members by the end of the month. (L.A. Times)

Public media shifts: Alicia Montgomery of Slate's thorough history of her time at NPR is worth a read to better understand the underbelly of the public media juggernaut. And speaking of public media, former WAMU/DCist staffers are starting a worker-owned publication to cover D.C. and are seeking a name — you can throw your own idea in the ring or support one of the group’s choices. (Slate, name feedback link)

Trans Journalists Association launches network of support for journalists: The organization has set up an initial cohort of 10 mentors as part of the Peer Career Network, for later-career trans journalists to support early-career journalists on topics such as using data, reporting and editing and transitioning in a newsroom. Members can access the network through their membership portal, and becoming a member is free. (Trans Journalists Association) 

0 days until ... "On Thin Ice: Covering Climate Adaptation in a Rapidly Changing World."

The free Pulitzer Center webinar (today at 3:30 PT/6:30 ET) will cover how communities around the globe are adapting to their changing environments. The participants are alums of the center's reporting fellows program, and you can register for the webinar here.

What else should we feature? You tell us. Reply directly to this newsletter. 

Looking for a job? Here are a few places to look: INN | ONA | JournalismJobs.com | 10 Jobs and a Dog | NABJ | AAJA | NAHJ | NLGJA | @WritersofColor | MEO Jobs | Freelance Journalist Rates | Source Jobs | Opportunities of the Week ($) | West Coast Media Jobs

How about a style guide? Trans Journalist Association | Diversity Style Guide | Tribal Nations Media Guide | NABJ Style Guide | Disability Language Style Guide | AAJA Guide to Covering Asian Pacific America | NAHJ Cultural Competence Handbook | SPJ Race & Gender Hotline | AMEJA Media Resource Guide | The Press in Prison | The Conscious Style Guide | Reporting on Addiction

Thanks for reading our newsletter. We appreciate you being here, and we’ll have more for you soon. This issue is written and edited by The Objective's newsletter team.

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