In this first issue after our spring break, I share a slightly edited excerpt from engagement journalist and educator Kristine Villanueva’s recent piece announcing her collaboration with The Objective and an array of journalists involved with community engagement — a crowdsourced handbook containing best practices for reporting on diaspora communities.

If you’re interested in contributing, we share the date and time for our first workshop in this newsletter! You can also sign up directly here.

In this issue:

And also: Solutions journalism magazine YES! Magazine will sunset at the end of June 2025, U.S. Department of Education cuts $23 million grant to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk released from detention, and NBC replicates famed announcer’s voice with generative AI.

—James Salanga

Dominant media outlets frame global affairs through the lens of government talking points and disconnected perspectives on civic control, urban development, and corporate investment. While established news agencies like the Associated Press and Reuters have diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural sensitivity standards, they’re not exclusively tailored to diaspora communities.

So in collaboration with The Objective, engagement journalist and educator Kristine Villanueva is convening a steering committee of deeply engaged journalists to compile and launch a crowdsourced handbook for diaspora reporting.

We’ll be updating our findings in a monthly newsletter. From there, we’ll compile our findings at the end of the year.

We’re not starting from scratch. Outlets like Conecta Arizona, URL Media, El Tímpano, and Documented who not only align with this guide’s values are already putting in the work by affording their staff the time and space to report in these communities. Centering migrants shouldn’t be an alternative approach in the journalism industry. It should be the standard. We’re trying to make that happen on a broader scale. That’s where you come in.

We’ll have two information sessions/workshops to talk more about this project in depth and surface information needs that will help standardize our reporting practices with diaspora communities at the center — the first is on Monday, May 19th at 3 p.m. EST.

Subscribe here for updates and read the full story on The Objective.

—James Salanga

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The multimedia exhibition — “Black Futures Newsstand Presents: Riot to Repair Soundscape Exhibition” — showcases work reflecting on the historic events that took place five years ago and imagines the kind of reparative narrative ecosystem needed to serve the health and well-being of Black people and Black communities. Read more.

YES! Media to shut down in June 2025: The magazine is shuttering just shy of its 30-year anniversary after a legacy of centering the voices and visions of those building a better world. “Slowed giving and reduced philanthropic investment in independent media — particularly media that centers the stories and voices of historically excluded communities — have left us without a viable path forward,” wrote Khalilah R. Elliott, YES! Media’s interim executive director.

📕 Read the story in YES! Media.

U.S. government isn’t “Ready to Learn”, cuts grant funding PBS kids’ programming: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said the Ready to Learn grant offered $23 million in funding for children’s games and educational shows. PBS KIDS leadership says it will “continue to fight in order to maintain our essential service.” Meanwhile, the Protect My Public Media coalition aims to organize action against ongoing public media cuts.

📺 Read the story in USA Today.

Op-ed writer, Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk released from immigration detention: Öztürk had been arrested and detained on the grounds of an op-ed she wrote in the Tufts Daily calling for university leaders to acknowledge the ongoing genocide. "The court finds that Ms. Öztürk has raised a substantial claim of a constitutional violation,” Judge William K. Sessions ruled.  Öztürk still faces potential deportation.

🗞️ Read the story in NPR.

NBC to use generative AI to recreate famed announcer Jim Fagan’s voice on NBA coverage: “I’m excited we’re able to introduce his voice to a whole new generation of fans,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said. Fagan passed away in 2017 and recorded broadcasts and spots during the prime of NBA on NBC in 1990-2002. Fagan is the second NBC Sports announcer whose voice was replicated using generative AI.

🏀 Read more in The Hollywood Reporter.

Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.

This week’s resource is … a resource for avoiding libel lawsuits, written by Amy Kristin Sanders.

Sanders lays out resources for journalists to better safeguard their work against libel lawsuits given the upward trending attacks on press over the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. In particular, more public figures and high-profile individuals are turning to SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — lawsuits to discourage criticism. Rather than filing defamation lawsuits, some plaintiffs are turning to state consumer protection laws, said Gabe Rottman, the vice president for policy at the Reporters Committee.

“Good journalism is the best defense against being sued,” Rottman says.

There are an array of anti-SLAPP laws and resources for better understanding SLAPP suits in this resource, helping journalists ensure their work is airtight before publication.

For more style guides, journalism job boards, and tip sheets, check out The Objective’s resource list.

Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.

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