We’re back from AAJA — it was great seeing folks in Seattle last week, and now we return to regularly-scheduled programming.
This week, Lewis Raven Wallace’s latest column leads the newsletter. They’ll be on vacation for the next couple weeks, so expect the next column in your inbox a little later this month. And we also have a Q&A with the co-founders of the worker-owned reproductive justice newsroom, Autonomy News, about what covering stories about bodily autonomy looks like in this current moment.
In this issue:
And also: The Committee to Protect Journalists issues new letter calling for an end to targeting and starvation of journalists in Gaza, sudden layoffs at Eater, Stanford’s student newspaper goes to court over the use of immigration law to deport students showing Palestinian solidarity, and the history of a radical Black radio station. Plus, the resource of the week is tips for reducing FOIA costs.
—James Salanga
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THE CASE FOR MOVEMENT JOURNALISM
We can resist the robots
We are in an urgent epidemic of loneliness and isolation, the symptoms of which pervade our political and public worlds — increasingly, people are stuck engaging with one another on corporate-owned social media platforms, beholden to the algorithm to keep us connected rather than connecting face to face.
We are starved for connections that deepen our understanding of each other and our movements for change. The toxicity of our disconnection shows up at the highest levels — the dehumanizing discourse of our national politicians — and at the most individual and day-to-day, as young people in particular struggle to connect with other people in healthy ways in real time.
Movement journalism can serve the purpose of connecting people within and across identities and experiences, helping to support and create stronger communities. The physical and virtual spaces movement journalists build constitute a key piece of what I will call movement infrastructure — containers for the relationships of trust and connection we so urgently need in order to change our conditions.
These connections may be based on geography, identity, or a shared vision or goal. What makes them different from algorithmic connection is that they are decommercialized: movement journalists don’t attempt to connect to people in order to sell to them, but view this connection as a mission unto itself.
The idea that journalism should build community is not just another auxiliary mission to the work of producing and disseminating information. It may actually be what saves journalism from being cannibalized by its own corporatization: Right now, the gaps and holes in people’s trust in media are gaping, and the only way to begin repair is through building trusted and connected media organizations responding directly to what communities care about and need while providing information relevant to their daily life.
One case study for this work is Mainline in Atlanta, founded by Aja Arnold. Read more in The Objective.
—Lewis Raven Wallace
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GENDER & SEXUALITY
Q&A: Autonomy News wants to cover bodily autonomy as a human right
Garnet Henderson and Susan Rinkunas, co-founders of the worker-owned reproductive justice outlet, on their new newsroom and what covering reproductive justice looks like in this particular moment. Read the full story in The Objective.
WHAT ELSE?
A bit more media
Committee to Protect Journalists, other organizations demand end to targeted killing of journalists in Gaza: The letter, signed by Al Jazeera Network, the National Press Club, and more, reads: “The suffering of journalists is not an accident; Israel is employing deliberate tactics to silence the truth by starving them.”
Vox abruptly lays off 15 Eater employees, gutting the publication: “This is the second major round of layoffs at Eater this year,” Vox Media Union wrote. “These layoffs are a gut-job … it is also a cowardly capitulation to the fallacious insistence that generative AI is the future of search and publishing.”
Stanford student paper sues Trump administration over use of immigration law to deport students: International students on the Stanford Daily’s staff are turning down assignments related to Palestine or or seeking removal of their previous articles about it. The suit is among many challenges to provisions supporting the administration’s so-called ideological deportation policy.
Looking back at Radio Free Dixie, a radical Black radio station: “Sixty-four years after Radio Free Dixie first aired, the show is still a shining example of a truly revolutionary cultural institution,” music journalist John Morrison writes. “Today, there is a crucial need for radio and journalism that is unfettered by capitalist money and influence.”
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.
JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
Quote of the week
“Ethnic media outlets have long understood that journalism is not just about informing the public, but equipping people to resist oppression. When your community’s survival is at stake, neutrality isn’t an option.”
FINALLY…
Resource of the week
This week’s resource is … some tips to cut FOIA costs. (Image via Electronic Frontier Foundation.)
Adopted from a recent NICAR data journalism summit presentation by Associated Press data journalist Sharon Lurye, Rowan Philip summarizes suggestions for ensuring reporters don’t have to pay exorbitant costs for important information. Among them:
Check about less expensive export formats.
Ask for a sample page of records early on.
The full list, published via the Global Investigative Journalism Network, contains specifics about how to implement each suggestion.
Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.
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