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Archive for community reporting that matters
July 30, 2010 at 4:11 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters, latino news media
Up on the very crowded stage the mayor was shouting the kind of things that made the overflow crowd howl with joy.
He talked about how Chicago was made by immigrants, how immigrants are welcomed to Chicago and how Chicago needs immigrants.
Que cierto!
For a room packed one night this week with Latino politicos and community activists and friends of Extra newspaper, the mayor’s words and presence were a nice tribute to a newspaper celebrating its 30 year history and to a news media that continues to grow as Chicago’s Latinos claim their place in the sun. http://www.extranews.net/
If you wanted a reminder just how far the Latino meeting has come, you needed to sit in on the recent meeting here of the National Association of Hispanic Publications. Zeke Montes of El Imparcial is the group’s new president.
The message was that nationally Latinos are a fast growing market for advertisers, that Latinos respond very well to online advertising and that the publications which engage their audiences in high quality content and which listen to their audiences will prosper and survive. An important message.
And while we are talking about immigrants, do yourself a favor and click on this link to listen to immigrants talking about their lives here and there. This is from our collaboration with Medill professor Jack Doppelt, an effort funded by the Chicago Community Trust. http://www.immigrantconnect.org/?p=7516.
Northwestern University students have panned out this summer at festivals and parks and gathered the voices of Chicago’s immigrants. Listen to the audio files that they brought back.
Richie was right.
July 29, 2010 at 3:57 pm · Filed under African-American news media, black news media, community reporting that matters
We were talking about the stories that could be written about North Lawndale and Isaac Lewis reeled off one idea after another.
Stories about health and the economy and what’s happened to the community. Stories about now and then. Stories that lift people up and stories that give you a sense of what needs to be done.
Shameka Robinson, our intern with Isaac’s North Lawndale Community News, wanted to do all of them too.
I thought about brainstorming with Isaac when I came across this discouraging report on the mainstream news media’s coverage of African-Americans.
The report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reached this conclusion after a long term study:
“As a group, African Americans attracted relatively little attention in the U.S. mainstream news media during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency — and what coverage there was tended to focus more on specific episodes than on examining how broader issues and trends affected the lives of blacks generally”
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1676/media-coverage-african-american-issues-first-year-obama-presidency
It explains further:
The study finds that 9% of the coverage of the nation’s first black president and his administration during Obama’s first year in office had some race angle to it. Here, too, this coverage was largely tied to specific incidents or controversies rather than to broader issues and themes.
These findings come from an examination of more than 67,000 national news stories that appeared between Feb. 16, 2009 and Feb. 15, 2010 in different mainstream media outlets, including newspapers, cable and network television, radio, and news websites.
Just 643 of those stories, 1.9% of the total newshole examined by the study, related in a significant way to African Americans in the U.S.1 (To be considered a “significant” part of a given story, 25% of the content of that story must be about a demographic group and its race/ethnicity). However, this was more coverage than was given in the s same time period to two other minority groups — Hispanics (1.3%) and Asian Americans (0.2%). As a percentage African Americans make up 12.9% of the U.S. population.“
This has been a difficult and complex year for many black Americans. The economy has swallowed millions of jobs and taken away thousands of homes, virtually the only source of wealth for many blacks. Crime consumes a large part of the worries in many black communities. And so do concerns whether the schools that serve black children will collapse under the weight of shrunken budgets.
Where were these stories?
Apparently, they didn’t show up in the mainstream media.
“The storylines that generated the most press attention on African Americans were driven primarily by black figures who made news. In its coverage of race, in other words, the press largely responded to breaking news during the year studied rather than exploring the state of African Americans or developing African-American angles around events or issues in the news.”
So what does that mean?
That we live in separate worlds as ever before? That the black news media has to work harder to tell the story it knows so well. But if it does, if it churns out compelling, important news, will it matter if it is only read by its audience?
What do you think? Talk to me.
Steve@newstips.org
July 29, 2010 at 2:31 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters, latino news media
Here is a story from one of our interns that connects people with agencies that can help. And nowadays getting the right help is more important than ever for folks searching for new futures.
This is the article from EXTRA:
by Kaaren Fehsenfeld | trad. Víctor Flores
After 27 years of hard work at a factory, Martha Jaramillo was left with a knob in the place of her right hand, limiting her capacity to acquire other skills. Typing on a keyboard and learning to use a computer seemed out of the question.
“I thought I wouldn’t be able to learn,” Jaramillo said. “I had no idea how [computers worked]!” When Jaramillo was laid off two years ago, a friend suggested she enroll in Digital Divide, an adult computer-training program at the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO).
Classes are held in eight to 10 week sessions in UNO charter schools throughout Chicago. A suggested $20 donation covers enrollment. Digital Divide hosts three course levels. In the first course, students learn how to turn on a computer, how to search the Internet and use Microsoft Word.
After the second and third level, students learn how to make a PowerPoint presentation, chat through Skype or instant messenger and even use Google maps to track public transit. The Digital Divide courses also teach students how to protect themselves from identity theft and fraud while using the Internet. For Jaramillo, the class quickly turned from a hobby into a necessity.
“It helped me not feel depressed [after loosing my job],” Jaramillo said. “I met new people. [The class was] like therapy, it raised my self-esteem,” she said.
Enrollment in an education program qualified Jaramillo to receive financial benefits from her previous job, specifically those for laid off employees.
After completing three consecutive course levels, she learned to write e-mails, shop and search for jobs online. “[I] didn’t even know how to write a check,” laughed Jaramillo. “And I learned how to pay my bills online.” Jaramillo is now looking for a computer-oriented job, hoping to move away from physically demanding assembly work.
“Our computer classes are part of a bigger vision for the adult community [toward] American assimilation,” said Masha Chernyak, who emigrated from Russia as a teenager. Chernyak, former adult enrichment program director of the Digital Divide program, now heads the parental leadership program. She said computer literacy gives parents a voice in their community.
“If we have successful parents, we will have successful kids and most likely we’ll have a successful community,” Chernyak said. “[It’s about] building their own power. But there is no American dream if you’re not connected to the Internet.” Chernyak said UNO’s student retention rate is 20 percent higher than the national average for similar adult education courses, while the Digital Divide program has boasted over 2,000 graduating adults in the last four years.
She attributes this success to UNO’s no-nonsense approach to learning, where she says achievement is an “expectation, not a hope.”
“Students make a big sacrifice to come [to class],” said Jaime Leal, a Digital Divide instructor, who recalled a first time father who came to class regularly, though it meant not seeing his newborn son all day. Dámaso Ramírez, co-founder of the United Southwest Chamber of Commerce and owner of an auto and body repair shop in the Southside of Chicago, signed up for a Digital Divide class after he met Chernyak at his shop.
A successful businessman and community leader, Ramírez had almost no first hand experience with computers when he registered. “It’s time to change,” Ramírez said. “You can learn as much as you like,” he said. “We had a lot of fun. The teachers are patient, [and] it’s a good service for the community [because] it helps business owners be more efficient.”
Ramírez now saves money on customer thank-you cards his business sends. He used to pay for their design and printing, but now does it on his own using his home computer. He also uses Microsoft Excel to manage expenses and employee schedules. Ramírez, who studied through the third grade in his native Guanajuato, México, said he valued the opportunity for further adult education.
As for Jaramillo, her connection to the Digital Divide classes was so strong that after completing the three course levels, she returned voluntarily to help incoming students. “There was one woman who was so nervous, she was sweating [just] holding the mouse,” Jaramillo said. “I sat next to her, and [said] ‘don’t be scared, you won’t break it.’ I helped her not feel so nervous.”
For Jaramillo, helping her community became an integral part of the class. “I made a lot of friendships there,” Jaramillo said. “I wasn’t at home, thinking about the problems I had. I liked helping people [learn].” This community growth is what UNO emphasizes in its mission. “[We build] a micro community within the classroom,” Leal said. “[Where] people exchange information and resources.” Computer training program — The Digital Divide courses begins in mid-September; Registration begins the first week of September. To enroll at an UNO charter school near you, call Jacob Pérez, adult enrichment program director, at (312) 520-6937 or (312) 432-6301.
July 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm · Filed under black news media, community reporting that matters
The front page catches your eye and brings you straight to the editorial page. Here, it reads:
‘We have to formulate a way to make sure that criminals in our midst know that they are not welcome, that they are not safe, that there is no harbor for them…The only way that kind of criminal excess can be avoided is if we take responsibility, take control and stop letting criminals have their way, even if that means making a call to the police, or even putting a criminal out of your house.
This has to stop!”
Read the whole editorial from this week’s Defender and you appreciate what power comes into the hands of a newspaper when it stands up and says this is what we need to do in our community. Strong words. An unflinching dedication to a bound unbroken.
This is when the ethnic media is maybe one of the strongest tools we to have making a difference.
Read the editorial and you know it is talking eye to eye, heart to heart.
And here’s a story that accompanies the editorial.
http://www.chicagodefender.com/article-8325-residents-violent-weeks-in-neighborhood-just-before-officer-fatally-shot-there.html
July 21, 2010 at 11:07 am · Filed under community reporting that matters
We were talking about how the explosions in Baghdad marked us. I was saying how I jump whenever there’s a large explosion, and he looked at me and flatly said he has never stopped hearing the explosions. Even here. Even months later after arriving from Iraq.
I fumbled to say something. I was stunned.
“Do you talk to anyone about this,” I asked.
“No,” he replied.
“But there are people here who can help,” I said.
“Who are they?” asked the middle-aged Iraqi, a recent arrival in the growing tide of refugees coming to Chicago from Iraq.
He is hardly the first Iraqi refugee to share the story of the indelible scars they carry. But I was quickly reminded of them by a story in today’s Tribune about Arab immigrants. It quotes an Arab-American family therapist who talks about the depression he sometimes encounters among immigrants, and the lingering wounds of war he finds among refugees.
So how does the ethnic news media help immigrants from war-torn places in the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Africa, people who now call Uptown or Rogers Park or the Far South Side their new homes? How do we journalists tell about the emotional crises faced by these refugees and by the immigrants whose lives and journeys here have similarly marked them?
First, we can identify the places that provide help, especially those that treat victims of torture. The Heartland Alliance’s Kovler Center is one of the pioneers in this issue and it began by helping immigrants from Central America.
We can ask the mental health agencies and the mental health professions that serve these immigrants how they have adjusted to their needs. Another Iraqi who has faced similar scars told me of the medicine he gets from his doctor to treat his anxieties, but nothing else.
We can ask them what programs they offer as a way of fitting in and what examples they can offer for these immigrants to start their lives over. We can ask the agencies that serve these immigrants how well they are prepared to cope with these challenges.
And we can make all of these stories far more compelling by putting a human face on the scars that do not go away.
Again, if you do any reporting on this, please let me know.
Steve@newstips.org
July 14, 2010 at 5:09 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters
Nowadays when I reach for a bunch of blueberries, I pause and wonder.
Who picked these berries?
Was it the work of some of the people I met recently in Western Michigan?
The people who told me about long days in the sun without a break or without water or a toilet and how they are sometimes cheated out of their earnings.
The people who talked about desperate families sneaking underage children onto the fields so they can earn as much possible because the fields are so crowded nowadays with new workers – people fleeing the immigration raids, or new recruits on the migrant stream from places as far away as Oaxaca or simply jobless folks scouring for work, any work.
I went to Western Michigan because that’s the Midwest’s garden, drawing about 90,000 farmworkers yearly. But here in the Chicago area we have about 50,000 workers, many of them farmworkers and many others who tend the nurseries and gardens.
Nearly all of them are Latino and because so many are without papers, they suffer in silence from abuses that you would imagine went out of practice decades ago.
I know about these workers in the Chicago area and their problems because of a thoughtful and wisely timed article some weeks ago by Fabiola Pomerada in La Raza that talked about the agencies that help these workers with the challenges they face.
So, now while they have finished picking blue-berries and are moving on to other crops, it seems a good time to go out and witness the lives of these people who harvest our foods.
Or with the explosion of small farmers’ markets in the Chicago area, a good story might be about these farmers and where our crops come from. If your audience cares about where it gets its food, this can be a good story to tell. This can become a moving narrative story about farmers and the people who work for them. Or a story about simply knowing who harvested your food and focusing on them.
Driving home from Michigan, I thought about the stories I heard and stories I heard years ago in central Florida where slavery still lingered in the fields and I thought about how little life has changed for some in the nation’s farm fields and I hoped the blueberries I bought at a road stand stand didn’t come from the wrong place.
Once again, if you do any reporting on this or want some suggestions, drop me a note.
saludos
Steve@newstips.org
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6225/how_would_you_like_his_job/
and here’s a column by Teresa Puente
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicanisima/2010/07/this-summer-ive-spent-time.html
June 22, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters
The street caught my eye a dozen years ago. An Uptown street waiting to be shipped out. A street full of poor people whose airless apartments would be turned into gleaming new condos.
One by one this is what happened, leaving only one building but now there’s a sign on the gate saying that it’s days are numbered too.
Where do these people go?
That’s what takes me to the Chicago Housing Authority’s announcement that it is opening its waiting list for the first time in over a decade. Forty-thousand families can see their lives changed.
Who are these people who will be rushing to sign up between now and July 9. Where do they live? And what happens if they can’t find housing? And how has the economic collapse changed the housing realities for Chicago’s poor? For the worse, I imagine.
This is a theme of stories that I can see played out over weeks or one solid page. It is a story about neighborhoods, many of them Latino or Black, many of them filled with newly arrived refugees and immigrants. It is a story that the ethnic news media can tell with all of its heart.
Steve
June 9, 2010 at 1:39 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters
Ever wonder why your elected officials in Washington,D.C. speak for so many people in so many neighborhoods?
Wonder why there’s not always a district that brings together people from the same community?
Those are important questions and they will be become even more as the redistricting takes place. And this is one of the most important issues for immigrant and minority communities’ news media.
That is also why you don’t want to miss a training sessions, sponsored by the McCormick Foundation, on June 17 and 18th. The sign-up dates have been extended so don’t worry about the deadline on the firm. It’s listed here and if you have any questions contact me, Steve Franklin, steve@newstips.org, 773 595-8667
http://www.citizenadvocacycenter.org/RedistApp.pdf
April 7, 2010 at 11:57 am · Filed under Covering the Census, community reporting that matters
After the months of build-up here we are and the fate of the Census is a mystery.
With all of the hoopla and money is the Census count going to miss more people than before? Are some communities going to dramatically come up in their numbers and others fall behind?
With less than two weeks to go, now the time to do some reporting and it is easy to do it. The government updates the mail responses daily, from Monday to Friday and all you need to do is click on its website and then drill down to the communities you want to track. Go to http://www.2010census.gov and follow the tab that takes you to participation rates.
The figures will show the latest rate of participation and the same numbers for 2000.
The figures so far for Cicero, for example, show only a 48 percent participation rate while the number of 61 percent 10 years ago. Chicago is at a 51 percent rate, down from 58 percent a decade ago. And the rate in some Westside and Southwest side Chicago communities is running below 40 percent. In Orland Park it is 78 percent.
Tracking these figures, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) a few days ago said that the return rates in the immigrant communities where it has worked to get people involved shows that its work has paid off.
Remember if people don’t get counted, there’s less money for services and Cook County’s undercount a decade ago cost the community about $200 million.
So, check the stats and let your communities know what’s going on.
If anyone has any results you want to share and stories you think will help us see what’s happening, please let me know.
Here, for example, is a story from La Raza which uses this data to tell what’s happening now.
La tasa de devolución de los formularios del censo por correo en el barrio de Albany Park ha sido de un 44% hasta ahora, en comparación con la tasa de participación nacional, que se calcula en un 60%.
Stephen
March 29, 2010 at 9:40 am · Filed under community reporting that matters
We write about crime but there is a world we often do not to tell about. This is the world of prisons and jails, a world with many more persons of color than their share of the population here in Chicago.
That’s why the John Howard Association is a good source for thinking about reports on prison conditions. But, more importantly, it is a way to open the door to think about those who go to prison.
I would check out their prison monitoring reports, and the videos about the people in Illinois’ prisons. It’s a doorway that needs to explored in print and on the air.
If anyone has used their reports, or done reporting on this and would like to share, please pass it along.
Steve
click here for a video
John Howard Association
http://www.john-howard.org/
So, too, let’s consider what’s happening to the community groups that serve folks in Chicago’s neighborhoods. Here’s a survey which predicts another drop in services from them. This too seems to be a pressing story.
http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org/content.php?autoID=230#
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