Engagement Journalism News 5–19–23

Updates on the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY’s engagement journalism MA program and its students, faculty, and alumni, plus good reads, research and other news from the field. Bonus content (!) includes (what else?) Fred pics and a roundup of other tidbits of interest from program director Carrie Brown (views my own). Got some engagement journalism news or good reads? Let me know !

#EngagedJ at CUNY 🤩

• IMPACT. A project that engagement journalism faculty, alumni, and students worked on in partnership with THE CITY and other organizations, Missing Them, helped lay the groundwork for legislation in New York that would help children who lost their parents to COVID. “The reporting that you guys did and the spotlight that you shined on it was absolutely something that has led to the momentum for elected officials to continue to care about this,” one advocate said. Adjunct faculty Terry Parris Jr. and Anjali Tsui were both involved in leading the project, and alumna Melissa DiPento, ’17, also played a significant role. Engagement journalism alumni Aina Izham, Emily Lowinger, Frank DiFiore, Julian Roberts-Grmela, Julia Capizzi, Kynala Phillips, Maxwell Adler, Natalia Gutiérrez, and Sarah Luft all contributed stories to the project.
• Speaking of Missing Them, THE CITY partnered with Photoville to bring an exhibit of stories, obituaries and photos of New Yorkers who died to the South Bronx and Elmhurst, Queens. The closing reception for the exhibit is this Sunday (May 21) from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Bronx Documentary Center’s Annex. For more details and to RSVP, click here. There will be a live theatrical performance of an excerpt of the Missing Them play.
• Kristine Villanueva, ’17 and an adjunct faculty member, was featured on 6abc for AAPI Heritage Month. She and other leaders were honored for their advocacy work, with a special focus on impacting and engaging young AAPIs.
• Jake Wasserman, ’20, attended a Poynter workshop on covering far-right hate groups without amplifying their messaging. To his surprise, his story about Nazis on Broadway was one of the case studies.

The semester is coming to a close! Last social media tools class with professors Luis Miguel Echegaray of ESPN and Michaela Roman of the New York Times:

Last advanced reporting class with professor Meredith Bennett-Smith of MSNBC

Haha and finally, Joe Amditis, ’16, created custom socks!! for the upcoming Collaborative Journalism Summit.

Good engagement journalism reads 📚

• A review and provocation: On polarization and platforms by Daniel Kreiss and Shannon McGregor. This is an absolute must-read, and I may dig into it further in a future newsletter. This incredibly well argued and researched piece is rooted in an analysis of power and explains why polarization may not be a bad thing, and it also explodes some of the more simplistic arguments that blame social media platforms for many of our current political ills. “We argue that we cannot sacrifice equality and justice on the altar of social cohesion….What many analysts point to as underlying problems of political discourse on social media are often the ways that groups pursue strategic forms of identity mobilization, collective action, social distinction…as tools in pursuit of power.” (April)
• Documented shows how instant messaging tools can boost service journalism by by Lucinda Jordaan “We are essentially a bridge between an underserved, hard-to-reach audience and the professionals that work with them.” (April)
• A deep dive into the sustainability needs and concerns of community media outlets By Lillian Ruiz and Caroline Porter. “Community media organizations are a lifeline for various racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups. But more than 50% of these organizations may shut down in less than five years if current revenue trends continue, according to a new survey.” …”The more sustainable outlets stressed the importance of leadership having a background in business.” This is one of the reasons why we teach business/entrepreneurial skills in the engagement journalism program.

Just Good Reads! 📑

• The Next Pandemic May Come From Bats. Reuters Investigates Where. I’m biased, as my husband Grant Smith worked on this massive project with his colleagues for more than two years, particularly parts four and five. It’s a critically important and beautifully designed story that shows “how human incursions into the world’s bat lands are laying tracks for the next global health pandemic.” Among other things, he used complex software to model a novel virus emerging.
• Texas imprisoned Joshua Keith Beasley Jr. when he was 11, purportedly for his own good. Five years later, he returned home in a casket by my former colleague Lisa Armstrong. Heartbreaking and important story. “[The staff] are constantly beating you down, telling you you’re nothing. You’re nothing but a criminal. You’re never going to get out of there. And with someone like Joshua, he’s so young.”
• “We Were Always Playing An Entirely Different Game”: The Ultimate Oral History Of BuzzFeed News. “We had the wind at our backs and had a beast of a fucking time. It was majestic.” A wild and fun read, despite the outcome.

Fred 📸

This week, Fred had friends over! Meet Renly and Griff.