Center for Cooperative Media, PABJ launch South Jersey Information Equity Project
New program will seek to support news and information provided by and for communities of color
When Manny Smith, president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, reached out to me last fall his question was simple.
“Can we talk about South Jersey?”
As the Center had been seeing through the early findings of its news ecosystem mapping project, led by our research director Sarah Stonbely, there are (growing) news deserts in South Jersey. Manny’s concern was more specific: the (growing) lack of news and information provided by and for communities of color.
So we decided to team up and see what we could do to help.
The result is the South Jersey Information Equity project. The project’s goal is to increase the amount of credible news and information produced by and for communities of color in South Jersey.
Thanks to funding from The Nicholson Foundation, we’re thrilled to announce we’re launching the project today by issuing a RFP to help us find a lead researcher.
We plan to hire a researcher for the project who will build on the quantitative data Dr. Stonbely has about the news ecosystems in South Jersey with qualitative explorations of critical information need gaps, as well as bright spots, and research potential solutions.
We hope to begin the initial research in April and complete it by the end of June; our goal is to publish a whitepaper in August, after which time we will actively seek additional funding partners to help the Center and PABJ execute the solutions recommended by the research.
That will be the key: Recruiting partners to help us implement the solutions.
Click here to read more about applying for the research position.
Additionally, if you have any questions about the project, want to be involved in some way, or are interested in supporting it with funding, please contact me at murrayst@montclair.edu.
Stefanie Murray is director of the Center for Cooperative Media. Contact her at murrayst@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.
