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Reporting fellowship highlights impact of COVID-19 on underserved communities in New Jersey

Six-month fellowship supported 10 New Jersey journalists from ethnic and community media outlets

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 30,000 deaths in New Jersey and more than a million dead across the United States, the coronavirus is far from gone. As the state eases restrictions, New Jersey residents have experienced some relief, but also frustration, disappointment and confusion. Immigrants and people of color in the state have continued to face greater challenges due to COVID-19.

In July 2021, continuing its collaborations with community and ethnic media in New Jersey, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University launched its third reporting fellowship on the impact of the coronavirus on marginalized communities. While it was the third coronavirus-related journalism fellowship that the Center conducted in the last couple years, it was the first statewide-focused reporting project since restrictions on mask, testing, and vaccine mandates were eased. The project wrapped up this spring.

The Center selected 10 editors and reporters from various in-language and English-language ethnic and community press; each were given stipends for their participation and support to report their stories. The stories produced demonstrated the severe effects of the pandemic on various fronts: how immigrant-owned businesses coped, what laborers and street vendors did to survive, and why Asian children were more vulnerable to coronavirus, among others.

As new COVID cases spiked in New Jersey amid the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants, the fellows shifted to examine the challenges surrounding hospitalizations, housing, employment, politics, mental health, economy and social justice issues.

Fellowship stories, for example, focused on how undocumented immigrants, with no paid sick days and unemployment insurance, struggled with expiration of state’s eviction moratorium, and NJ Gov. Phil Murphy’s plans to address economic and racial inequalities.

Learn more about the COVID-19 reporting fellowships for NJ ethnic and community media

The Center organized monthly press briefings to assist the fellows, which is part of a long-term strategy of strengthening the communications infrastructure between governmental agencies and members of news organizations serving immigrants and people of color. At these press events fellows were given the opportunity to ask questions and report on first-hand information. These press briefings, hosted via webinar, helped expand and improve coverage on the impact of COVID-19.

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Key outcomes of the most recent fellowship

• Fellows represented Latino, Korean, Polish, Hindi, Filipino, Turkish, Pakistani, African American and Chinese communities in New Jersey. The stories were translated in nine languages, including English.
• Six of the fellows were from the largest Latino (Reporte Hispano and NJ Hispano), Polish (Nowy Dziennik), Pakistani (Urdu News), Filipino (ABS-CBN News) and Turkish (The Turkish Journal) publications, in terms of circulation and readership.
• The Center organized six press briefings, bringing in experts and advocates who discussed issues exclusively with fellows and English-language general market reporters. These briefings were special because most ethnic media reporters are often not invited to general press conferences–and, if they are, the discussions are not focused on the communities that they serve. Participating groups included NJ Citizens Action, NJ Community Affairs, Make the Road NJ, United Fujianese of America, and Migration Policy Institute.
• The Center hosted New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Dr. David Adinaro, deputy director of the NJ Department of Health, to speak exclusively with the fellows and other members of the Center’s NJ News Commons.
• As a result of the meeting with Gov. Murphy, nearly 20 NJ ethnic media outlets penned a collaborative op-ed in NJ.com/The Star Ledger, urging the governor to provide state-funded advertising for ethnic media in the state. The meeting also provided new sources for the governor’s office, boosting relationships between state officials and ethnic media.
• The fellows produced more than 60 English and in-language stories that were published online and in print. On multiple occasions, some of these stories were picked up by other publications in and outside New Jersey, expanding the visibility of the story (or issues at hand) as well as that of the publication.
• The fellowship in-language stories were translated into English, giving English-language readers an opportunity to learn about current issues in immigrant and people of color communities in the state.
• Each of the fellows received a $2,000 stipend.

Key impact indicators

The Center considered how the fellowship informs, educates and promotes participation and engagement of ethnic media, community groups and government agencies in the state’s most at-risk populations during the pandemic.

• The reporting fellowship, along with press briefings, has provided a new opportunity for journalists from ethnic (and general-market) media to cover the effects of COVID-19 through the perspectives of the immigrant and people of color communities that they serve.
• It underscored the most prevalent but underreported COVID-related issues in the state and provided the media firsthand and quality information to increase awareness in their communities. Some of these stories were nominated for the Center’s Excellence in NJ Local News Awards — and two of them won awards.
• As trusted experts, representatives of community groups and government agencies have become the primary and first-hand source and resource of information and government policies for ethnic and general market media in the state. Some of the fellows conducted one-on-one interviews, making their reporting more in-depth. It also helped them do reporting and generate stories outside the press briefings.
• The press briefings served as the platform for both the reporters and local/statewide community groups to discuss together what they have been working and seeing on the ground, and what are the ways that they could do to educate their communities and, hopefully, partner together to mitigate the spread of misinformation or disinformation.
• The fellowship placed ethnic media on the radar of New Jersey’s stakeholders. Additionally, through the press briefings and reporting interviews, it provided the community groups the opportunity to work with ethnic media.
• The Center prepared a fact-sheet or one-pager about each press briefing topic and sent it to the fellows and other attendees of the press event. A list of ethnic media attendees and those who did RSVP, along with their contact information, was shared with the invited experts after each press event.
• Because the entire fellowship, including the training and press briefings, was carried out virtually, it was a lot easier for the fellows to participate and cover an important issue outside their usual area of coverage. For example, it made it possible for a fellow based in Jersey City to cover a story in Trenton or Passaic. On average, 25 attendees participated in each of the press briefings.
• Fellows and other reporters, who attended the press briefings during the Fellowship, said the topic of the impact of COVID-19 was — and still is — of high importance. For example, Miju News received several calls from readers after running a fellowship story on a Korean barbeque restaurant in Fort Lee. The callers, according to the reporter Phillip Sunyoung Han, described how helpful it was for the operation of their own businesses.
• Similarly, after participating during the fellowship, NJ Citizen Action said it saw an increase in the number of inquiries it received from immigrants about how to apply for eviction relief during the moratorium.

Challenges

While the fellowship showcased an impressive group of reporters and experts, it ran into a few challenges that could have been prevented.

• With a large number of fellows working for in-language publications, the translation and editing processes were long and laborious. Sometimes, after multiple edits and translations, it would take a week for a story to be published.
• Unfortunately, one of the fellows didn’t finish the project. The fellowship spot could have been given to another reporter and publication.
• Inviting experts and speakers, most particularly elected officials, can be challenging. The Center would end up adjusting to the speaker’s schedule and availability. A couple of elected officials, after weeks of coordination, canceled their participation from the fellowship’s press briefings.
• The allocated time (60 minutes) for the fellowship’s press event sometimes did not allow speakers to accommodate all the questions from fellows. As a result, the briefing would usually run out of time for the Q&A, and some media representatives would not have the opportunity to ask their questions and engage with speakers throughout the briefing.
• In a few instances, to accommodate all questions, the event lasted much longer than anticipated. And those questions not addressed during the press event were relayed afterwards to invited experts.

Future plans

Given additional resources, the Center plans to implement the following future initiatives:

• The Center is launching a Spanish-language translation service and a collaborative reporting project with other media partners, some of whom include former fellows. Some of the story ideas for the collaborative reporting project have been sparked by fellowship stories.
• The Center seeks to continue the monthly press briefings with advocacy groups, government agency experts, elected officials, and community and ethnic media in the state.
• Buoyed by the reporting on the pandemic, the Center would like to offer further training to expand the fellows presence on social media platforms.
• The Center would like to hold an in-person gathering with community and ethnic media reporters in New Jersey. Some of them will be invited to participate or speak at the Center’s annual Collaborative Journalism Summit.

Oni Advincula is the community and ethnic media program director at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at oni.advincula@gmail.com or advinculaa@montclair.edu.

About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily 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, 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.