How can journalists better support underserved communities?

Three considerations from newsrooms in the Pacific Northwest

Damian Radcliffe
Damian Radcliffe
Published in
5 min readJul 9, 2020

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Pamplin Media executive editor John Schrag (center) during the Local Journalism Roundtable in Portland. Next to him, Carl Segerstrom (L), Jaycie Schenon and Holly Dillemuth (R). Image via Erika Berardi

This is an extract from “Shifting Practices for a Stronger Tomorrow: Local Journalism in the Pacific Northwest” (2019), by Damian Radcliffe, Destiny Alvarez, Alex K Powers and Jaycie Schenone, published by the University of Oregon / Agora Journalism Center. Read the Executive Summary, a list of five emerging themes covered in the report and tips for managing resources.

Representation in journalism — both in terms of newsroom personnel and in the breadth of reporting — remains a critical issue that many media organizations are facing. In the Pacific Northwest, participants in our roundtable said their papers often struggle to access, reach and engage with Latino audiences in Oregon; an issue they are all keen to remedy.

John Schrag, the executive editor of Pamplin Media Group (Portland, Oregon), argued traditional ways of reporting on these communities need to change. “Publications often miss the mark when they try and create separate coverage in Latino communities,” Schrag said. “They’re people, they live in the same community, and they want to know about the same things.”

For newsrooms, several key questions need to be addressed, including:

  • How do journalists cover these communities?
  • Who are they reporting for? Are news outlets trying to reach the community at large, these specific under-reported communities, or a combination of both?
  • And allied to all of this: who are the people producing these stories?

In tackling these questions, newsrooms are not just thinking about personnel, but also their whole approach to newsgathering and community engagement.

1. Genuinely engage with communities

Journalists should take the time to step out of their traditional reporting habits and identify opportunities to engage with underrepresented parts of their communities.

To do this, journalists need to ask: What isn’t being covered? And how can we, as journalists, better cover the lives and support their information needs?

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Damian Radcliffe
Damian Radcliffe

Chambers Professor in Journalism @uoregon | Fellow @TowCenter @CardiffJomec @theRSAorg | Write @wnip @ZDNet | Host Demystifying Media podcast https://itunes.app