Let’s create an immigration reporting network
Together, we can better reach local audiences, and report with depth and nuance in different languages.
Recently, I was invited to talk about journalism and immigration with some residents of Palo Alto, California where I’ve been living for the past 10 months. At the end of my talk, one of the attendees approached me and asked, “How come I’ve read a hundred stories about how good immigration is for our country, but I haven’t read a single one about the workers’ struggle in Appalachia and how they are losing jobs to immigrants?”
I noted that the US economy is performing strongly enough, with the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years. And that immigrants often fill the jobs Americans don’t want. But I also told him about the crisis of journalism and how newspapers are closing across the country. So it’s true, it could be harder to find stories about the economic problems in the Appalachians.
His question was a good reminder of the reason I came to Stanford as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow. I wondered how can we dig deep into immigration issues with depth and nuance to produce impactful stories. How can we do more investigative reporting to explain the real impact — social and economic — that immigration has in neighborhoods and cities across the country.
As I’m wrapping up my fellowship year, I’m convinced that collaboration is the answer to take on this challenge, especially after years of sustained newsroom cuts, that left us with fewer journalists with the necessary skills, knowledge and resources to tackle these important stories.
In February, I circulated a short online survey asking immigration reporters and editors for their opinions on collaborative journalism. I asked if they would be interested in joining forces to tackle investigative stories in different cities, and connecting with colleagues abroad to develop cross-border investigations of immigration issues, which I believe are among the most pressing human rights concerns of our era.
Nearly 100 reporters from several countries responded — most of them women — working as reporters in the U.S. While most said they had not worked on collaborative projects before, all of them expressed interested in joining a collaborative network to report on immigration.
Reporters cited several advantages of working together, which can be grouped as follows:
- It creates the potential to better reach local audiences, in different languages, and to increase the impact of our stories.
- The opportunity to collect data from different sources in various cities and countries allows us to tackle more complex investigations.
- It is a great opportunity for freelancers, who often face financial constraints, to engage with a team that has more resources and to receive mentorship and editorial guidance.
- Collaboration increases our ability to innovate, use new technologies and approach immigration in a more scientific and interdisciplinary way.
Respondents also cited several reasons that prevent them or their newsrooms from participating in more collaborative work on immigration with other newsrooms in the U.S. or abroad. These include:
- Many outlets prefer sending their own staff reporters into the field, rather than collaborating with journalists based in the city or the country where the story takes place.
- It is hard to secure funding from foundations and philanthropy organizations to develop and to sustain lengthy and complex collaborations.
- Skepticism exists among editors who don’t believe in collaborative work or who don’t trust reporters over whom they have no control.
- Partnerships require time, commitment and generosity. Years of newsroom cuts and scarcity among staff and resources have made it difficult to pursue ambitious partnerships.
In the survey, I also asked reporters if they thought it necessary to have an investigative news platform solely focused on covering the U.S. immigration system. Ninety-seven percent of respondents said yes.
Nearly everyone expressed enthusiasm with the idea. They shared their thoughts and noted their interest in furthering discussions about the project. With this feedback, and the many conversations I’ve had in recent months as part of my fellowship work, I have begun developing a project to conduct more collaborative reporting on immigration.
Over the next few months, I plan to create the Immigration Reporting Network, a consortium of small newsrooms and local reporters who partner with established media organizations to expand the scope and impact of immigration coverage in the U.S. and beyond. The network will focus on underreported stories, especially in cities with large Hispanic populations, where immigrants are receding further and further into the shadows, after constant vilification by the White House.
This initiative will connect local journalists who have been covering the borderlands for years, and who have access to local sources and data in different cities, with colleagues who have a wider view of the immigration system and more resources to tackle complex investigative projects. We plan to begin with a project manager/editor and data reporter to support members of the network with editing, data analysis and training.
Reporters working on collaborative investigations initially will be paid by their media organizations as the network seeks to amplify our fundraising efforts.
Eventually, we may explore the creation of a nonprofit investigative journalism site focused on covering immigration in the U.S. and fostering collaboration across borders.
I’d love to talk with you if you have ideas to help fine-tune this project, want to participate in the network or help me develop it, or if your organization could help fund our launch. You can reach me on Twitter (@ronnyrojas) or via email: ronnyrojas@stanford.edu.
