How engaged journalists are serving communities throughout COVID-19
Learn more about how our Social Journalism alumni are reaching and serving communities during the pandemic. Read on for tips and ideas.
In the Social Journalism program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, we believe that engaged journalists can and do play an important role in providing communities with critical information.
But now more than ever, our students — who are trained in listening, empathizing, understanding and serving communities, and who now work in dozens of newsrooms across the globe — have an heightened responsibility for providing communities with the information they need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s also an exciting opportunity for engaged journalists to pioneer new ways of creating journalism that supports communities.
Here are some tools and techniques Social Journalism alumni have been using and implementing in their newsrooms:
How have you worked to serve communities during COVID-19?
Kristine Villanueva, Audience Engagement Editor, The Center for Public Integrity:
We launched a call-out to report on COVID-19 related hate in Asian communities.
We saw a surge in people who identified as Asian American reaching out to crisis hotlines and also one-off stories about instances of hate.
So we thought it would be a good idea to crowdsource some stories and look at these from a national level. We also found that the response to anti-Asian backlash from government agencies was much better in past events like SARS and 9/11, but not for COVID-19. We ran our first story with NBC.
We are also working with NextShark, an Asian American publication crowdsourcing for more stories and with their Facebook group Crimes Against Asians, which has roughly 31k members.
Sebastián Auyanet, Journalist at NowThis; Programs Consultant and Uruguayan Ambassador, SembraMedia.
In my city, weekly street food markets are going to be one of the most damaged sectors of the economy. With a mandatory lockdown they would lose their weekly income since transactions are done in person. So I went to my street shop and asked vendors what were their main concerns.
I learned that many of their customer’s have WhatsApp numbers, but businesses had not found a way to build a delivery system. Also, much of their clientele is senior citizens who would likely not leave the home to buy produce.
Since voluntary isolation was in effect, I went to Twitter to voice my concerns. Five people answered my call out; each was working on a project that could work together with mine, aimed at connecting more vendors with customers. Together, we launched Ferias del Uruguay, which is a directory of vendors and shops. You can text the shop, order groceries through WhatsApp and have them delivered.
This is also a first step towards embracing and digitalizing a new way of doing business for vendors in Uruguay.
We’ve already been covered by national media, which underlines the fact that no one was doing anything to help this community. (Link en Español)
The other thing I’ve started last week is “Coronavirus Sin Bolazos,” which is a Facebook post that tries to go at the disinformation efforts circling through WhatsApp. I was tired of seeing conspiracy posts from family members. I also try to curate good stories about the virus, its spread in Uruguay and best practices about self care in order to reduce the hysteria.
Max Resnik, Field Operations Manager at Cortico, a media technology non-profit that works in cooperation with the MIT Media Lab.
Coming off of a number of calls recently with community and institutional partners, my main takeaway is about scoping. Reporters cannot cover everything related to COVID-19. Create space for your community members to identify short term, medium term and long term needs and triage based on staff bandwidth and available current information.
What kinds of engaged journalism/tools/methods are working in your newsroom, coverage, or journalism work to reach communities at this time?
KV: Some small hanging fruit – we encouraged tips from readers at the top of our stories and have been getting some good tips.
MR: We’re utilizing Zoom to host and record conversations with groups of people in the same communities and across geographic divides. LVN as a project is based in facilitated community conversations and the core underlying principles remain valuable for groups of people connecting online as well as IRL
What should journalists be doing to support the communities they cover and serve?
Laura Calçada i Barres, Freelance writer living in Barcelona, covering arts and culture in Europe and the U.S.
If you are looking to serve a small town or community, a good way to reach out is by posting a message at the local store.
MR: Create space for people to come together to identify shared needs and concerns
KV: Since we’re in a D.C. publication, I think COVID-19 coverage should drill down on the fact that what happens in Washington doesn’t stay in Washington.
How this crisis is handled greatly affects the rest of the country, especially marginalized people. I think people are aware of this generally — but COVID-19 coverage should really drill down on government accountability and show audiences solutions to how we move forward.
The virus has exposed a lot of what’s wrong with how this country works and at a pivotal time–considering this is an election year. Helping readers make sense of that information will be crucial in November.
SA: Here are four things to try and think specifically about the community you live among:
1: Go hyperlocal or as close as you can possibly be. The best solution in this kind of crisis is to try to help the people you have close by, even if you can’t interact with them. You probably have lots of neighbors you never met. At least connect and offer your help.
2: List the problems they point out as the key ones. Think about the elders. Literally no one is paying attention to the elders, even today when they are the demographic in most danger. Isolation will also make things worse for them. Think about other at-risk populations that might be completely disregarded in this crisis, like immigrants and people who live in the streets. There has to be some information you can provide to them.
3: See if other organizations are doing something. Is there anything you can add? Try to be the player that builds the team together if you have the chance. This is not about you.
4: Go straight to the point, both in terms of the message and the platform. You may have access to Nextdoor where you live. I wish I’ve had that here.
For further tips, strategies and ideas for how you might practice engaged journalism during COVID-19, check out these two resources from Social Journalism Program Director Carrie Brown:
