ethnicmedia

It’s amazing to me that there’s never been a meeting convened of all the ethnic media in the Pacific Northwest. We tried to get some editors and news directors to attend a recent conference at the University of Washington.

The conference –  Journalism That Matters: Re-Imagining News & Community in the Pacific Northwest — brought together more than 200 people who have more than a passing interest in journalism. Many were former newspaper writers. Many also were community activists, artists, and educators. There were hardly any business development or marketing people present, and we really needed their voices in the conversation.

Yours truly represented AAJA Seattle, and I was encouraged to see some people of color there. AAJA National Board representative Athima Chansanchai was there for most of the conference, as was Naomi Ishisaka, communications director for OneAmerica. So was Yuko Kodama, a producer for Reclaim the Media. There were visits from Assunta Ng, publisher of the Northwest Asian Weekly, and Diem Ly, editor-in-chief of The International Examiner.

I organized a breakout session on Saturday morning by asking this question: What does the news ecology look like for AAPI communities in the Pacific Northwest and what new possibilities can we create?

More than a dozen people joined the discussion. I am listing them all (in no particular order) because I am so grateful they took the time to participate (apologies to any latecomers I left out):

• Kenneth Gillgren of Gillgren Communication Services
• Caroline Li, AAJA Seattle VP of Events
• Derek Wing, communications director for the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging
• Sam Louie, a counselor at Asian Counseling and Referral Service
• Rosalinda Mendoza, WA State Farmworker Housing Trust
• Nicole Ciridon, Features Editor, The Daily (UW)
• Tima Chansanchai, AAJA National Board representative
• John Spady, CommunityForums.org
• Jonathan Lawson, Reclaim the Media
• Joaquin Uy, News and Public Affairs Director, KBCS 91.3 FM
• Carina del Rosario, freelance writer/photojournalist
• Naomi Ishisaka, communications director for OneAmerica

We concluded with several important directions in which to go:

– AAJA Seattle should convene a meeting of all ethnic media executives in the Pacific Northwest to discuss our needs and explore gaps in serving our communities. The mapping exercise may lead us to new possibilities.

– Young minority students could be trained as part of Story Corps to carry out storytelling from their communities, and given opportunities to publish online. These youth could conduct valuable oral history projects by examining their own family and culture.

– If time and resources were available, it would be useful to bring together community-based organizations, ethnic media and mainstream media for a wider ranging discussion about how do we improve media access. We agreed that a first step is to piggyback on an existing survey process to learn more about AAPI media access and usage in our market.