Announcing the Racial Equity in NJ News Media initiative and advisory board search
The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is proud to announce a series of initiatives beginning in 2024 to specifically advocate for and support diverse representation and racial equity in newsrooms throughout New Jersey’s local news ecosystem. The Racial Equity in NJ News Media initiative will build on previous Center programming thanks to support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Democracy Fund. The program will include research to better understand the extent to which New Jersey newsrooms currently reflect the diversity of communities they serve and will seek to increase news coverage produced by and for the state’s communities of color through support for journalists of color. The Center does not believe that New Jersey’s media landscape currently reflects the diversity of the state’s population and that it is generally oriented to the needs and perspectives of affluent and mostly White communities. Newsrooms that are more representative of their readership and surrounding communities would provide more nuanced and comprehensive news coverage. The work of fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging takes time and intentionality. It will require listening to various stakeholders to understand the current news landscape, including how hiring practices, newsroom demographics and access to training and career development impact the news ecosystem.This work will call for learning from these insights in order to expand and plan the appropriate course for our vision. And this effort will hopefully lead to positive gains as we build support for journalists of color and advocate for increasingly diverse newsrooms.
0 Comments