Now that NAHJ’s new Parity Project website has been launched at: www.parityproject.org, this site can serve as a portal for Latino community leaders and to showcase the work of Latino journalists and others who cover Hispanics.

The Parity Project is both showcasing Latino community leaders who care about how Hispanics are covered in the media. It is also providing a glimpse into the future of Latinos in journalism by hosting stories produced by Hispanic multimedia journalism students.

Here is a look at a couple of stories already up on the Parity Project site:

A just-posted look at the Orlando Sentinel’s HispanoSphere blog.

The brainchild of NAHJ member and Sentinel reporter Víctor Manuel Ramos, the blog provides coverage of news affecting Latinos in central Florida on a 24/7 basis. That was something many area Latino community leaders had asked for at a Parity Project town hall with the paper’s management.

It’s not just news in central Florida that the HispanoSphere blog covers. Almost every portion of Latin America is represented among Hispanics in Florida. So the HispanoSphere blog also covers stories from Latin America as well.

 

NAHJ student member Paula Machado put together a great story about the blog and its affect on the Latino community, which you can check out by visiting:http://parityproject.org/2010/07/profile-of-orlando-sentinels-hispanosphere-blog

 

Univ. of Central Fla. student Paula Machado

Paula Machado, an NAHJ student member at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, put the story about the HispanoSphere together. She plans to produce a Spanish-langauge version of this story as well.

Paula was a participant in the 2010 NAHJ Student Campus program during our organization’s convention in Denver last June.
When the site was launched in June, it featured a multimedia story from University of Colorado-Boulder student Genesis Samayoa on Denver Latina political pioneer Polly Baca.

Check it out at:

http://parityproject.org/2010/05/profile-of-denver-latino-pioneer-polly-baca

 

Polly Baca – CO political pioneer

Baca had been the first Latina to be elected to the Colorado State Senate. She has played a vital role in working with journalists at the former Rocky Mountain News in Denver, as well as the city’s KCNC-TV CBS 4 to improve coverage of the area’s Hispanic community.

 

Univ. of CO student journalist Genesis Samayoa

Genesis was a participant in the 2010 NAHJ Student Media Convergence Project in Denver last June.

More profiles and blogs from, and about, Latino community leaders and journalists will be posted on the Parity Project website.

Among some projects in development:

• A profile of Los Angeles Daily News Executive Editor, and long-time NAHJ member, Carolina Garcia, the first Latina to head up a newspaper newsroom in a major metropolitan area of the United States.
• Profiles of two journalists of color who are blazing trails for more women in the newsroom, Virginian-Pilot Managing Editor and NAHJ member Maria Carrillo and the paper’s Director of Staff Development and Recruiting, NABJ member Denise Bridges.

We also hope to have profiles of great journalism programs at colleges and universities nationwide that are helping to develop the next generation of Latino journalists, including:

• California State University, Northridge
• Texas A & M University, Kingsville
• University of Colorado, Boulder

The Parity Project has also reached out to Latino community leaders to ask them to include their thoughts and concerns about news coverage of Hispanics through blogs on the site.

Our hope is that this site will give Latinos a greater voice and increased influence in news coverage of the nation’s Hispanic community.

Stay tuned.

–
Kevin Olivas
NAHJ Parity Project Director