Getting the News into the News: Helping Communities of Color Learn How To Do It

On Sept. 9, 2006, Jennifer lead a seminar on media literacy for people of color who are community leaders in her area.


Contacting the media can be scary for folks, especially when they have no idea how a newsroom works.

Editors, news directors and deadlines. Oh my!

That's why Utah Journalists for Diversity (UTJD) organized a conference this fall on how to access the Utah media. The free, daylong event for community members was called "Get Your Voice Heard!"

UTJD was started in fall 2005 by a handful of journalists "to promote diversity in newsrooms and in news coverage to reflect Utah's growing ethnic communities as well as to empower a new generation of journalists."

One of the main reasons why UTJD organized the conference was simple: It's going to take awhile before Utah's newsrooms reflect their communities, so we wanted to inform people, especially minorities, about how to make sure their voice is heard by editors and news directors.

We created posters and put them up throughout the Salt Lake City area, including Mexican bakeries, senior centers, schools, libraries and ethnic stores. Some 150 people registered by phone and e-mail and about 80 attended the event.

At the conference, participants got a bag filled with a reporter notebook, pens, goodies and a UTJD News Directory. The 20-page directory included the newsroom information for each of the sponsors, including reporters, the areas they cover and their contact information.

During the conference, we had three workshops, each with a panel representing print, radio and television journalists.

Workshop No. 1, "The News Cycles," explained the differences between the mediums.

In "What is News?," reporters talked about how they decide what is news and how people from the community can best pitch stories to journalists.

In "Get your voice heard!," folks learned how to write letters to the editors and get them published and how to write a news release.

Conference guests were encouraged to ask questions throughout the event.

The conference ended with a community-media mixer and luncheon. All of the sponsoring newsrooms were invited for a free lunch and a chance to meet with community leaders at the conference. About 40 journalists attended.

After the conference, here's what some conference participants wrote: "This was truly a need in our community, and it is so exciting that you are all getting together to meet that need. The seminar was fabulous! I got extremely valuable information, and everyone was so friendly and helpful. Thank you for all your efforts!," -- Cheryl M. Mori, attorney.

"I was truly encouraged by the mutual learning I observed occurring between the audience and presenters, particularly on the issues of how and why area minority communities are (or aren't) presently portrayed in media. UTJD is to be commended on taking an important first step in starting a public dialog that I am hopeful will continue to be a constructive one, ultimately resulting in a more accurate and representative area media to the benefit of your entire audience," --- Erika R. George, law professor.

The conference was held at a community center in a Salt Lake City neighborhood, where more than half of the families speak a language other than English at home. There were also sign-language interpreters for the some 10 deaf participants.

BY THE NUMBERS

What: Get Your Voice Heard!
A conference on how to access the Utah media Number of participants (*free registration).

Attendance: About 80
White:16
Black: 2
Latino: 9
Pacific-Islander: 2
Asian: 2
Jewish: 2
Muslim: 1
Deaf: 7
Gay: 2

Number of journalists who attended the community-media luncheon: About 40

Program cost: Roughly $3,000, including $750 for publicity and $1,800 for breakfast, a catered lunch and drinks.

UTJD News Directory: A 20-page Utah newsroom directory that includes reporters, the areas they cover and their contact information.

Sponsors: Utah Journalists for Diversity, The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret Morning News, KSL TV-5 (NBC), KUTV-2 (CBS), University of Utah's KUED-7, KUER FM 90, SPJ (Utah Chapter)

For information about UTJD or the conference, contact Jennifer Sanchez, Salt Lake Tribune reporter, at utahjournalists@yahoo.com or (801) 403.4817