Transforming Journalism Beyond “Diversity”
Online workshop series with Freedom Lifted and Press On
Transforming Journalism Beyond “Diversity” is a free workshop series about power, oppression, resistance, and solidarity in the field of journalism. The series was a combination of online self-paced curriculum and live Zoom discussion sessions for 50 people in the news industry — 25 from North Carolina, 25 from New Jersey.
HOW IT WORKED
Participants were given access to Justice at Work, a four-hour self-paced course on social justice taught by Mia Henry, to ground everyone in a common language and history of oppression, resistance, and solidarity. Following completion of the self-paced course, participants joined two live, two-hour Zoom workshops with other journalists, facilitated by Mia Henry and Lewis Raven Wallace.
GOALS
- The group will collectively identify how oppression shows up in journalism, and share tools and actions steps that can be used to challenge oppression in our lives and our organizations.
- We’ll also build community through reflection and sharing, and come out of the series with concrete ideas for transforming the practices of journalism in our states.
The series was open to journalists, media makers, news and information leaders, and media activists who were based in or currently working in New Jersey and North Carolina.
More about Press On
Press On’s education program, Level Up, helps journalists and media makers build the political and historical analysis, skills, and tools they need to transform the field toward liberation. Our curriculum is grounded in principles of popular education and Black liberation, and is tailored to specific groups and audiences based on need. Our workshops are also intersectional, focusing on racial and gender justice but not excluding discussions of disability justice, LGBTQ+ issues, and economic oppression in the field of journalism. We focus on examining systems of power, historically and today, in order to take action toward change.
Our curriculum centers Southern media makers of color, queer and trans, immigrants, Black and Indigenous, and people from low-income and rural communities, but our programming is frequently open to national audiences and collaborators across a variety of identities and sectors. We strive to make our trainings and workshops accessible in a variety of ways, including providing interpretation, translation, and technical assistance.
More about Freedom Lifted
Freedom Lifted creates unique learning spaces for people to grow as social justice leaders. We offer online courses, design and facilitate gatherings, and curate civil rights tours to the U.S. Deep South.
Partners
This training series was made possible through a partnership with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, and Free Press.