“One student at a time, we are creating a pipeline of bilingual journalists.”
Public radio peeps + anyone interested in the work of actually building out pipelines for underrepresented voices in media need to read about how a college public radio intern Stephanie Serrano put together a national Murrow-winning bilingual story — and how the mentorship program between a Reno-based radio station and J-school made it possible.
Our fave takeaway, from news director Michelle Billman’s piece:
I’ve been told more than once by coworkers that providing bilingual content is not worth the time and resources for a small media outlet like KUNR. I’ve also been told that interns should be given grunt work only. I wholeheartedly disagree with both of these criticisms and, so far, ‘leaning in’ to this model has strengthened KUNR’s local programming. We are taking a more inclusive approach to our storytelling, which diversifies the perspectives at our editorial table and, ultimately, invites a variety of new listeners to engage with us.
Just your quick daily reminder that diversity in your newsroom => diversity in your coverage => diversity of your audience => a bigger audience, period. So if you’re not investing in new voices (and especially your interns), you’re missing out bud!!!