A nonprofit news project covering race, social justice and related issues took another step toward becoming a reality on Thursday.
Yawu Miller, formerly the senior editor of The Bay State Banner, announced on Twitter that the nascent organization he’s launching with Claudio Martinez will be called the Greater Boston News Bureau “with the aim of supporting local news outlets that serve communities of color in and around Boston.” Martinez is the executive director of La Vida Scholars, “a community based organization that equips low-income, high-achieving Lynn students with the resources and preparation needed to enter great colleges.”
Miller has continued reporting for the Banner, which covers the Black community in Greater Boston, after his uncle Melvin Miller sold it to a local group a little less than a year ago. That arrangement will remain in place, Yawu Miller wrote, saying that his work “will continue to appear in the Banner as well as other news outlets and will now be credited to the Greater Boston News Bureau. All our articles will be free for other publications to re-publish and will be available in Spanish as well as English.”
The official launch, he added, will come later this year.
Miller and Martinez comprise one of four teams that were awarded grants by the American Journalism Project last year as part of its local news incubator program. Each team was awarded a $400,000 grant. The other teams are based in Miami, Phoenix and Oregon. The Phoenix project is aimed at serving that area’s LGBTQ community. According to the AJP’s announcement from last July:
The local news incubator, launched by the American Journalism Project, with support from the Google News Initiative, aims to lower barriers to entry for prospective founders of local news organizations and diversify the field. By providing robust funding and council, this kind of program allows local news talent to go all-in on their ideas and draw on lessons learned from other nonprofit local news organizations across the country, with the runway that will provide them financial security to take an entrepreneur’s leap.
Violence, art and the media’s responsibilities
By Dan Kennedy
On November 7, 2011
In Media
Journalists from a number of Boston news organizations will gather this Thursday evening for a panel discussion about the media’s role and responsibilities in covering urban violence.
Part of the exhibit “Anonymous Boston,” which documents the lives of young murder victims and how the media covered their deaths, the discussion will be held at the Fourth Wall Project, near Kenmore Square, at 132 Brookline Ave. The panel is titled “If It Bleeds, It Leads: The Role of Media in Urban Violence.” I will have the honor of moderating.
The exhibit is the subject of this week’s cover story in the Boston Phoenix by Chris Faraone. As you will see, the families of murder victims say the loss of their children is often compounded by sensational, inaccurate media coverage and by hateful online comments.
The Boston Herald is singled out by several people as a particularly egregious offender. Morever, Joanna Marinova-Jones, the community activist who has overseen the exhibit, is in the midst of a libel suit against the Herald. Despite those facts (or maybe because of them), I’m hoping the Herald will accept our invitation for what is intended as a substantive, civil conversation.
Participants who have already confirmed include Boston Globe city editor Steve Smith, Bay State Banner executive editor Howard Manly, WGBH Radio (89.7 FM) senior investigative reporter Phillip Martin, El Planeta managing editor Marcela Garcia, pioneering African-American television reporter Sarah Ann Shaw and Faraone.
The event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m., and is free and open to the public.