Local journalists use videos to extend their reach and fight racism

6 mins read

Local journalists use videos to extend their reach and fight racism

Local journalists use videos to extend their reach and fight racism

Technology is an equalizer for local journalists and big media.

About half or more of adults 50 and older get news from TV, but digital devices are the dominant choice for news, for those between 18 to 29. – Pew Research

How do cash-strapped local media outlets meet this need? Creating videos has been hard, expensive and time consuming. This blog explains how free video creating apps are empowering more local journalists to extend their reach.

“Brown Dolls In Nooses: Racism Jolts Saratoga Schools. The noose, a symbol of racism and hatred, with deep roots in segregation, sends a deliberate message of exclusion.”

India Currents is an award-winning,nonprofit, nonpartisan, ethnic media organization focused on the Indian American community. It wanted to share its story about hate crime in schools in video format. Vijay Rajvaidya with India current created this 30 second video with the free Lumen5 and iMovie apps to alert the community about the threat of hate crimes to the Asian American community.

India Currents’ Stop The Hate campaign

India Currents creates video inhouse to reach more people.
Watch the video. Read the article.

Optimize news to be spread on social media

  • The transition of news from print, television and radio to digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. A large majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
  • When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, roughly half (52%) of Americans say they prefer a digital platform – whether it is a news website (26%), search (12%), social media (11%) or podcasts (3%). About a third say they prefer television (35%), and just 7% and 5% respectively say they prefer to get their news on the radio or via print. – Pew Research

Symbols of Racism in the School Quad

“On November 15th, 2022, the community of Saratoga-Campbell was jolted by the information that dark-complexioned dolls hung by nooses around their necks, were discovered in the quads of three public schools: Redwood Middle, Prospect High, and Saratoga High. “Hanging a dark-skinned doll on a noose doesn’t equate to ‘something not nice’. That equates to a hate crime.”

The perpetrators were caught on the school’s CCTV reported NBC. “Surveillance photos show what the district is calling two persons of interest.” Photographs of the suspects were shared by the school and in an article on Nextdoor, a community news app.” No one has come forward to identify the suspects. ​​”I don’t know why these schools were targeted or if it was an inappropriate prank, but it really shook our community, as any forms of racism and hatred have no place at our schools or in our community,” said  Tanya De la Cruz, the district’s first public information officer (PIO). – India Currents

India Current’s 30 second video summarizes the hate crime and encourages viewers to contact the authorities to share tips. It encourages people to read the article for more details.

Local journalism fights hate and racism

Fighting

How India Currents created this video

Vijay first created the messages for the video and the visual element to accompany each frame. Captions, a soundtrack and links to more information were added to the video. The video was created with the free Lumen5 and iMovie apps. The video was added to the India Currents article and uploaded to YouTube.

India Currents designs a video

India Currents

India Currents is a 35 year ethnic media organization with deep roots in the community as a trusted messenger on critical issues. Thenonprofit, nonpartisan focuses on the Indian American community. It tells critical, relevant, and investigative stories for and about the diaspora in the San Francisco Bay Area and serves as an incubator for a new generation of storytellers. It connects Indian Americans to each other, transcending cultural silos, and promoting civic engagement to support broader social justice issues. India Currents fill the geographic and topical gaps left by mainstream media and offer a unique cultural lens on issues facing Indian Americans. 

TakeAway: Use innovative technology to get the news to more people and support ethnic media outlets.

Deepak
DemLabs

DISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH THE DATA FOUND IN THIS BLOG AND INFOGRAPHIC HAS BEEN PRODUCED AND PROCESSED FROM SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE, NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED CAN BE MADE REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, LEGALITY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SUCH INFORMATION. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ANY USES OF THE INFORMATION WHETHER ISOLATED OR AGGREGATE USES THEREOF.
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Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.


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Democracy Labs is a hub for ongoing technology and creative innovation that serves progressive campaigns and organizations at the national, state, and local levels.

Our focus is on long term, sustainable and affordable solutions. An approach that is longer than an election cycle, and isn’t purely dependant on volunteers, can enable more qualified candidates to run for office and for more issue groups to bring about positive social change.

Democracy Labs is a project of the Tides Advocacy Fund.

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