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Commitment to Diversity
I firmly believe journalists have the responsibility of providing a full range of voices in our world, and they are tasked with uplifting the voices of those who are unheard. My key driving force in journalism is to make an impact, a goal I can only achieve my reporting in a way that conveyed a hope for change.
Diversity in my coverage is something I always aim for when I am reporting myself, and something I encourage as an editor when my writers pitch stories. I always encourage 3 diverse sources, whether that be asking for writers to find various genders within their sources, choosing people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and always aiming to find both sides of a story. Diverse coverage in the media is how we can evolve and move forward in and progress as a society. This coverage is a strong form of social justice and activism, and a something I am fully committed to.
COVERAGE
The streets of the city: a rising residence for youth
I got the idea for covering this topic when I had a conversation with a close family friend about his childhood. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and lived on the streets when he was in high school as he came from a broken household. It was this conversation where I learned how the foster system, supposed to actually help these kids, actually exacerbate this issue. The foster system completely ignored him, and he was left on his own. This conversation ignited a spark within me to write an article and cover homeless youth-- the experiences and hardships that they must endure, and how they often lack the help that they truly need. I interviewed Jason Dewes who was a homeless youth years ago, and he shared a similar story about the systemic issues within the foster care system and how they impacted his life. In addition, talking with Doug Styles, someone who aims to help homeless youth through a homeless youth shelter in San Francisco, gave me clarity into what changes can actually be implemented within the system to help this demographic of young people without a home. Through this article, I wanted to amplify the voices of homeless youth and advocate for what type of resources they need to receive the help that they need. This article received 1st place at the NSPA 2023 Fall convention for the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion pacemaker.
Leaving the nest causes tradition to slip away
During Lunar New Years of 2022, I wanted to cover the holiday without covering the typical topics like the holiday traditions. Instead, I turned to a different demographic: Asian American college students. I wanted to learn about their experiences with their culture and the changes that can come with their relationship to their culture as they move away from home. I wanted to spotlight the perspectives of Asian American college students and answer a question that really isn't discussed: what happens to tradition when you're no longer around that tie to that tradition (your parents).
Mahsa Amini: The fight for change
When the Mahsa Amini protests broke out in Iran, I wanted to present this information of the global human rights movement to my local community. Women in Iran were stripped of many basic human rights, and many were standing in solidarity with Mahsa Amini, enraged by the violent treatment she received when trying to simply leave her home without covering her hair. I led a package about the fight for change that people all around the world were partaking in, where I had a few writers who wrote on the topic. This package was written in solidarity with the movement and worked to inform our local community of what is occurring abroad, and what rights are unaccessible to those across the world. I also included resources for those who wanted to support the movement at the bottom of the article and I hoped to contribute what I could to systemic change.
Exploring the City - podcast series
I created my podcast series, Exploring the City, with the core purpose of wanted to explore the diversity of the city of San Francisco. I noticed how in San Francisco, there are many different neighborhoods and each one is home to a different ethnic/social group. Many different ethnicities built an ethnic conclave within the city. I really wanted to explore each neighborhood and highlight the unique experiences each group underwent. I also wanted to inspect the diverse makeup of the city overall and talk to people who made up these diverse demographics.
I went to Chinatown, Haight Ashbury, the Mission, and the Castro. All of these neighborhoods have different social groups who historically lived there, or who still lived there today. Each podcast episode showed a different perspective of people from those ethnic social groups including Chinese and Chinese Americans, the LGBTQ+ community, and Latino people. The episode about the mission district was incredibly impactful for me to record because I was able to talk to the latino people in the mission who were currently suffering from the tech gentrification which was taking over their neighborhood. My podcast was able to uplift their voices on their perspectives of this change to their homes.
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