What is the history of media and race in Colorado? What role has journalism played in contributing to anti-Black rhetoric and narratives? How can acknowledging this history inform our journalism and begin to repair active distrust between Black communities and newsrooms?
In late January, News Voices: Colorado — a project of Free Press, Colorado Media Project and Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) — welcomed Free Press’ Joseph Torres (contributing author of News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media) to learn, discuss, and ideate.
Recapping the meeting, News Voices: Colorado Organizer Diamond Hardiman writes: “To address how reporting has shaped policies, communities and access to information, we must grapple with what Free Press’ Media 2070: An Invitation to Dream Up Media Reparations project calls “the cost of harm.” The cost of harm requires us to ask: In what ways has newsroom coverage broken trust? How has it endangered the safety of community members? How has it extracted wealth from BIPOC communities? Only after we acknowledge and begin to understand the breadth of the harm caused can we begin to look toward reconciliation.”
Journalism’s History of Harm: Listen and learn with Joe Torres
Futures of Repair: Read the full meeting recap from Diamond
Reconciliation requires community
In February, News Voices: Colorado will continue this conversation with Black Voices: Colorado, a working group bringing together Black leaders, reporters and journalists to identify best practices, practical supports and structural changes that can help local newsrooms repair harm by centering the stories, experiences and news and information needs of Black Coloradans.
This working group will serve as a continuation of Colorado Media Project’s Real Talk conversations and Reporting on Resistance: 2020 Uprisings, which helped identify the importance of history and trust building in repairing harm and telling the stories of Black Coloradans.
Black Voices will convene on Feb. 12, Feb. 26 and March 12 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. MST.
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