Mutual aid for local journalism?: A public media collaborative

Abstract

This study looks at a public media station’s effort to build a “mutual aid journalism collaborative” connecting a cohort of community and ethnic media journalists, podcasters, bloggers, and social media influencers, most of whom had a mission of serving Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities in a U.S. metro region. Using a communication infrastructure theory framework to explore how this initiative affected local “storytelling networks,” this study draws from observations, interviews with project partners and station staff, focus groups and interviews with newsroom staff, and focus groups with community members. The study reflects on how the project conceived of community engagement and how it positioned itself as “mutual aid” from within a mainstream majority white news institution. It examines how the project challenged dominant norms around “objectivity” as it strengthened connections between public media and grassroots influencers, but also the limitations the project faced connecting to broader community constituencies.