Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
By Voice Media Ventures/Black Voice News Staff
This week the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships named Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds, founder of Voice Media Ventures, publisher of Black Voice News in Riverside, CA, and a leader in community news media, as a 2022-23 JSK Senior Journalism Fellow.
Brown-Hinds will spend her senior fellowship at Stanford exploring ways to empower smaller newsrooms serving diverse communities in California to use solutions-focused data reporting through training, highlighting resources for journalism and seeking strategies to sustain those efforts.
“With such innovative programs and initiatives at Stanford, like Big Local News, The Starling Lab, and digital repositories at the Stanford Libraries, being on campus presents a unique opportunity to tap resources in data reporting for smaller independently-led news organizations — especially those serving diverse communities. I am excited by the possibility of connecting interested news organizations in California with these resources and opportunities.” said Dr. Brown-Hinds.
Will join 13 other veteran and emerging journalism leaders
Brown-Hinds will be joining 13 John S. Knight Journalism Fellows previously announced for the Class of 2022-2023. It is the first cohort to return to a residential fellowship program on the Stanford University campus since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. JSK fellows for 2022-2023 are veteran and emerging journalism leaders who will work on practical solutions to address the industry’s long-standing neglect of underserved communities. The international JSK Fellows for 2022-2023 are accomplished journalists from five countries who will pursue a range of innovative ideas that seek to champion press freedom in a world where journalists and independent media are increasingly under attack.
The fellowship runs from Sept. 6, 2022, to June 2, 2023. The fellows will document their work publicly throughout the year, highlighting key strategies and lessons learned.
Brown-Hinds was a 2022 JSK Community Impact Fellow, a remote fellowship program for U.S. journalists working to address news and information gaps in their local underserved and underrepresented communities. During the past two years, JSK supported 21 local journalism leaders with stipends, coaching and peer-to-peer learning via Zoom as they worked in their communities.
Building on previous work
In her senior fellowship, Brown-Hinds will build on work she began remotely as a JSK Community Impact Fellow. Her project included identifying data sources, resources, and datasets with the goal of making solutions-oriented data reporting on racial justice accessible to the Black press in California. During her impact fellowship, she learned the resources at Stanford were many, quite accessible and could enhance reporting, especially for news organizations serving communities of color, not just the Black press.
“There’s a real need for a connector between available resources – including data training opportunities and funding – and local news organizations who serve the information needs of diverse communities in California. Paulette has deep experience and is perfectly situated at the intersection of community journalism serving diverse communities, data innovation and philanthropy. We are thrilled that she’ll be doing this work at Stanford, and hope she might create templates that could be used by local news organizations across the country.” said Dawn Garcia, JSK director.
Second generation legacy publisher
As a second-generation publisher of Black Voice News, Brown-Hinds is transforming the 50-year-old weekly print outlet into a digital, solutions-oriented data journalism and justice-focused community news organization. She is leading the transformation to data reporting through two projects: Mapping Black California and DaHUB. Structured within a community mapping framework, Mapping Black California encourages community collaboration around data and information by bringing together community media, community based organizations, and educational institutions.
As past president of the California News Publishers Association and current board member of the California Press Foundation, she works to strengthen the state’s information ecosystem as an essential part of the civic and community infrastructure. In 2019 she co-founded Media in Color, a philanthropically funded initiative designed to assist legacy media outlets serving communities of color with digital transformation. She has also led an effort to create a guidebook for California-based community foundations, community media, and philanthropy to financially support local journalism.
Brown-Hinds has been awarded Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge funding, was a Knight Digital Media Fellow and a Salzburg Seminar in American Studies Fellow. She is a member of the American Press Institute, James Irvine Foundation, and Inland Empire Community Foundation boards of directors.
