The View from Somewhere

Reporter Tina Vasquez has always practiced movement journalism, or journalism in service to liberation—but it wasn’t until recently that she realized she had a community and an identity as a movement journalist. On this episode, we unpack this idea of “movement journalism”—what it is, why it matters for marginalized communities, and how it’s different from so-called advocacy journalism.

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Extractive journalism—reporting on communities without input or accountability—is the model for a lot of journalism in the U.S., especially journalism about low-income people and communities of color. But lots of people are and have been actively resisting this model. We hear from Sarah Alvarez of Outlier Media in Detroit and Bettina Chang of City Bureau in Chicago about building journalism organizations based on power-sharing rather than extraction, how information can save lives in pandemic times, and how the COVID-19 crisis has changed their work.

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Journalist and professor Steven Thrasher draws out the connections between coverage of HIV/AIDS and coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Thrasher joined us for Episode 8 about queer media history and AIDS. Also: How handwashing is a symbol for trust and the ability to be changed by new information. 

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Host Lewis Raven Wallace talks about the need to seize a sense of possibility and imagination during the coronavirus pandemic, reads from The View from Somewhere book about reporting on the end of the world (standing in the rising water), and previews special programming coming soon.

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Is it racist? Are they lying? Some journalists are afraid to weigh in on facts even when they have good evidence. Why? Turns out there’s a whole history behind accusations of “liberal media bias” and the twisting of truth by Right Wing pundits. With expert commentary from historian Nicole Hemmer, journalism critic Jay Rosen, and poet and author Kevin Young, this episode explores the history of right wing media, “liberal media bias,” and how we can become truth swimmers, seeking multiple truths without giving up on truth altogether. It features the story of filmmaker Marlon Riggs and a brief dive into the origins of “Birtherism,” the conspiratorial accusation that President Barack Obama was born outside the United States. James Baldwin once wrote, “expose the question the answer hides.” He’s our guide for this episode. 

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Former public radio reporter Brenda Salinas and former public television producer Cecilia Garcia reflect on how far public media hasn’t come on “diversity” in the last forty years—and why. Also: how producers of color can protect their magic. Lewis and Ramona share their experiences in public media, and suggest a different framework for thinking about “diversity.” Salinas, an NPR Kroc Fellow and a producer at KUT Austin, describes how she was pushed out of public media by racism and sexism; Garcia, creator of the bilingual Latino newsmagazine Para mi Pueblo, sat on a task force in 1977 calling for the kind of diversity public media still struggles with. 

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Queer media has always been based in a personal experience, and being close to the story role served a particular purpose in a time of crisis. Sarah Schulman, Steven Thrasher, and John Scagliotti reflect on the history of queer media, from Scagliotti’s scrappy start in the 1970s, to Schulman’s groundbreaking reporting in the 1980s, to the work of the LGBTQ press to expose the truth about the AIDS crisis. 

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Producer Ramona Martinez takes over as host for a “live” pledge drive in support of The View from Somewhere’s Kickstarter campaign—we’re close to our goal! She plays piano and takes a call from her cat Cyclops, who’s somehow figured out how to use a phone. Plus: The Twin Peaks theme song, and real live shedding of tears. This episode was inspired by the “Dan Roddlestein’s Holiday Hoopla” episode from the Dreamboy podcast. 

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While on tour this past fall, host Lewis Raven Wallace heard a lot of questions—about how to change people’s minds, how to challenge “fake news” and disinformation, and how to change journalism collectively. In response, he reads from the conclusion of The View from Somewhere book, “The End of Journalism,” and fills us in on the crowdfunding campaign that’s now underway!

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He was one of the first Latinos to write for an anglo newspaper, covering the increasingly-active Chicano movement in Los Angeles. Professional distance from the story was important to him, but after cops killed him at a protest, he was transformed from an observer to a movement hero. Ramona Martinez shares a piece she produced for BackStory about this overlooked Latino legend. 

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