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‘Movement Media Has Really Emerged in Its Own Right’

CounterSpin interview with Maya Schenwar on grassroots journalism

Fair, JANINE JACKSON

Janine Jackson interviewed Truthout‘s Maya Schenwar about grassroots journalism for the October 27, 2023, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

      CounterSpin231027Schenwar.mp3

Janine Jackson: The future of journalism—how to grow and sustain independent reporting—has been a front-burner concern for decades now as we recognize the structural constraints of corporate news reporting, its top-down bias that favors the powerful, and how it can never challenge the social-economic status quo in a serious or ongoing way.

Because, of course, the need for strong journalism is not for journalism’s sake, but for the health of communities that need information to make choices, to see political possibilities, to communicate and participate. The search for models that support people’s information needs and reporters’ livelihoods is a work in progress, shall we say, but one that could hardly be more key.

Maya Schenwar is editor-at-large for Truthout and director of the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism. She’s author of the book Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, and co-author, with Victoria Law, of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. And she co-edited the book Who Do You Serve? Who Do You Protect?: Police, Violence and Resistance in the United States, from Haymarket. She joins us now by phone from Chicago. Welcome to CounterSpin, Maya Schenwar.

Maya Schenwar …………..  I think, one, we’ve got this situation where journalism as a field is in crisis, just financially, just in terms of, how do we get our word out? We see social media algorithms crashing entire outlets within a few months when they change. We see organizations scrambling to completely change their financial models when their corporate sponsors pull out, or when the one foundation sustaining them pulls out.

………………….. I think movement media as a field has really emerged in its own right. It’s always been there, but I think it’s being recognized, particularly among the left, but even beyond, as a valid component of journalism. And, actually, this is the journalism we need,

…………………….. I think the expansion of all of these different types of online media has both introduced this increasingly vicious phenomenon of disinformation, but also has exposed people to more of this reality that has always been true, that, depending on your source, you can be getting a completely different version of the news.

…………………. right now we’re witnessing Israel perpetrating this rapid genocide in Gaza with US complicity. And meanwhile, much of the dominant media is still completely misrepresenting the situation, removing the context of 75 years of colonization and occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and representing the current situation as a “both sides” war. And so I think, increasingly, even people who haven’t realized this before, but are tuned into that issue, are recognizing, oh, media is such a political force.

……………………. we’re in this moment that’s pretty tough for truly independent journalism, and particularly movement journalism. We have seen outlets shut down. We’ve seen some shrink. We’ve seen a lot hovering on the edge of precarity.

…………………………. Janine Jackson: And at Truthout, we’ve been thinking a lot about, OK, we want to exist as a publication, but we can’t do it alone. We don’t want to be anyone’s sole news source. We want to have this vibrant ecosystem of different publications that are helping enrich people’s understanding of the world, and propel them toward action on all these different fronts.

So the Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism is a little corner of Truthout which is focused on supporting and assisting smaller movement media organizations, using the lessons that we’ve learned at Truthout over the last 22 years, of sustaining ourselves primarily based on small reader donations, of figuring out how to broaden our reach and bring in new audiences, and figuring out how to build a news organization that is able to approach even issues in which there’s a lot of controversy, and uplift particularly what social movements are doing.

So in addition to that support and assistance and mentoring, we’re also focused on bringing together movement media and social justice news organizations of all sizes around the country. This is aspirational, but we’re working on it now, since we recognize that’s what’s going to allow us to survive. And when I say “us,” it’s not just Truthout, it’s all publications that have social justice at their heart, who rejects this idea of “objectivity,” and are looking to make media that are going to ultimately help the human race survive, and support each other in ways that are going to uplift the movements that get us there.

………………………………….. Maya Schenwar  one thing that we do at Truthout, that I think a lot of the publications that we’re working with have in common, is we think about: What is this story going to do in the world? Are there ways that it could cause harm? What is it intended to uplift? What impact do we hope it will have? Why is this topic necessary in the world? Why is this focus necessary? Who do we hope to reach? All of those things that tie into questions of liberation, tie into questions of justice, but aren’t traditionally the type of questions you’re supposed to ask as a journalist.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Maya Schenwar. You can find out more about Truthout and the Center for Grassroots Journalism on the site Truthout.org https://fair.org/home/movement-media-has-really-emerged-in-its-own-right/

November 12, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | media