COMMUNITY-POWERED INFORMATION & MEDIA.

Making information accessible and relevant to the community’s information needs.

The Newark News & Story Collaborative is committed to elevating community-driven storytelling to fill information gaps in local and national media. Building a cadre of trained community journalists, media makers, and creators is part of this collaborative's legacy.

Newark residents are entitled to reliable, high-quality, and accessible local news to stay informed about policy changes, community responses, how to stay safe, get help, and share their concerns and needs.

We produce unique coverage of issues affecting diverse Newark communities that do not receive traditional media coverage and partner + train city residents to tell those stories.

We listen to Newark residents, build deep relationships with them, and produce community-centered journalism. We value engagement because we know that information is vital to serving Newark, New Jersey. The story of Newark deserves to be told, including the stories of our community that go untold and unreported.

< Photography by 2022 Reporting Fellow, Bikier Hayes

Our Mission

“There are often many information gaps in low-income communities like Newark, in part because of news organizations’ disproportionate interest in issues faced by more affluent communities.”

— Excerpt of "Newark's Information Gaps & Needs" by Outlier Media

read the NEWARK NEEDS INFO report here.

Why are there barriers to accessing information?

People experiencing poverty may not have access to information about how to obtain assistance and resources.

Community Reporting Fellowship

Resident storytellers are a central source to gaining more in-depth contextual reporting in the media. Community members, local organizations, media-makers, and journalists must come together to listen to and build trust, co-design responses to better inform the community, and begin to create a resilient, collaborative network to support local news and storytelling that can meet urgent needs and last well beyond the pandemic.

*2022 Reporting Fellows — Nicole Barnes, Laura Cole, Bikier Hayes, Andrece Brady, Shell Spin, Aleisha Dudley. Founder, Brit Harley in the middle. Not pictured, William Hunt.*

Community members are trained and supported in storytelling, mediamaking, and other creative art forms to share and amplify their experiences & produce unique coverage of issues impacting diverse communities in Newark that lack traditional media coverage. Newark Reporting Fellows are paid a stipend to participate.

We build relationships and trust deepened between community members and journalists while laying the groundwork for a collaborative network that will address long-standing information inequities in Newark.

We must see ourselves in news & media in order to engage and reimagine it.

THE WORK

Information sharing is a deeply time-honored tradition in communities around the globe. The connection between people and local, regional, national and international neighbors is what defines a community. Knowing what's happening in (y)our community & having accurate information for informed decision-making is a right, not a privilege.