E DITOR ’ S P ERSPECTIVE
New Paths to Media-Community Engagement
It was 9 am on a hot summer Saturday morning
in Southern California – hardly the best time for
a civic gathering. However, journalists, public
health leaders, prominent community activists and
members of the general public filled a Los Angeles
conference hall to capacity on Sept. 13, 2003.
There had been previous Los Angeles meetings
involving large numbers of journalists and
George White community stakeholders. However, journalism
Assistant Director
Center for Communications associations organized those gatherings and shaped
and Community the agenda. Similarly, national journalism
associations and news organizations in various
parts of the country have held public forums after
selecting the topics and participants.
The gathering on September 13 was different.
It was an organizational template for creating
balanced engagement between journalists and
community stakeholders to address local problems.
Faced with a crisis in Los Angeles, community
organizations and journalism associations pooled
their resources and ideas for an unprecedented
engagement for answers. With the help of the
Black Journalists Association of Southern California
and The California Wellness Foundation – a
10
Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to health
promotion, wellness education and disease
prevention – this convergence was organized by
the Center for Communications and Community,
an institution that has been working at the
intersection of media and community for five years.
The center, which operates in many U.S. cities,
provides a nexus for media-community engagement
that empowers community improvement advocates
and enhances the awareness and credibility of
journalists. The center helps expand the scope and
accuracy of coverage by building the communica-
tions capacity of community-based groups and by
providing the resources and connections journalists
need to improve coverage.
News coverage is important because it can frame
the public’s understanding of issues and move
the public will. Gang violence, a scourge that has
afflicted communities of color in Southern
California for many years, was the coverage topic
that generated the big turnout at the September
13 forum. Community stakeholders attended on
short notice because gang violence had reached
crisis proportions and because they realized that
news coverage could enlighten the public and
Center for Communications and Community
help motivate communities
to address the crisis.
The outcomes have been
promising. Journalists in
attendance praised the forum Participants in the forum on gang violence.
as an event that provided new
potential news sources and community perspectives community outreach. The tradition was born in
on this issue. Also, there has been new public
discussion of alternative approaches to fighting
gang violence in the wake of the forum. In
addition, some community groups are beginning
to view journalists as potential participants in
public dialogues – not just recorders of events –
as a result of the forum.
Such engagement is rare in an era of increasing
media consolidation in the United States. Fewer
and fewer newspapers, television and radio
stations are locally owned and the notions of
localism and journalistic public service have
diminished as media giants have placed a greater
emphasis on profits and leveraging the resources
of their disparate properties.
Southern California has been an exception because
journalists in the region have a tradition of
Context SPRING 2004 ISSUE NO. 2
11
Photo courtesy of Jordi Ortega.
the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when
many observers concluded that there was a chasm
between the Los Angeles area news media and
Southern California neighborhoods – particularly
communities of color. Some program officers at
the Ford Foundation were among those who had
reached that conclusion.
The foundation offered to fund a media outreach
program and leaders from three journalism groups
– the California Chicano News Media Association
(CCNMA), the Black Journalists Association of
Southern California (BJASC) and the Los Angeles
chapter of the Asian American Journalists
Association – agreed to create such a project.
(BJASC is an affiliate of the National Association
of Black Journalists and CCNMA, founded in
1972, is the oldest association of journalists of
color in the nation.)
 E DITOR ’ S P ERSPECTIVE
continued

Some of the panelists at the gang violence forum:

These pioneers formed an organization called the

Unity Media Access Project (UMAP). UMAP
Dave Clark aimed to help community stakeholders more
KCAL–TV news anchor effectively engage the media by showing them
how to write a press release and how and when
to hold a press conference and by providing
information on newsroom processes. Journalists
at these “access” forums also responded to
questions and comments about news coverage.

Jill Leovy
Los Angeles Times reporter
UMAP organized 30 instructional programs from
1993 through 1995. The National Association of
Black Journalists in 1995 honored its Los Angeles
affiliate with a “Unity Award” plaque for public
service for its role in the coalition.

The UMAP operation ended but the engagement

Dr. Robert Splawn
Director of Emergency Services
California Hospital Medical Center
between the journalism associations and diverse
communities of Southern California continued
when members of the three groups came together
in March 3, 2001 – the tenth anniversary of the
infamous Rodney King beating – to sponsor a
public forum on police reform and community
economic development.

Marleen Wong
Director of Crisis Counseling and Intervention
Services for Los Angeles public schools
This forum also included a new partner – the
Los Angeles Press Club. The four journalism
associations organized the event and set the

Center for Communications and Community

12
agenda, including the questions that would be
addressed. This expanded journalism coalition –
with leadership from the Center for Com-
munications and Community and financial support
from The California Wellness Foundation and the
Black Journalists Association of Southern California
– took part in the forum on gang violence
in Southern California. However, journalism
associations did not control the agenda this time.
Instead, the Center for Communications and
Community consulted with stakeholders such
as The California Wellness Foundation as well
as the journalism associations and made decisions
on the topic, participants and forum issues after
interviewing leading anti-gang activists, medical
experts on violence and journalists who have
covered gang activity. When the research was
complete, the center framed the topic and dubbed
the forum, calling it “Gang Violence as a Public
Health Issue.”
The center selected the topic after concluding
that the news media primarily frames gang
violence as an enforcement issue – ignoring, for
the most part, the public health dimensions.
Those dimensions were noted in the printed
invitations for the forum:
Context SPRING 2004 ISSUE NO. 2
13
“Gang members are
afflicted by pathologies.
Emergency rooms are
often strained by gang-
related carnage. There
are mental health issues
Dr. Deborah Prothrow–Stith
for fearful community
residents and guilt-ridden
survivors of victims. Gang violence is a public
health issue. Join us at an engagement for answers
on the mental and medical factors in a scourge
primarily treated as a public safety issue.”
To generate interest in the medical community,
the center arranged the participation of
Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith of the Harvard
School of Public Health, a national authority on
community violence and a developer of public
health approaches to gang violence. She provided
a keynote presentation.
The forum also included a panel discussion
involving physicians and public health leaders
with expertise on gang violence, gang intervention
counselors and high-profile journalists. The panel
discussed the impact of gang violence on public
health, medical approaches to addressing such
violence and the coverage of gang activity.
 E DITOR ’ S P ERSPECTIVE
continued

Journalists on the panel understood the

value of the gathering.

“Sources make stories,” KCAL–TV anchorman

Dave Clark told the forum audience. “Getting
a chance to sit next to doctors, administrators,
officials and others who know things about
this issue...I’m not eloquent enough to say
how valuable this is.”

The forum provided community stakeholders Attendees at the recent gang violence forum.

an opportunity to question the panelists and

to comment on the issue. One stakeholder,
an anti-gang activist, prompted an outburst
of applause when he affirmed the goal of
the gathering:
“We need to be searching for solutions,” he said.
“We need the media to spend time talking
about solutions.”
The messages from the forum’s supporters continue
to resonate. More than two months after the forum,
California Wellness Foundation President Gary
Yates explained the stakes in an op-ed commentary
in the Los Angeles Times:
“Covering violent crime exclusively from a law
enforcement perspective is the shortest route to
an attention–grabbing headline. But reporters and
editors also have a responsibility to investigate the
causes of violence and to inform the public of
prevention programs. By broadening the coverage
of violence to include a social and environmental
perspective, the media can help us improve the health,
safety and prosperity of our communities.”
Yates’ op-ed cited the work of community-based
activists who have counseled at-risk youth and
provided job training and mentoring to gang
members, lauding their work.

Center for Communications and Community

14
The public discussion about the value of
mentoring continued on Jan. 10, 2004 when
the Los Angeles Times published an editorial that
referenced the anti-gang initiatives of Harvard’s
Deborah Prothrow-Stith.
“Three years ago, the Harvard
public health school launched a
national campaign against gang
“ We
see the value of involving journalists in their
programs. Some of them now plan to invite
journalists to take part in panel discussions and
other activities at their events. Instead of waiting
for the media to engage in
community outreach, they
need to be
are now prepared to reach out
to the media.

violence...the project encourages searching The value of this forum was

adults to volunteer...as mentors also evident to the Los Angeles
to young people from poor, journalists who had roles in
for solutions ...
single-parent households and the post-riot community out-
high-crime neighborhoods... reach programs created by the
We need the media to UMAP media education coali-
“Far too few anti-gang programs tion from 1993 through 1995.
are backed up by research and
spend time talking “
results, but studies show that As a former member of
a stable mentoring relationship UMAP’s board and as
helps kids stay in school and about solutions. assistant director of the
reduces drug use and violence – UCLA-based Center for
not for every young person, but Communications and
for a significant number.” Community, I look forward
to organizing more engagement–for–answers
Responding to the public discussion and to the opportunities that give equal footing to journalists
public forum on gang violence, organizations and community stakeholders in Los Angeles and
involved in gang prevention and intervention now many other cities nationwide. ■

Context SPRING 2004 ISSUE NO. 2

15