November 3, 2022
Newsletter

A memorial site at the Itaewon metro station in Seoul on Sunday. Chang W. Lee / The New York Times

What We're Thinking About: Creating Togetherness in Tragedy, Uplifting Heritage to the Light 

• AAJA sends sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the crowd tragedy in Seoul and the bridge collapse in India. We recognize and understand the challenge and difficulty of covering stories like this. AAJA is arranging for professionally facilitated listening sessions for Asian and Asian American journalists who have been covering these tragedies. We will have details out soon. In the meantime, we uplift reporters working on the stories, including Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Victoria Kim, Sophie Jeong and others.
• We are heartened by the many submissions from South Asian members about how they were able to celebrate their heritage on the occasion of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, on the job.
• We are entering the final week of the 2022 midterm elections. Stay safe while reporting, and brush up on your safety skills with CPJ’s journalist safety kit. Don’t forget to vote!

From AAJA-HQ: Statements, AAJA Defined, Membership Updates

Recent Statements

• AAJA is saddened to hear about the passing of Neema Roshania Patel, an editor at The Washington Post and a member of AAJA and SAJA. We send our deepest condolences to her loved ones and to all whose lives she touched. Read our statement and SAJA’s statement.
• AAJA and Military Veterans in Journalism urged newsrooms against using the Japanese word “kamikaze” to describe the self-detonating Iranian-made drones that Russia is using to conduct attacks in Ukraine. The statement was highlighted by Nikkei Asia, ITmedia News and Popular Science.

AAJA Defined 

• To close out FAHM with #MoreAAPINewsLeaders, we interviewed Nicole Dungca, incoming AAJA president and investigative reporter at The Washington Post about how her Filipina American identity impacts her work.
• We revisited Yung AAJA’s resume workshop with Benét J. Wilson and Michael Huang, moderated by Gwendolyn Wu. Learn some of their best tips and tricks!

JCamp Stories Several pieces by our 2022 JCamp cohort are now available to read on Medium. Explore our talented students’ stories from this past summer and follow us on social media for highlights!

To-Dos for Members:

• Affinity Groups Apply to propose or renew your AAJA Affinity Group by Nov. 15.
• VeryAAJA Donate $40 or more to get your VeryAAJA shirt!

From The Center for Public Integrity's "Building a Diverse Future for Investigative News,"
ft. Nicole Dungca and Mc Nelly Torres:

"[If] you want to invest in investigative journalism, you need a diverse group of people to really do that kind of work, because it’s the only way you’re going to have better journalism." -Mc Nelly Torres

🗓 Upcoming AAJA Events

Visit our revamped events calendar for more chapter events!

Nov. 7 | AAJA News Nerds Virtual Mixer | AAJA News Nerds is back with their first virtual mixer on Monday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. ET. To meet others at the intersection of media, tech, design, data, audience and more, RSVP here.

Nov. 11 | AAJA-Washington D.C. Media Diversity Happy Hour and Mixer | Join AAJA-D.C., WABJ-D.C., NAHJ-D.C., AMEJA, NLGJA-D.C. and SAJA for a joint mixer on Friday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. ET at 1865 Steak Seafood & Cigars. Learn more here.

Nov. 12 | AAJA-New York’s Corky Lee Fellowship in Photojournalism Exhibit Opening | View Fan Chen and Xyza Bacani's work with AAJA-N.Y. for the opening reception of the inaugural Corky Lee Fellows in Photojournalism exhibit on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 5 p.m. ET in Manhattan's Chinatown. RSVP here.

Nov. 17 | AAJA-Hawai’i’s Pau Hana | Join AAJA-Hawai’i for their final event of the year on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. HT at Village Bottle Shop and Tasting Room at Kaka‘ako. RSVP by Nov. 10.

📓 News & Resources

midterm elections The Committee to Protect Journalists shared a journalist safety kit for journalists to be better protected against online abuse, including both digital and physical threats, in the field during the upcoming midterm elections.

digital safety PEN America, the Online News Association and the International Women’s Media Foundation collaborated to provide step-by-step videos and a field manual to empower journalists with tools to combat online abuse.

diversity in media Poynter’s “Lessons from North Carolina on covering local immigration news” reveals insufficiencies in how news outlets report on such communities, with fewer than five percent of news stories in this study featuring AAPIs.

news about news Roop Raj shared his experiences as one of the few Indian American evening news anchors in a major market.

👏 AAJA Kudos to...

• Sonal Shah, who is the next CEO of The Texas Tribune, joining editor-in-chief Sewell Chan. We're thrilled to see #MoreAAPINewsLeaders with two Asian Americans in the top two positions in one newsroom.
• Pia Sarkar, who is the deputy business editor for enterprise and storytelling at The Associated Press.
• Greg Lee, who was promoted at KTVU FOX 2 and will be an anchor on Friday and Saturday evenings.
• Parul Kapur Hinzen, who won the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Prize for the Novel for “Inside the Mirror.”
• Cody Hmelar, who won a National Association of Broadcasters Marconi award for College Station of the Year. 
• Gene Luen Yang, a speaker at #AAJA22, who became the first Asian American to win the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature.
• Saeed Ahmed, who is the head of digital journalism at BBC.
• Pallavi Gogoi, who was promoted to acting managing editor-daily report at NPR.
• Kai Teoh, who is a data and interactive news editor at The Dallas Morning News.
• Kellie Hwang, who was promoted at The San Francisco Chronicle and is the newsletter editor. 
• Lindsey Ragas, who joins FOX 10 Phoenix as a reporter/fill-in anchor.

Several South Asian anchors celebrated Diwali in their newsrooms across the U.S. on Oct. 24, proudly wearing traditional attire on air. From the left: Rekha Muddaraj of KHOU 11 News Houston, Syma Chowdhry of News 12 NJ, Hema Mullur of CBS Austin News and Homa Bash of ABC News 5 Cleveland.

On Our List 🌟 📺 📸 📰 🎧

Follow us on Twitter @aaja for more works on our radar from the AAJA community.

• “‘It was almost post-apocalyptic’: A reckoning awaits Seoul’s crowd tragedy” by Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Kelly Kasulis Cho, Stephanie McCrummen, Annabelle Timsit and Praveena Somasundaram, The Washington Post
• "Morbi bridge collapse" by Sudev Kiyada, Jackie Gu, Shivam Patel, Anand Katakam, Devjyot Ghoshal, Anurag Rao and Aditi Bhandari, Reuters 
• "South Korean authorities say they had no guidelines for Halloween crowds, as families grieve 156 victims" by Jessie Yeung, Sophie Jeong, Gawon Bae, Jake Kwon and Mayumi Maruyama, CNN 
• “Diwali is having a mainstream moment in the US” by Harmeet Kaur, CNN
• “How Three Atlanta Chefs Celebrate Diwali Through Food” by Nandita Godbole, Eater
• “California banned affirmative action in 1996. Inside the UC struggle for diversity” by Teresa Watanabe, The Los Angeles Times
• “New look at one of America’s oldest communities affected by climate change” by Joie Chen, Matter of Fact
• “From San José to Little Saigon, on the Bánh Mì Bus” by Christine Nguyen, KQED
• “Sikh Student Detained on Campus Speaks to Lack of Religious and Diversity Training at Schools” by Anissa Deol, Teen Vogue
• “Reparations: The payment — and the cost — to one Japanese American woman” by Taylor Jung, NJ Spotlight News
• “Season 3 Episode 6: Seeing Signs” by Melody Cao, Queens Memory Project

AAJA Opportunities

• AAJA-L.A. and The L.A. Times’ 2023 Henry Fuhrmann Multiplatform Editing Summer Internship | Deadline: Jan. 10, 2023 | Apply here. 
• AAJA Studio Submissions | Become an expert and join here.
• AAJA LGBTQ+ Affinity Group | Jireh Deng and Siri Chilukuri hope to start an AAJA LGBTQ+ affinity group. | Learn more at the sign-up form.

External and Partner Opportunities

• Sports Journalism Institute | The Sports Journalism Institute is accepting applications for their nine-week training and internship program. | Deadline: Friday, Nov. 4 | Apply here.
• Investigative Journalist Equity Initiative | Frontline PBS is accepting applications for their investigative journalist equity initiative. Participants will receive support for an investigative long-form documentary storytelling project. | Apply here.
• Committee of 100/Columbia University Survey | This survey seeks input from the Chinese American community to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences. | Fill it out here.

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