Photo: Oakland Voices correspondents Kevin Butler, Alma Collins Dumas, MuHajir Boyle Hassan, Nikia Durgin, Marian Johnson, Sydney Lester, Moamer Rafe, Kwajo Opoku Ware.
This article was originally published on the Oakland Voices website.
Oakland Voices launched its 2024 Community Journalism Academy to amplify the voices of Oakland residents and change the narrative about the Town.
“This is a resilient group of people that want to tell compelling stories about Oakland,” said Rasheed Shabazz, co-director of Oakland Voices.
Learning Community Journalism
Shabazz developed the curriculum, building on the work of former program coordinator Brenda Payton. The academy includes training on journalism ethics, the Maynard Institute’s Fault Lines framework, news reporting, interviews, health and civic reporting, and opinion/column writing.
Working journalists support the program by leading workshops and sharing their experiences in the field and the newsroom. This year’s faculty has included Niema Jordan, Azucena Rasilla, and Spence Whitney. Grover Wehman-Brown with the housing narrative lab also led a workshop focused on writing about unhoused communities. Most training takes place at Oakland Public Libraries.
“I’m really excited about their creativity and commitment to telling stories about the people of Oakland,” Shabazz said.
This year, nine dedicated Oakland residents are participating in the six-month program. Participants are halfway through the program. So far, they’ve learned interviewing skills through the Talk of the Town series, asking Oakland residents their opinions on different issues, and leading in-depth question and answer interviews. Correspondents are currently completing news and health feature stories.
Participants learn essential journalism ethics, practices, and storytelling skills while contributing impactful stories to the Oakland Voices website (oaklandvoices.us). This year’s program launched in May.
The 2024 Oakland Voices Community Journalism Academy:
- Kevin Butler
- Alma Collins Dumas
- MuHajir Boyle Hassan
- Nikia Durgin
- Yasamin Hatefi
- Marian Johnson
- Sydney Lester
- Moamer Rafe
- Kwajo Opoku Ware
Alumni Program
When correspondents complete the program, they will develop a portfolio of stories and be eligible to join Oakland Voices’ alumni program. Program alumni receive payment for contributing stories to the website along with support with publishing in other outlets.
The majority of content of the Oakland Voices site is contributed by program alum.
About Oakland Voices
Since 2010, Oakland Voices has trained over 75 community storytellers to tell stories about their communities in print and online platforms, as well as radio broadcasts and live shows in partnership with KALW.
Oakland Voices emerged from a partnership between the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the Oakland Tribune newspaper and continues to evolve as a unique, independent, community news and information source focused on media literacy and journalism education.
By 2030, Oakland Voices hopes to train 100 Oakland community storytellers to help address the gap that has emerged from the loss of local news outlets.
About the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Oakland Voices is a program of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Oakland Voices has been supported by the California Endowment and the Akonadi Foundation.
For more than 45 years, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. Founded by Robert C. Maynard, the Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We support efforts to change the narrative about Oakland by providing journalism training and a platform to amplify the voices of Oakland residents.