Media + Local Community = Steps Towards Equitable Access to Information

Media.

This word can inspire you, shake you, or it might make you feel like you wear a tinfoil hat.

I stepped into the media world about 2 years ago and as a Puerto Rican woman, my experience of the media until then had often been a negative one. I would read stories that described my communities in ways that didn’t serve them -- most often, painting marginalized communities in ways that made other people gawk at violence, reinforcing stereotypes, and contributing to fears.

No matter what, people need to be informed about the “newsworthy” things happening around them… how can this be done from an equity-informed perspective?

In NH, we have newspapers, local TV news, public media, and a handful of independent media outlets. Have you ever tried to reach out to any of those outlets? I did. It was VERY difficult. I realized that you often have to know the right people and have the right story. Then that story might not be told in an appropriate way, or not provided in a needed language.

With the growing diversity of the NH population, I was interested to find shows, news, information and sports that reflected what was happening here in NH. Yet it was often hard to find or unavailable. I found myself trying to create space for more language access, especially for the Spanish-speaking Latino community.

I was met with the same words that many in my community face: “There isn’t an audience for it in NH” or “There isn’t enough money in our budgets without the right numbers.” Having worked in the community for many years I understood the needs for relevant and accessible programming.

Thus, in Fall of 2020, I was thrilled for the opportunity to get involved in the production of a local video podcast and radio program.

In March of 2021, I was invited to a group made up of Latino community members and members of the media. Although some of the conversation revolved around how to support the NHPR Spanish-language news initiative, ¿Qué Hay de Nuevo, NH? (What’s new, New Hampshire?), it was clear to me that this was more than a traditional advisory group.

“Through mutual learning about the concepts of community engagement and equitable partnership building, both the community and media meeting participants became excited for the possibility of something new and different that would serve the Spanish-speaking Latino community of New Hampshire, the largest ethnic/cultural group in the state.

Historically, New Hampshire has had no traditional Spanish media outlets of any kind — neither television, radio or newspapers. Instead, community members have had to rely on the Boston major markets for news and Entertainment. The purpose is to increase news availability in Spanish by producing content that the Latino community in New Hampshire needs, while building connection and understanding between Latinos and the broader community.” - Spanish Language Latino Community Media Partnership of NH

Daniela Allee, Senior editor at NHPR, Melanie Plenda, Director of the Granite State News Collaborative, and Dr. Trinidad Tellez, equity strategist, are the powerhouses who co-convene the group, make sure we stay on our goals, and each bring their unique expertise.

Dr. Tellez, who has been doing the work of equitable partnership building for many years, would periodically bring us back to reviewing the principles of community engagement, answering partnership questions together, augmenting our community agreements, and fostering relationship-building activities. She said this was important foundation-building to create a space for centering the community, and to be better able to handle any bumps in the road. Now, I’ll admit I was skeptical of her process at first. Being a Latina woman who has worked in nonprofits and been involved in community projects for years, I have been through my fair share of different types of equity training and community work.

 I came into the group the same way most do, with my career ego first.

Although I was making authentic community connections, I was still in the mentality of wondering “how is this group going to serve my work?”.

And I realized I felt the pull of both identities, being a Latina community member as well as, being a member of the media. I learned I needed to be able to actually step out of my comfort zone and remove my own career ego. If I have the true intention of serving my community, I needed to understand the basics of community building.

We all had to listen with the understanding that we were going to get uncomfortable enough to understand our strengths and weaknesses as a group. We had to create a foundation in which we understood the ways we can communicate with each other. We had to be open enough to listen to community needs and have respect for those who have been doing this work for years. This process is a long journey as we are humans and tend to stumble around logistics, current events, the traditional ways of operating, and our own egos.

This intentional work as a group opened my eyes to how impactful it is for the community and media partners to work together in true partnership: effectively listening to community needs, collectively co-creating a project that we all felt was important, and then together sharing in the work according to skills, funding, and deadlines. Creating this space has allowed the group to collaboratively complete several projects to meaningfully serve the community.

The group’s first co-created project was “Los Sabores de Nuestros Vecinos / Flavors of Our Neighbors.” While produced by partners First Gen Multimedia, NHPR, NH PBS, and Granite State News Collaborative, all the group members contributed to the bilingual series highlighting Latino Restaurant Owners in the Granite State. 

More recently, this past election season the group partnered in many ways to create more language accessible content: covering Vote Now NH Hispanics; Latino Candidate forum and producing news pieces in both English and Spanish about some of the people running for office in NH; producing televised candidate debates translated into Spanish for the first time; creating “Tu Voto Cuenta (Your Vote Counts)” on the Granite State News Collaborative website with helpful voter information including a Spanish-translation of the NH Citizens Count candidate surveys; and even creating short informational TikTok reels on how to vote utilizing the newly translated voter information on the NH Secretary of State's website.

We are so excited for our recent accomplishments and look forward to co-creating more relevant and meaningful content! And, we will continue to build community as a group as it keeps evolving and we understand our impact.

Together we are co-creating important opportunities for community members to have a voice in the narratives told in the NH media. These are the little big steps towards creating more equitable access to information, news, and content in our state.

I have learned that if our local media really want to be equitable and engage with the community, they have to invest the time and the resources to build relationships and trust first.

Let the people lead! I know that is a hard line for some, because it is very different from our usual ways of working -- still, it is probably the most important part: let the community lead.

Jasmine Torres Allen,
Community and Education Engagement Coordinator, New Hampshire PBS