September 9, 2020
Newsletter
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Mengshin Lin's winning entry for the #AAJA20 Dith Pran Photoshoot Contest depicts two kids wearing masks in a shopping cart at a Costco store in Taiwan. |
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President's Note: What AAJA Fest Has Taught Us
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National Updates: Call for Judges, Board Election Results, AAJA-SAJA guidance on Kamala Harris
- #AAJA20 Dith Pran Photo Shootout Winners
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Member Updates: #AAJAKudos, AARP-AAJA Storytelling Grant Recipients, and Bylines
- Opportunities
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Dear AAJA Family,
I hope you’ve had a chance to process all you learned and experienced during our full week of AAJA Fest.
Our week together taught me just how much I have craved and needed my AAJA family during this pandemic. I hope the week was rejuvenating and healing for all of you -- the 100+ panels featuring brilliant speakers; social events like virtual karaoke, movie nights and cook-alongs; our celebration of AAJA trailblazers; and the honest discussions about how the pandemic has upended our lives as parents, employees, journalists and humans and how we can better support each other.
While I missed seeing everyone in person, I found the virtual experience humanizing, grounding and precious in its own way. We got to meet each other’s children, spouses and pets through surprise appearances on Zoom. So many first-time attendees joined us, in search of community and support. And so many members who were not able to attend in recent years were able to reconnect with the AAJA family.
About 1,500 people registered for our first-ever virtual convention -- the biggest convention attendance in at least about 12 years -- from all across the country, plus Hawaii, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The majority of our sessions were recorded and will be available on-demand for a full year on Pathable.
The community that we created together through the virtual experience is a testament to the strength of AAJA and our membership. The memories we created were possible because we all decided to make the best of this tumultuous time.
AAJA Fest was a challenging and daunting project, and we had little data to guide us in planning it. Every step of the way, our guiding light was creating community. We strived to step up to the moment, and to be the organization you need during this tumultuous time.
I am deeply grateful to those who made AAJA Fest possible: national staff, the Board of Directors, the Advisory Board, the Convention Programming Committee, our chapter and affinity group leaders, our sponsors, our funders and our individual donors, and all of our super-volunteers. Thank you for believing in our vision and mission.
Throughout AAJA Fest and in the weeks leading up to it, I heard from so many of you about how AAJA can serve you better. Thank you for your feedback; it is critical in informing how AAJA grows together in the coming years. I will continue to listen, to solicit feedback and to communicate how AAJA is working to make sure our organization is a valuable and meaningful part of every step of your career.
Lastly, thank you for your vote of confidence. I am humbled by your vote of confidence, and I look forward to working and growing with you together over the next two years.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
AAJA President
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National Updates
ELECTIONS
Board Election Results AAJA is proud to welcome the new slate of officers for the 2021-2022 term: Michelle Ye Hee Lee has been re-elected as President, Jin Ding is the VP-elect of Finance, and Julia B. Chan is the VP-elect of Civic Engagement. Learn more about the officers-elect here.
AAJA-Atlanta Election: Mallika Kallingal has been elected AAJA-Atlanta chapter president. She succeeds Willoughby Mariano, who has moved to Boston for her Nieman fellowship.
CONFERENCE RECAPS
AAJA Visibility Fest (#AAJA20) Recordings Watch #AAJA20 featured sessions available to the public, including our opening and closing programs, covering the presidential campaign, BLM solidarity, press freedom in the Philippines, covering the disability community, and more.
AAJA-Asia New.Now.Next Media Conference (N3Con) 2020 Daily Recaps Congratulations to AAJA Asia on their virtual N3Con! Catch the highlights of N3Con here, featuring sustainable journalism business models, innovation in media career paths, press freedom in Asia, getting comfortable with data, and more.
STATEMENTS
"We demand better from the Philadelphia Inquirer" This is a joint statement issued by the Philadelphia chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association & National Association of Hispanic Journalists with the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists to the boards of the Lenfest Institute and the Philadelphia Inquirer, to the publisher and executive leadership of the Inquirer and to the leadership at the Lenfest Institute. Read in full here.
Sen. Kamala Harris Coverage Guidance The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) urge contextualized and comprehensive news coverage around the racial identity of Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris. Read the guidance here.
AAJA-Asia Condems Arrest of Apple Daily Founder, Media Executives & Apple Daily Raid Read statement here.
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📷 #AAJA20 Dith Pran Photo Shootout Contest
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The Photojournalists Affinity Group (PAG) of AAJA would like to thank all the people who submitted entries to this year's Dith Pran Photo Shootout contest which is held every year in conjunction with the AAJA National Convention. Since this year’s convention was virtual, attendees were allowed to take photos wherever they were while maintaining safety protocols.
This year's contest theme was "Coping with a pandemic," and we would like to congratulate Mengshin Lin on her winning entry of two kids wearing masks in a shopping cart at a Costco store in Taiwan (see email header image). Lin's entry stood out above the rest. Jimmy Colton, Photo Editor-at-large for Zuma Press said "Nice moment captured of what is now the new "normal." Even in the midst of a pandemic, kids will be kids and want to go for a ride in the shopping cart. Nice job getting down to the kid's eye level."
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Second place went to Vritti Rashi Goel for her black and white photo of a mask hanging in a car (above) and third place went to our 2018 winner, Young Kim for his photo of a pop-up drive-in theater (left).
Lin will have her name engraved on the winner's plaque and will receive free registration for next year's AAJA21 convention. Also, thanks to Robert Hanashiro, staff photographer for USA Today, founder of Sportsshooter Academy, Lin will receive tuition to a Sportsshooter Academy workshop of her choosing.
Lin is a student at Columbia College in Chicago and currently in Taiwan. She plans to return to the U.S. to finish her studies and graduate in May 2021 with a B.A. in Photography.
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What Did You Think of #AAJA20?
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👏 #AAJAKudos to...
Celebrate your achievements with us -- tag @aaja or let us know on Slack.
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Pam Chen has been named VP/News Director at KABC Los Angeles.
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Ed Yong, staff writer for The Atlantic, was awarded Science Writing's 2020 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. Judges noted his "relentless" reporting and cited his 2018 enterprise piece, "The Next Plague is Coming. Is America Ready?" Ed donated the entirety of his prize money to three journalism organizations, AAJA being one of them. We're thankful for his support of our mission.
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David Song is joining Golfweek this September.
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Queena Kim, Senior Editor of the Weekend Desk at public broadcaster KQED, is joining Berkeley Journalism as the head of the audio program.
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Aparna Mukherjee was named JSK Community Im"act Fellows for 2020-2021.
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Courtney Kan was promoted to Projects Editor at The Washington Post, helping to facilitate innovative digital storytelling and collaboration for major enterprise reporting.
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Justin Lum and his team, for being nominated for a Rocky Mountain Emmy in Historic/Cultural - News Single Story/Series/Feature/Program Segment.
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Richard Chang has been hired as Arts & Culture Senior Editor at Voice of OC, a nonprofit news site that covers Orange County, California. He also started a new job as journalism instructor at Cal State Long Beach.
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Rachel Chang, Agnes Constante, and Janet Cho, the AARP-AAJA Community Coronavirus Grant Recipients. Stay tuned for more on their proposed stories.
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"This was probably one of the most significant conferences for the AAJA Sports Task Force. The programming we offered at AAJA20 was important and impactful. We keyed in on relatable topics that reached an audience beyond sports journalists and fans." Photo depicts Carolyn Hong of ESPN / Illustration by Emily Archacki |
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On Our List
Member bylines emboldened.
📰 To read
- “ESPN, the Sports Task Force and AAJA helped me find that soul” by Santa Brito, about #AAJA20. AAJA STF members Kevin Negandhi, Joon Lee, Alison Overholt, Carolyn Hong, and Michael Huang reflect on their #AAJA20 programming involvement.
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Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S Colleges and Universities by Alex Lim, Yves De Jesus, Kristine White, John Yoon, Tiffany Wong, and others
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Harris’ dual identities challenge America’s race labels by Sally Ho
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Immigrant Restaurant Workers are Organizing by Grace Li
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New U.S. Citizens Were One Of The Fastest-Growing Voting Blocs. But Not This Year. by Eileen Guo
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Oklahoma Governor Pushing to Undo Tribal Sovereignty Ruling by Ti-Hua Chang
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VIRUS DIARY: She has her cake, but others can't eat it, too by Terry Tang, AAJA-Arizona president on celebrating her birthday during the pandemic
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Helen Zia has seen hostility against Asian Americans before. ‘We didn’t learn enough or some people have forgotten.’ by Nicole Carroll
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Commentary: ‘Mulan’ remake a twisted reflection of the animated version, upending a rare positive portrayal for Chinese Americans like me by Grace Wong
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The live-action ‘Mulan’ is not the first retelling of the legend. Or the second. Or the sixth. by Martin Tsai
📺📸 To witness
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Watch all nine featured #AAJA20 sessions available to the public, including our opening and closing programs, covering the presidential campaign, BLM solidarity, press freedom in the Philippines, covering the disability community, and more.
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PHOTOS: Why The Philippines Has So Many Teen Moms by Aurora Almendral, photos by Hannah Reyes Morales
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Hong Kong mourns the end of its way of life as China cracks down on dissent story and photographs by Laurel Chor
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APAICS Diversity in Sports panel featuring Rep. Ami Bera (CA-7), Barry Lee, Jimmy Lynn, and Kim Ng, moderated by Cary Chow
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APAICS AAPI Elected Officials panel featuring Rep. Ted Lieu, Phillip Chen, Jake Fitisemanu, Nima Kulkarni, Evan Low, and Tina Maharath, moderated by Bobby Caina Calvan
🎧 To listen
- “Birthright Citizenship: US v Wong Kim Ark,” NHPR’s Civics 101 podcast, written and produced by Felix Poon
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Hate Goes Viral (1/3), Studiotobe’s Self-Evident podcast, by James Boo, Julia Shu, Sonia Paul, and others
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How Sport Influences Social Justice Conversation in Today's Society, The Pabcast podcast, by Pablo Iglesias
- EXCLUSIVE: "CORONA LIFE - Circle of Life Quarantine Remix," a karaoke medley by #AAJA20 karaoke finalists James Boo, Chris Casquejo, Sharon Chan, Natasha Chen, Pablo Iglesias, Jain Kim, and Frances Wang
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Meet Medill This Fall
Join Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications for a virtual information session this fall to learn about our master’s in journalism program. Our hands-on approach will give you the experiences you need to launch or accelerate your career.
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The Fund for Investigative Journalism provides grants directly to journalists for investigative stories. The next deadline for regular grants – for investigative stories on any topic – is September 14. There are also emergency grants available for investigative coverage related to COVID-19 or police misconduct, and those are reviewed on a rolling basis. More information on all of the grants is at fij.org.
Grants are up to $10,000 and cover costs of investigations, as well as small stipends for reporters. The first half of the grant is paid up-front, and the second half is paid when the story is published.
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Participate in a research study about journalists and political polling (by Sept. 11)
Take part in a research study about journalists and political polling. We are looking for reporters and editors to take an online survey, which should take about 15-20 minutes. As an incentive, all participants who complete the survey will have a chance to win one of five $50 Amazon gift cards. Access the questionnaire here.
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This online event, which is not open to the general public, will give attendees exclusive access to some of the country’s most important higher education leaders, researchers and journalists. It will address important topics likely to make headlines in coming months, such as how the pandemic and economic shutdown are affecting the already controversial and scandal-ridden admissions process, how it worsens colleges’ financial outlooks, and how it is impacting a rise in student activism.
Journalists who register for the event are also eligible to submit a request for a personalized 20-minute video chat with one of our veteran higher education journalist members, from outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Detroit Free Press.
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Join the Society of Environmental Journalists at #SEJ2020 (Sept.16-17, 23, 30)
COVID-19 has disrupted our lives in countless ways, including forcing SEJ to postpone our annual conference for the first time in 30 years.
While we’ve moved the in-person conference in Boise to June 2-6, 2021 (#SEJ2021), our 2020 Virtual Conference (#SEJ2020), September 16, 17, 23 and 30, will convene the SEJ community to investigate environmental angles on the 2020 elections and other timely events, celebrate the winners of the SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment, and preview workshops, tours and panels coming in June.
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What did you think of #AAJA20: Let us know [5-10 minute survey]
Did you produce (or consume) some great journalism recently? Put your work on our radar, so we can feature you in the next member highlights.
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