Reflective Journalism Project
Democratizing storytelling. Demystifying media. Disrupting old narratives by amplifying new voices. “There are too many important stories in this country that the mainstream media overlooks. The Reflective Journalism Project provides the training, networks, support, and platform for BIPOC leaders and leaders from other underreported communities to make their voices heard.
Democratizing storytelling. Demystifying media.
Disrupting old narratives by amplifying new voices.
“There are too many important stories in this country that the mainstream media overlooks. The Reflective Journalism Project provides the training, networks, support, and platform for BIPOC leaders and leaders from other underreported communities to make their voices heard.”
Iara Peng, Prism Founder
The Reflective Journalism Project (RJP) by Prism is an award-winning program that trains aspiring writers, community leaders, and frontline social justice thinkers and organizers on the editorial processes and strategies needed to turn journalism into a tool for collective liberation. RJP’s foundation is built on the growing ranks of movement journalism — journalism committed to: 1) creating an accurate record of the organizing, resistance efforts, and marginalized communities fighting oppression, and 2) directly challenging long-held industry practices that uphold the status quo under the myths of journalistic “neutrality” and “objectivity.”
Through our workshops, RJP participants learn from movement journalists, publishers, and editors who have built media organizations that are not just mission-driven, but also movement-aligned. Our goal is to help you maximize your reporting impact, engender trust, and connect with aligned readers. We especially center writers, editors and media professionals underrepresented in mainstream media or living on the front lines of injustice in our cohorts to ensure the white-dominated news media industry no longer uses the excuse of “there are no writers of color” to perpetuate homogeneous coverage of what’s happening in our country.
“I love that this workshop went beyond writing and reporting in that you also gave participants a peek at how Prism promotes movement journalism and builds coalitions. The Reflective Journalism Project is so needed right now, and is super helpful for those who are looking to apply their media savvy to centering the people and communities most impacted by policies.”
Gabrielle Gayagoy Gonzalez, author and freelance journalist
Read about RJP in Nonprofit Quarterly‘s “’Movement’ Journalism Is Challenging the Media Status Quo.”
“In an age of mainstream media aiding and abetting fascism and imperialism, Prism’s Reflective Journalism Project shines a light on what it takes to create an alternative, more hopeful future for journalism: one that serves the public good, grounds us in community, and demands an unwavering commitment to amplifying the resistance efforts and resources needed to fight oppression and sustain movements for collective liberation.”
Rikki Li, RJP Program Director
How It Works
Through our hands-on virtual professional development workshops, RJP participants are taught the nuts and bolts of movement journalism and the editorial process. Post-program, RJP alums have the opportunity to pitch and collaborate on stories for publication at Prism, receive mentorship opportunities and support from Prism journalists and editors, access exclusive movement journalism materials that they can implement in their own newsrooms or publications, and much more. We offer several open-enrollment workshops every year, each with a unique theme that meets the moment in our rapidly changing news landscape.
We also offer customized organizational trainings. For pricing and curriculum, please contact rjp@prismreports.org.
Below are some examples of lessons we include in our workshops:
🟠 From Pitch to Publication
- Mastering the pitch: Teaches participants how to craft a compelling and concise pitch that captures their story idea, emphasizes their unique perspective and expertise, and piques editors’ interest
- How to tell your story: Introduces participants to the different approaches and content formats used to share the stories that matter to them and to their communities
🟠 Movement Journalism for Liberation Futures
- How movement journalism shifts the narrative: A skill-share on the concrete reporting, editing, and publishing methods and principles Prism uses to turn journalism into a tool for collective liberation
- The power to refuse: Unpacking the journalism industry’s “myth of objectivity,” how it impacts our reporting and infiltrates our editorial processes, and the strategies mainstream media employs to shape public opinion and manufacture consent.
🟠 Audience Strategy for Movement Outlets
- From strategy to production: A deep dive into rejecting capitalist “audience growth” and approaching audience engagement and development as coalition-building, reframing community engagement as political education, informed by and accountable to movements and communities.
Email rjp@prismreports.org to learn more, and sign up to be the first to know when registration for the next virtual RJP workshop opens.
“The level of detail, organization, and thoroughness delivered in the Reflective Journalism Project by the Prism team was outstanding. Especially around the editorial process, the information, resources, and conversations held in each session were jam-packed and insightful, leaving us with a generous amount of material to review in reflection. I’m looking forward to contributing to and engaging with the collective work that emerges from this wonderful container.”
Chinyere Erondu, editor and writer
“I loved the Reflective Journalism Project. There really is no other way to put it. I had a wonderful experience. The Prism staff assembled an excellent month-long course on movement journalism. I left with a greater understanding of the craft, a deeper commitment to activism as a writer, and better equipped to do the work I feel called to do.”
Steve Peraza, journalist and historian
“Through Prism’s Reflective Journalism Project, our Rural Women’s Collective fellows have been able to learn the nuts and bolts related to the entire editorial process—including how to take their personal stories and ideas and turn them into a compelling pitch and powerful article, build positive working relationships with editors, and promote their pieces effectively. We are excited to be building a deep bench of rural women storytellers with a unique and honest perspective that is missing from the national dialogue.”
Norma Flores López, Justice for Migrant Women