Our journalists are always on TV, the radio and even in print in local community papers, but Voice of San Diego is mainly a product of the internet. Our best work lives online and in social media.
But not everyone is accustomed to getting their news online. Many aren’t aware of how much they can learn about the struggles — and triumphs — of their neighborhoods with the internet.
That’s why we’re launching a series of news literacy workshops aimed at helping underserved residents leverage new media and technology to become empowered members of their community.
We’ll be kicking off the workshops in Chula Vista next month. We chose Chula Vista because we have wanted to dedicate more reporting resources to the South Bay for years and thought this would be a good first step in understanding the diverse concerns of its residents.
By partnering with local community groups like South Bay Community Services and the Chula Vista Library, we’ll collaborate with residents to develop a meaningful curriculum that can help them leverage technology to learn more about local government, the school system, the economy and other public affairs.
As a by-product, we hope to learn what issues should be addressed not only by Voice of San Diego but also other news outlets – and by citizen journalists too. One of the workshops will be dedicated to helping the participants create community blogs where they can contribute stories and commentary about what’s happening in their neighborhoods.
We hired recent University of San Diego graduate and Eastlake native Bianca Bruno as an intern to spearhead this project. She’ll be spending the next few weeks doing research, hosting focus groups and recruiting workshop participants. She’ll be chronicling the whole experience and sharing it on the new News Literacy section of our site. You can also follow on Twitter @VOSDnewslit.
Voice of San Diego has a two-part mission: to do investigative reporting and to make sense of public affairs and policies so people can make better decisions for social progress and good government. We’ve been able to achieve our mission by providing strong reporting and analysis along with an array of community engagement events — from small coffees and panel discussions, to large outdoor festivals and arts and culture gatherings.
If you have any suggestions or questions, please shoot us an email. If you’re a Chula Vista resident, you can also sign up for the workshop series by contacting bianca.bruno@voiceofsandiego.org.