Following months of analysis, canvassing, and listening to neighborhood wants, journalists are poised to convey solutions-based tales to the Berwyn neighborhood in Chicagoland.
Native journalists Calvin Krippner and Santiago Posada-Jaramillo have been enlisted to a fellowship final fall by News Ambassadors in collaboration with Illinois Latino Information, Cicero Independiente, and WBEZ. By way of engagement reporting methods, they sought to search out out what the Berwyn neighborhood wished to see coated in native information.
Information Ambassadors enlists college-aged journalists to assist native newsrooms fill gaps in protection of underreported communities with rigorously reported tales that uplift options and customary floor – and are conscious of the wants of area people members themselves.
SUGGESTION: Berwyn Collaborative: Understanding Community Needs
Following their neighborhood survey and a neighborhood listening occasion, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo put collectively a shareable Data Ecosystem Evaluation report to share their findings, which might help inform reporting by newsroom companions and scholar reporting fellows within the Information Ambassadors/Illinois Latino Information cohort.
Berwyn is a Chicago suburb with a powerful Latine inhabitants however little native information protection. One of many causes for this lack of protection could also be that different populations (significantly conventional Latine neighborhoods like Little Village or Pilsen) are likely to take the protection highlight.
The neighborhood engagement findings in Berwyn revealed a want for enhanced reporting on public security, well being, faculty, and taxes/authorities spending.
When Berwyn residents have been requested to pick their prime three major information pursuits in an area information survey, 66% included public security, 33% included well being, 30% included faculties, and 40% included taxes and authorities spending.
Requested about their prime three most well-liked strategies of receiving information, 85% of respondents talked about social media, 37% talked about family and friends, and 35% talked about tv broadcasts.
Round 56.5% of respondents mentioned they have been both considerably dissatisfied or dissatisfied with present native information protection, whereas solely about 19% mentioned they have been considerably glad or glad. The remaining 24.5% mentioned they have been impartial.
“Quantitative and qualitative information helps us higher perceive the wants of the Hispanic, Latino neighborhood in Berwyn and shaping the tales we produce – from pitching story concepts to tales being printed,” mentioned Hugo Balta, writer of Illinois Latino Information.
Final November, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo co-hosted a Berwyn neighborhood listening session with newsroom companions at Berwyn’s Liberty Cultural Middle. The agenda? To present attendees an opportunity to talk with journalists and one another concerning the particular native considerations and tales they wish to see coated in native information.
Attendees revealed a want for extra transparency from their native authorities and for journalists to shine a lightweight on how public coverage selections are made. Their considerations will assist to tell reporters’ Options Journalism tales this spring. Whereas some considerations have been raised, attendees additionally identified that grassroots efforts just like the organizing of inexperienced areas, community-based farming practices, and gardening/dietary training have been changing into extra outstanding and that these efforts deserved information protection as properly.
“Politics isn’t all the things for the Berwyn neighborhood,” mentioned one survey respondent. “Many are taking motion to assist their neighbors and to create the neighborhood they want to have. This isn’t a ‘wait and see what occurs’ neighborhood.”
This cohort of journalists will pursue engagement tales this spring by the lens of Solutions Journalism. Options Journalism typically focuses on mentioning particular challenges or injustices inside a specific neighborhood and overlaying ongoing efforts to handle these challenges or injustices.
This previous fall, Krippner and Posada-Jaramillo skilled in Options Journalism methods with Information Ambassadors. In early 2025, they have been joined by Mariana Bermudez, Marija Kraljevic, and Britton Struthers in an effort to enlist in Options Journalism methods within the Berwyn neighborhood. The Chicago cohort can be working alongside a cohort in Prairie View, Texas who’re partaking of their neighborhood with the identical solutions-based reporting methods.
The concept of Options Journalism is that how individuals reply to issues is newsworthy and deserves consideration, too. “Too typically, information protection focuses on issues with out mentioning how individuals can reply or be resilient within the face of these challenges,” mentioned director of Information Ambassadors, Shia Levitt. Options Journalism is rigorous, evidence-based reporting in response to social issues. “When carried out properly, Options Journalism can convey native communities instruments they will use to handle wide-facing native issues.”
Tales from this cohort of journalists will probably be printed later this spring in audio, video, or written type.
To learn the Berwyn Data Ecosystem Evaluation, click on HERE.
Editor’s Notes: Information Ambassadors is funded partly by the Bridge Alliance Education Fund (BAEF). BAEF additionally sponsors the Fulcrum. Hugo Balta is the manager editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund. He’s the writer of the Latino News Network and a coach with the Solutions Journalism Network. The articles produced by the Chicago cohort will selectively be printed on Illinois Latino Information, Latino Information Community, and the Fulcrum.
