[Shout outs from The Chicago Reader, Romenesko]
The bond linking immigrants is shown by a unique collaboration of six Chicago area ethnic news media in a series of stories exploring the impact of the upcoming U.S. Census count on their communities. The stories were released simultaneously on Fri., Jan. 15.
With more than 1.7 million people of foreign birth living in Illinois, no issue except for immigration reform seems as critical as who gets counted and what the census will tell us about our immigrant communities.
The publications taking part are Extra (Hispanic), the Polish Daily News, 4NewsMedia (Polish), Pinoy Newsmagazine (Philippine), Future newspaper (Arab), the India Tribune, and the Korea Daily News.
Students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism reported and wrote the stories, while the publishers and editors helped shape the process through their work with Community Media Workshop’s Ethnic News Media Project and Medill’s Immigrant Connect project. The work is supported by grants from The Chicago Community Trust’s Community News Matters project, the McCormick Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation.
Read the stories here:
U.S. Census needed for Korean elections
Census campaign means Spis Powszechny to the Polish community [in Polish]
Counting Hispanics in Little Village’s hands [in Spanish]
Two Indian communities join to take on the U.S. Census
U.S. Census challenges fragmented Filipino community
Arab “whites†await the U.S. Census
Each news outlet is carrying a story about how the issue affects its own community as well as the stories from the other five communities. For non-English publications, the stories are being translated into their own languages. This is the only effort of this kind today in the U.S. as far as the partners know.
