Covering Communities at Risk: What Can Reporters and Outlets Learn from Ethnic Media?
At a time when the news media faces a crisis of trust, and when credible news and information is often overtaken by rumor and misinformation, what can reporters and news outlets learn from ethnic and in-language media outlets that go the extra mile to connect with their communities? What engagement strategies can journalists use to build trust and reach vulnerable communities? In this webinar jointly offered by the Online News Association and the USC Center for Health Journalism, you will learn journalism strategies deployed by reporters and newsrooms participating in the Center for Health Journalism’s Engagement Initiative. Those efforts focus on centering community voices in innovative ways.
Panelists
Enrique Chiabra is a news anchor at Telemundo 52 Los Angeles who also works as a reporter on special assignments. Chiabra covers a variety of topics but is particularly passionate about stories that involve immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. He has won 11 LA Emmy Awards as well as a Ruben Salazar Award in 2021 and a GLAAD Award in 2016. As a Center for Health Journalism 2024 California Health Equity Fellow, his project reported on how the incurable lung disease silicosis is affecting more Latino immigrant workers in California.
Mariana Duran is a bilingual Spanish-English journalist for El Tecolote, supported by UC Berkeley’s California Local News Fellowship. She is a former 2023 reporting intern for the Los Angeles Times en Español and previously wrote for the San Luis Obispo Tribune. She has experience producing feature stories that often explore Latinx cultures and issues. Duran graduated from Pomona College, with degrees in media studies and cognitive science. In college, she joined the school paper and fell in love with the news desk. She led the labor beat, created a translation desk, and eventually became a news and managing editor. She grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, a city with vast ideological and wealth disparities. Her experience living there inspired Duran to become a writer. Duran was a Center for Health Journalism 2025 Ethnic Media Collaborative participant.
Teena Apeles is the national engagement editor at the Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. In this role, she works closely with journalists across the country to center community voices and experiences in their reporting. Apeles has guided journalists in reporting for and with communities in transformative ways, including developing story callouts and community questionnaires, hosting panels and listening sessions, and canvassing and tabling in neighborhoods to hear directly from people affected by specific health issues. As a writer, Apeles has covered art, culture, activism and history for the Los Angeles Times, KCET, PBS SoCal, PBS Canvas, National Geographic, and LAist.