Local Media Outlets Guide

LOCAL MEDIA OUTLET GUIDE

This is a list of local media outlets the Public Narrative team curated. We encourage you to incorporate these newsrooms as part of your media intake to expand your understanding of your community and the world around you.

Austin Weekly

Austin Weekly News is a news site committed to in-depth reporting on issues concerning the Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. Austin Weekly is part of the Growing Community Media nonprofit group. Website: https://www.austinweeklynews. com | https://growingcommunitymedia. org/

Block Club Chicago

Block Club Chicago is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. Their mission is to build community through ground-level reporting of the city’s neighborhoods. Website: https://www.blockclubchicago. org

Borderless Magazine

Borderless Magazine NFP is a nonprofit news outlet reimagining immigration journalism for a more just and equitable future.

Borderless covers labor, justice and advocacy issues impacting Midwestern immigrant communities through a lens of equity and resilience. Borderless also provides opportunities for emerging journalists from immigrant and other marginalized communities to report on immigration and learn from professional journalists through its Pathways program and its Immigration Reporting Lab. Borderless responds to immigrants’ information and language needs and aims to create a more representative media landscape that includes their voices and experiences. Website: https://www.borderlessmag.org

CAN TV

The City of Chicago established CAN TV in 1983 to maximize the involvement of Chicago residents and groups in cable television. It delivers over 140 hours of original, hyper-local programming each week. Additionally, CAN TV provides coverage of events relevant to the local community and gives every Chicagoan a voice on cable television by providing video training, facilities, equipment, and channel time for Chicago residents and nonprofit groups. CAN TV’s five local cable channels (CAN TV 19, 21, 27, 36, and 42) reach more than one million viewers in the city. Website: https://www.cantv.org

Change Agents

Change Agents is a podcast series developed by Judith McCray and Maurice Bisaillon of Juneteenth Productions. The series is a partnership between community organizers and emerging journalists of color who are provided the tools to produce professionally crafted episodes highlighting issues, challenges and ground-level efforts for change.

Website: https://www. changeagentsthepodcast.com

Chicago Crusader

The Crusader Newspaper Group consists of two weekly newspapers in Illinois and Indiana featuring news, commentary, and lifestyle reporting geared toward the African American community. The Chicago Crusader and Gary Crusader, published by Black newspaper champion Dorothy R. Leavell, reach two unique markets with a shared $47 billion (annual) consumer buying power. It is circulated in 23 Chicago communities recognized as predominantly African American. Website: https://chicagocrusader.com/

Chicago Defender

The Chicago Defender is a multimedia content provider of news, information and events that cover the interests of the urban African American community with culturally relevant content not regularly serviced by mainstream media. In July 2019, The Chicago Defender transitioned from a printed newspaper into a digitallyfocused content platform dedicated to online editorial, premiere events, custom publishing and archival merchandising. Website: https://chicagodefender.com/

Chicago Reader

The Chicago Reader creates and curates political and cultural coverage by and for Chicago, including highlighting underrepresented communities and stories.

They reinvest all their profits to achieve sustainability, grow their reach, and ensure the fulfillment of their mission. Website: https://www.chicagoreader.com

Cicero Independiente

Cicero Independiente’s mission is to provide bilingual, accurate reporting, connect residents to important resources and information, and equip neighbors with journalism skills to engage in local democracy. They believe in bringing people of diverse media backgrounds together to co-create useful and necessary news. They also believe in journalism that is reflective of the knowledge, resilience and organizing in a working-class, Black, Brown and immigrant community — journalism that holds those in power accountable and, most importantly, is accessible in multiple languages and formats. Cicero Independiente envisions a future where everyone can participate in documenting their stories for generations to come. A future where everyone can participate equally in transformational change. Website: https://www. ciceroindependiente.com

City Bureau

City Bureau is a journalism lab reimagining local media. They do this by equipping people with skills and resources, engaging in critical public conversations and producing information that directly addresses people’s needs. They aim to equip every community with the tools to eliminate information inequity to further liberation, justice and selfdetermination. Website: https://www.citybureau.org

City Cast Chicago

City Cast is a network of daily local news podcasts in cities around the country, accompanied by a daily email newsletter that keeps you in the know about what’s happening in your community. City Cast is established in several cities, including Chicago, Denver, Houston, Salt Lake, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Boise, DC, Philadelphia, Portland and Madison. City Cast aims to be the smartest, easiest way to connect with the place you live in and love. Website: https://chicago.citycast.fm/

Free Spirit Media

Free Spirit Media provides teens and young adults in communities of color on Chicago’s West and South sides with a comprehensive foundation in media literacy and hands-on media production experience. Free Spirit Media runs inschool arts education, after-school and summer digital media programs and advanced creative workforce development programs. Free Spirit Media transforms media and society by providing opportunities for emerging creators, primarily from communities of color, to produce and distribute original content and to pursue artistic, personal and professional aspirations. Free Spirit Media follows this mission by providing an engaging learning environment that stimulates meaningful media creation, fosters an entrepreneurial and visionary culture, taps into the talents of the Free Spirit Media team, and understands that social transformation is only viable when individuals promote and practice equality, inclusion, and solidarity. Website: https://www.freespiritmedia.org

Harvey World Herald

The Harvey World Herald is a news source for in-depth reporting on education, business, public safety, health, politics and entertainment in the City of Harvey. The Harvey World Herald aims to pass the mic to those with a voice but without a platform, fill information gaps, and help the next generation of storytellers shape and own their narratives. Website: https://harveyworld.org/

South Side Weekly

The South Side Weekly is a nonprofit newspaper dedicated to supporting cultural and civic engagement on the South Side and developing emerging journalists, writers and artists. We publish in-depth coverage of politics, the arts and issues of public interest alongside oral histories, poetry, fiction, interviews and artwork from local photographers and illustrators. The Weekly is produced by a mostly volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. They distribute the paper bi-weekly on Thursdays. Website: https://www.southsideweekly. com

The TRiiBE

The TRiiBE is a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago and giving ownership back to the people. Its original works in journalism and documentary, alongside creative writing and video, capture the multifaceted essence of the Black experience in pursuit of truth and liberation. Website: https://www.thetriibe.com

Village Free Press

Village Free Press was founded in 2013 by Michael Romain as a local, independent portal of information, news, reporting, analysis and story-gathering for the Proviso Township. In May 2022, Village Free Press joined the Growing Community Media nonprofit group. Their mission is to build communities and enhance local democracy by providing people with information that means something and creating moments that matter. Website: https://www.vfpress.news | https://growingcommunitymedia.org/

WBEZ

WBEZ was established as an extension service of the Chicago Board of Education in 1943. It broadcasted educational instruction for most of those early years, operating during the school year on weekdays while Chicago Public Schools were in session. In 1970, WBEZ became one of the first charter member stations of National Public Radio.

WBEZ’s mission is to serve as a cornerstone of the public conversation, as a central pillar of our civic community, and by reasserting itself as the heart of innovation within public media. They amplify the public conversation by telling the stories that matter — stories that provoke thought, entertain, capture emotion and inspire action Website: https://www.wbez.org/

YR Media

YR Media is a leading media, technology and music training center and platform for emerging Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) content creators who are using their voices to change the world. YR Media equips emerging content creators between the ages of 14-24 with an immersive media arts education, top industry mentors, paid career-track employment and holistic support services, including counseling and healthy food. Young people leverage these offerings to become civically engaged citizens driving systemic change and disruptors that diversify the traditional media landscape by creating stories, art and music that matter. Website: https://yr.media/locations/ chicago/