ONA Weekly #388: Tell Us About Your Journalism Mentors

By on December 1, 2021

Tell us about your journalism mentors

Last December, we dedicated space in this newsletter to honor journalism mentors and the various ways they show up to support their peers and team members. Let’s continue that practice as we approach the end of 2021! 

We want to hear from you: Reply to this email with 1-3 sentences about someone who has made a difference in your work and career this year as a mentor; be sure to include their name. We are especially interested in hearing about specific actions or techniques that were helpful that others might be inspired to try. We’ll include as many responses as we can in an upcoming issue.

Plus, here are a few resources to check out and share with others seeking mentorship or looking to serve as a mentor:

  • Journalism Mentors — Adriana Lacy, Digital and Audience Engagement Editor at Nieman Foundation and 2021 MJ Bear Fellow, created Journalism Mentors to make mentorship and other career resources more accessible to students and early-career journalists. 
  • Aspec Office Hours — Angela Chen, Senior Editor at Wired Magazine and author of Ace, hosts virtual office hours for writers on the asexual/aromantic spectrum who are looking support in navigating the journalism and publishing industries.
  • Latinas in Journalism Mentorship Program — Organized by award-winning Puerto Rican journalist Andrea González-Ramírez, this program connects Latina women and femmes at all levels of their journalism careers with experienced mentors. The directory includes mentors who can support in areas such as building bilingual and global audiences, making the most of an internship and newsroom management.
  • Making the Case for Making the Time: Notes From the Journalism Mentorship Collaborative — Fellows from our 2018 Journalism Mentorship Collaborative (#JournoMentorship) shared best practices and surprising lessons from their experience creating or reviving newsroom mentorship programs. One interesting takeaway: Mentors with just a few more years of experience can be the best match because they can support you to focus and envision immediate next steps instead of a fuzzy career decades from now.

Race and equity coverage in the Bay Area

Save the date Dec. 16: ONA San Francisco will host an important conversation on race and equity coverage in local newsrooms. The featured speakers are Michael Bolden, Director of Culture and Operations at the San Francisco Chronicle, and Otis R. Taylor, Jr., Supervising Senior Editor of Race and Equity at KQED. You’re welcome to join this virtual event whether you are part of the San Francisco group or a journalist based elsewhere. There will be a Q&A after the conversation, followed by a fun mixer to mark the end of the year. Learn more and RSVP now.

Everything you wanted to know about this year’s best engagement projects

This year’s winners and finalists for the Gather Award in Engaged Journalism, part of our annual Online Journalism Awards showcase, include projects from El Tímpano, Anchorage Daily News/ProPublica, The Marshall Project, The New York Times and Arizona Daily Star/ProPublica. Journalists behind the projects had the opportunity to discuss their work during two lightning chats hosted by the Gather community. Watch the presentations to find inspiration for your own community-centered work. You will get insight into each project’s approach and process, key lessons and the impact of the journalism so far.

Important dates

Career opportunities

ONA’s Career Center is an excellent resource for jobs, fellowships and internships in digital journalism. Recent postings include:

On our radar

What do you think?

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Join as an ONA member or make a donation to help sustain ONA’s mission to inspire and support innovation in digital journalism. If you’re looking to promote an event, product, job opening or other opportunity, check out the options to reach the ONA community. We also rely on philanthropic and corporate support. Contact Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer Jessica Strelitz at jessica@journalists.org to learn about the many ways to invest in our mission.
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Karolle Rabarison

Karolle Rabarison is ONA's Director of Communications. She collaborates across the team to connect the journalism community to emerging tech and leadership training, networking, industry trends, and career development resources.