Through a statewide conference in March titled Truth and Transformation: Changing Racial Narratives in Media, ThreeSixty Journalism hopes to change the representation of racial narratives in local news.

The project is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and involves a number of partners but is spearheaded by Minnesota Public Radio, ThreeSixty Journalism Executive Director Chad Caruthers said.

“All of these groups in some manner are tied with amplifying underheard voices,” Caruthers said.

MPR and a few other large media organizations were approached by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and invited to apply for the project. The idea was for there to be a conference for media professionals, said Kirk MacKinnon Morrow program officer at the Minnesota Humanities Center.

“[The partners] are working to tackle problematic narratives around race in Minnesota media with specific attention to mainstream media sources and dominant culture media sources as the place where those problematic narratives are most entrenched and perpetuated,” MacKinnon Morrow said.

Roseville Area High School student Jessy Saybe, left, does an interview during the ThreeSixty Journalism program. Photo submitted by Bao Vang.

 

There will be a two-day statewide conference for media from around the state to learn about narrative change in media, Caruthers said. It will be held at Hamline University in March.

“The goal is again for people in newsrooms to recognize their own biases and first of all just recognizing they do have biases, like we all do, but then recognizing maybe what some of them are and then how can we take that back to the newsroom,” Caruthers said.

Minnesota Public Radio had seen first-hand the work ThreeSixty Journalism had done with youth and hoped they would bring that expertise and skill to the project, said Ka Vang, Director of Impact & Community Engagement at Minnesota Public Radio.

“MPR felt as though we had a lot to learn from ThreeSixty about truthful and respectful storytelling,” Vang said. “We are excited to see the staff of ThreeSixty Journalism implement their ideas for incorporating youth voices and engagement with the project.”

The ThreeSixty Journalism students have been going out and interviewing the people in the organizations and their involvement in the project. ThreeSixty Journalism works with diverse high school students to help students share their own stories, before they share other people’s stories, Caruthers said.

ThreeSixty Journalism students work with professional volunteer coaches. Surina Arora, student, photographs Va Yange of BlueCross BlueShield with help from Mark Vancleave of the Star Tribune. Photo submitted by Bao Vang.

 

“It’s quite clear when students dive into this, particularly our students, that they realize that people do care and there are changemakers out there and people working really hard to change the narrative and a whole lot more,” Caruthers said.

Rachel Torralba can be reached at torr3544@stthomas.edu.