Democratizing storytelling. Demystifying media.
Disrupting old narratives by amplifying new voices.
“There are too many important stories in this country that the mainstream media overlooks. The Reflective Journalism Project provides the training, networks, support, and platform for BIPOC leaders and leaders from other underreported communities to make their voices heard.”
Iara Peng, Prism Founder
The Reflective Journalism Project (RJP) by Prism trains aspiring writers, community leaders, and frontline social justice thinkers and organizers on the editorial process from soup to nuts. Our goal is to build a deep bench of content creators and grow the network of BIPOC writers telling their stories, sharing their experiences, and reporting on issues mainstream media often overlooks.
RJP aims to ensure the white-dominated news media industry no longer uses the excuse “there are no writers of color” to perpetuate homogeneous coverage of what’s happening in our democracy.
Through RJP, Prism offers standalone virtual workshops open to BIPOC seeking to learn more about the editorial process. Prism also offers a six-month editorial fellowship program in partnership with nonprofit organizations to train cohorts of BIPOC leaders or fellows, including:
🟠 A two-part virtual workshop series:
💻 Part I: How to Tell Your Story
introduces participants to the many different approaches and content formats they can use to share the stories that matter to them and to their communities—from op-eds and first-person essays to short news stories and longer features (2 hours)
💻 Part II: Mastering the Pitch
teaches participants how to craft a compelling and concise pitch that captures their story idea, emphasizes their unique perspective and expertise, and piques editors’ interest (2 hours)
🟠 Hands-on editorial fellowship guidance:
Over the course of six months, participants get hands-on editorial experience working with our journalists-of-color-led newsroom. Following the workshops, participants send pitches to Prism’s editors and receive feedback. For accepted pitches, participants will enter into Prism’s editorial process and receive comprehensive feedback and editing on their written work, from big-picture developmental edits to line-editing, copy-editing, and fact-checking. Up to two pitches per participant may be accepted, with the resulting articles published on prismreports.org.
“Prism’s team of seasoned journalists and editors provides RJP participants with a behind-the-scenes look into how editors think, and advises them on every step of the pitch-to-publish process.”
Ashton Lattimore, Prism Editor-in-Chief
RJP participants grow their skill and confidence as writers, build positive relationships with editors, and come away with published clips to point to when pitching other outlets. Participants are encouraged to use the skills developed through the project to pitch often and pitch widely, helping to change the way news is reported across the country.
Email RJP@prismreports.org to learn more about Prism’s Reflective Journalism Project, and sign up to be the first to know when registration for the next virtual workshop opens.
“Through Prism’s Reflective Journalism Project, our Rural Women’s Collective fellows have been able to learn the nuts and bolts related to the entire editorial process—including how to take their personal stories and ideas and turn them into a compelling pitch and powerful article, build positive working relationships with editors, and promote their pieces effectively. We are excited to be building a deep bench of rural women storytellers with a unique and honest perspective that is missing from the national dialogue.”
Norma Flores López, Justice for Migrant Women
