Introducing a practical guide to creating a community-centric and digital-first media organization

The Kansas City Defender and the Reynolds Journalism Institute are excited to announce the launch of a new resource for journalists to utilize: The Defender Handbook. The handbook provides a practical guide to creating a community-centric and digital-first media organization. 

The handbook started as an idea to share the KC Defender’s innovative digital strategies to help newsrooms and journalists effectively connect with Gen Z, a younger, tech-savvy audience. But the final resource goes far beyond that to provide guidance on policing and public safety, building community through events and implementing an organizational structure similar to the Defender. There is also an introspective that dives into the history of Black media and how we can build more successful relationships with our communities with lessons learned from the past applied to lead us into the future. 

Join us for a webinar  August 28th at 11 am CT where we will walk you through the handbook and show you how you can utilize it in your newsroom and work. 

Each section provides in-depth guides with actionable templates, scripts, how-tos and other resources. These will help journalists and newsrooms implement KC Defender practices in their own organization within the context that grounds them. 

1. Reporting on Policing & Public Safety: Use of language, statistics, mugshots, a lexicon terms guide and more.
2. Social-First & Digital Innovation: Our unique strategies work across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to connect with a younger audience and amplify our message in creative ways. We offer a how-to guide, templates and step-by-step help to implement these tools for your newsroom or organization. 
3. Building Community: The core structures and subcommittees that fuel our community initiatives are Mutual Aid, Political Education, and Arts & Culture. We share why they constitute 50% of our organizational structure and how to build these programs in a sustainable, community-focused way in your newsroom. 
4. Organizational Structure: We are a community organization, not just a news outlet. Each team member works through the real impact of journalism and recognizes the broader ramifications of storytelling and advocacy work. We share how to build a culture where journalists are organizers first and where youth voices are considered with seriousness.

This handbook is aimed to provide resources and guidance for upcoming BIPOC media professionals, but can be utilized by anyone. We aimed to centralize the wealth of knowledge and traditions from the Radical Black Press, making it easily accessible and serving as a resource for those who wish to innovate and reinvent journalism in a way that best serves our communities.

Cite this article

Sorrell, Ryan; and Duncan, Kat (2024, Aug. 14). The Defender Handbook. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/the-defender-handbook/