Why Just Media?
Just Media tells the justice stories that define our generation. Our work revolves around two core strategies:
Community-centered, impact-driven media: With our core fellowship program, we support young, emerging journalists to cover grassroots and electoral politics on these issues at local and national outlets.
Grassroots communications: Just Media communications support and training to youth and community-based justice groups following a national needs assessment. We convene community-based dialogues to engage local organizers and decision-makers in our work.
Why Just Media? Because we’re the ones we’ve been waiting to hear from.
In 2020, Millennials and Gen Z voters made up the largest share of the electorate, a combined 37% of eligible voters. Like Millennials before them, the Gen Z electorate will be the most diverse ever, with voters of color making up a record 45% share.
At the same time, young voters consistently turn out to vote less than any other age bracket. Just Media is founded on the belief that we will only reverse this trend when candidates and media speak authentically to our issues.
In a poll from the Alliance for Youth Action, TargetSmart, and Civiqs, 63% of young Democratic voters said they’re motivated to vote by “bold policy change” compared to 31% motivated by defeating Trump. Justice issues are high priority for young voters, especially young voters of color:
Ipsos and Teen Vogue found that 88% of all young voters see criminal justice reform as a priority for elected officials to address—within 3 percentage points of both climate change and gun policy.
A full two-thirds of young Black voters say candidates’ stances on the criminal justice system will influence their vote, putting it among the top domestic issues.
In 2017, grassroots efforts to define Philadelphia’s District Attorney election around radical reforms to the justice system sparked massive youth turnout—279% greater than in the preceding cycle.
Currently, there are few outlets covering youth or community organizing around justice issues or the politics of police and justice reform. We need media infrastructure that holds political actors to account while uplifting the voices of directly impacted communities. We need media organizations that are in deep, authentic relationship with these communities.
Why Just Media? To transform how young people relate to progressive media.
We know that Black and Latinx people are more likely than whites to value seeing their communities and people like them represented in the news media. We also know that journalists of color are more likely to give issues impacting communities of color fuller and fairer coverage. Still, newsrooms grossly underrepresent journalists of color, opening huge gaps in coverage.
To this end, our program provides compensation, professional training, and mentorship to emerging writers, especially writers of color, with relationships to communities directly impacted by justice issues.
Fellows transition from their cohort with more robust professional networks and skills they can take to salaried media work. Across cohorts, they make up a network of shared practice.