Community-Rooted Storytelling: Black Media and Narrative Change

Narrative change is one of the most powerful levers for creating actual change. Having a voice as a community and documenting the distinct voices of our multifaceted community can translate to personal and community agency. Black media have been essential components of documenting, raising, and amplifying the voices of Black communities in the US and beyond. Newspapers, radio stations, digital publications, and magazines are part of the core community infrastructure that puts lived experience at the center of storytelling to understand one another, hold systems accountable, and imagine new worlds of what is possible. Black media outlets are archives of community knowledge, resilience, and vision as well as current information sources. They cover Black stories with the depth of relationship that community-rooted journalism has built for decades. 

For grantmakers who care about multi-racial and Black community conditions in areas such as housing, health, economic development, and civic participation, Black media provides a window into lived experiences and qualitative data. Staying accountable to communities as a grantmaker starts with listening. To listen, you have to know where and how the stories are told. Assuring that grantmaking due diligence includes stories and research sourced from Black media and multiethnic outlets can add depth, showcase the distinctions, and lift the value of all lived experiences in decision-making.  

Below is the start of an evolving list of Black media outlets across the Greater Bay Area region and Central Valley. We hope the information helps you incorporate the perspective shared in Black media into your grantmaking write-ups and strategies, alongside those from other media outlets.