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This conversation will illuminate in-language elections coverage for Asian immigrant communities, how news needs and appetites are changing against the backdrop of online disinformation and political polarization in Asian America, and how community media leaders are working to serve and engage AAPI voters with relevant political journalism. Join us to hear insight from two of CCM’s 2022 Elections Reporting Fellows, along with leaders on the cutting edge of in-language disinformation defense.
Speakers (bios below):
- Eunbyul Kim – Korea Daily New York, CCM Elections Fellow
- Yiyan Zheng – World Journal, CCM Elections Fellow
- Jinxia Niu – Publisher, Piyaoba / Chinese Fact Check
- Aishika Jennela – Dis/Misinformation Program Manager, Indian American Impact Project
- Diani Citra – Sr. Program Manager, Journalism + Disinformation, PEN America
The conversation will be moderated by Kavitha Rajagopalan, Director of the Asian Media Initiative at Newmark J-School’s Center for Community Media.
Speaker bios
Eunbyul Kim – Korea Daily New York, CCM Elections Fellow
Eunbyul Kim is a reporter for the Korea Daily New York, a Korean-language newspaper. As a reporter for the Korea Daily New York, she’s into topics related to the Business of Korean immigrants, Political issues, Support for the Asian community. She believes that every article related to the Korean immigrant community in New York would be valuable historical materials someday. Previously she worked as a reporter for the Asia Business Daily based in Seoul, Korea.
Yiyan Zheng – World Journal, CCM Elections Fellow
Yiyan Zheng is a bilingual journalist with more than six years of experience. Her multimedia work has appeared in media outlets such as World Journal, Sampan Newspaper, Beijing TV, Propeller TV and City Limits. She is New York based and work as a reporter at World Journal, the largest Chinese-language newspaper in the U.S. Her beat is to cover Asian and immigrant communities in a wide range of topics including politics, education and health. She is currently a CUNY 2022 New York State Elections Reporting Fellow, an Age Boom Academy Fellow at Columbia University and a Journalist Fellow of Aging Program at the Gerontological Society of America. She was also nominated for the Chinese Community Service Program Award of the Chinese-Language Journalism Award for Overseas Media in 2022. A graduate of Waseda University in Tokyo, with a BA in Comparative Literature, Yiyan received her MS in Journalism from Boston University.
Jinxia Niu – Publisher, Piyaoba / Chinese Fact Check
Jinxia Niu is the program manager of the Chinese Digital Engagement at Chinese for Affirmative Action(CAA), where she manages three Wechat accounts and the Chinese-language fact-checking website Piyaoba. Jinxia has 10 years of experience in Chinese media writing and editing. She is the author of two technology and society books in Chinese and was previously a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Peace Innovation Lab.
Aishika Jennela – Dis/Misinformation Program Manager, Indian American Impact Project
Aishika Jennela is a seasoned community organizer and media specialist who has worked extensively with Asian American communities since college at Temple University. She currently serves as the Combating Dis/Misinformation Program Manager at Indian American Impact Project and runs the fact-checking website Desifacts.org, the first fact-checking portal for South Asian Americans. She previously was the Director of Communications for the Asian American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, and before that worked with several nonprofits and startups, including the East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU), where she served as the Special Events Coordinator and Director of Communications. When she’s not talking about social justice and empowering communities of color, you can find Aishika watching cat videos on TikTok or cooking with friends in Philadelphia.
Diani Citra – Sr. Program Manager, Journalism + Disinformation, PEN America
Diani Citra is the journalism and disinformation senior program manager at PEN America. Citra has more than 15 years of relevant experience in journalism, academia, and technology. Her writing has been published or cited in Kompas, Tempo, and The Jakarta Post. She is a former Fulbright scholar and a full time, passionate advocate for digital rights and data justice. Citra holds a PhD from the Columbia University graduate school of Journalism, an MA from NYU Media Culture and Communication, and a BSC in Journalism from the University of Indonesia.
Moderator bio
Kavitha Rajagopalan – Asian Media Initiative, Center for Community Media at Newmark J-School
Kavitha Rajagopalan is director of the Asian Media Initiative at the Center for Community Media at CUNY’s Newmark J-School. She leads efforts to bring resources and sustainability programming to AAPI-serving community media across the U.S. Previously, she served as CCM’s community engagement manager, where she produced the center’s biweekly newsletter and ran its social media strategy, managed strategic relationships with regional partners, hosted public events and wrote special feature reports, and created community spaces and networks for community media journalists. She is the author of Muslims of Metropolis (Rutgers University Press), and a contributing author to edited volumes on global migration. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Atlantic’s CityLab, and she was an op-ed columnist for The Observer, Newsday, and PBS. She is a Fulbright Scholar, and received her Master’s degree in international media and communications from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
The Asian Media Initiative is dedicated to bringing sustainability and visibility to AAPI-serving media across the U.S. Building on CCM’s previous efforts to support and amplify AAPI-serving community media, the Asian Media Initiative will create a national Asian media map and directory, publish original research on this critical media ecosystem, develop targeted sustainability programs and peer-to-peer resource exchange networks for Asian media publishers, and amplify expertise in the sector through public conversations.
If you have any questions, contact Kavitha Rajagopalan.