“This is our greatest asset: uniting as a sector so that we’re the ones telling our stories,” veteran journalist Emil Guillermo told a packed room at the 2024 California Ethnic Media Awards.
About 250 ethnic media, community leaders, communications specialists and government decisionmakers attended the banquet celebration of outstanding journalism at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento the evening of Wednesday, August 28.
Twenty-two judges reviewed a record 310 entries in 12 languages covering print and online, broadcast, English and in-language outlets statewide across nine categories including Outstanding Sports Coverage, The Struggle for Rights in California, Health and Health Care, Coming of Age in a Polarized Society and — receiving the most entries — California’s Culture of Diversity.
One judge, acclaimed essayist and author Richard Rodriguez, pronounced the finalists as “the best entries I’ve ever read.”
“A lot of what’s hidden in cultural communities reveals itself, layer by layer, through community media coverage,” added another judge, L.A. Times culture and talent Deputy Editor and Nguoi Viet Daily News board member Anh Do. “This is why it’s crucial to elevate this coverage through funding, skills-training, public analysis and praise. Solid and steady engagement make a big difference for smaller newsrooms. Hooray for this annual event, which motivates people to keep at the work.”
The awards ceremony, cohosted by Ethnic Media Services and California Black Media, capped off a two-day expo event in the state capital beginning Tuesday, August 27, featuring speakers and roundtable panelists including California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-14), Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Treasurer Fiona Ma.
‘Conveners of community’
“Who says ethnic media is dead?” said Immigrant Magazine founder-editor Pamela Anchang, who co-emceed the event with veteran journalist Emil Guillermo. “You are the visible among the invisible.”
Winning outlets included El Tecolote, with a story about ICE-detained Latino migrants finding liberation through community soccer tournaments; India Currents, with a story about an undocumented Punjabi farmworker struggling to access crucial health care in the Central Valley; The San Fernando Valley Sun, with breaking news about right-wing protestors preventing drag queen storytime at a local library; Community Media Alliance, with profiles of Japanese Peruvians shipped to the U.S. for incarceration in World War II-era internment camps; and Sing Tao Daily, for a piece about how the meeting of Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at APEC held personal significance for high school student Justin Ma, a Chinese adoptee in America.
“It’s important to investigate how specific issues impact communities, but it’s also equally important that those communities get involved in reporting and understanding the issues that impact them,” said Ma. “Thank you to EMS for letting me get my story out and sharing how it impacts people like me — your future generations.”
“Journalists have a lot of purposes. One of the most important, I believe, is to serve the underserved. The underdog spirit; that’s what this year is about,” said Korea Daily Editor Inseong Choi, accepting an award for an online article about tensions between unhoused people and local business owners in Koreatown, six months after Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency around homelessness.
“Since California has the largest concentration of ethnic media in the country, these awards mirror the work of thousands of our peers working for ethnic media outlets across the U.S.,” said Guillermo. “Increasingly we are working outside our own silos to counter hate speech and racialized disinformation no matter who the targets are, telling the stories not only of our own but each others’ communities … This is our greatest asset — uniting as a sector so that we’re the ones telling our own stories.”
Ethnic media reporters and outlets were also recognized for connecting with underserved audiences.
Veteran reporter Viji Sundaram received a special award for challenging cultural taboos throughout her career with stories ranging from McDonald’s french fries cooked in animal fat, to court reporter shortages worsening a public health crisis for domestic violence victims.
Manuel Ortiz Escámez received a special media innovator award for building a mobile broadcast studio to report on isolated communities in Northern California for Spanish-language Peninsula 360 Press.
“This is a boomerang award,” said Escámez. “I want to give it back to my team and to Sandy,” referring to EMS Executive Director Sandy Close, “because none of these stories would be possible without your help.”
“Years ago, when asked how she defined ethnic media, Mónica C. Lozano, then-publisher of La Opinión, said simply, ‘conveners of community,’” said Close, referring to the longest-running Spanish language daily in Los Angeles.
Two outlets, San Francisco-based Nichi Bei News and Inland Empire-based Inland Valley News, received special awards for being such conveners of community.
Tony Morrow, Inland Valley News founder and publisher for over 33 years, said “Putting together a room full of influential people like this is not an easy task. Whether we discuss urgent issues, or just bring folks together to celebrate our community, we do it with pride and joy, and we’ll continue to do it.”
“Ethnic media will never be able to call ourselves a coalition without events like this, and it’s the coalition that makes fingers on the hand into a fist,” said Close, quoting awards cofounder and Oakland Post Editor-in-Chief Chauncey Bailey, who was killed while covering a story in 2007.
Six outlets — Philippine News Today, Myanmar Gazette, Community Alliance Newspaper, Asian American News, Impulso News, El Popular — received special awards for collaborating across racial and ethnic divides.
“A victory for one of us is a victory for our whole community,” said Asian Journal Publisher and President Cora Oriel, accepting the award for Philippine News Today.
“You inspire all of us to realize that we can tell stories and that we can, above all, work together across racial and ethnic lines,” said Close. “We are the spirit that will move the stopping of hate forward, coming together as a united front.
“Imagine if we could make this kind of partnership the story of the hour always across our racial and ethnic communities,” she added. “This is my vision of hope from today’s awards.”
And the winners are…
Outstanding Sports Coverage
WINNER | Print/Online | El Tecolote | Mara Cavallaro | Just Goals: Immigrants, Activists Find Hope, Liberation through Soccer
WINNER | Broadcast | FNX | Sahar Khadjenoury, Frank Blanquet, Anthony Papa | Indian Rodeo: Voices from the Indian National Finals Rodeo
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Hmong Daily News | Macy Yang | USA National Sepak Takraw Team Wins Gold at the King’s Cup in Thailand
California’s Culture of Diversity
WINNER | Print/Online | Sacramento Observer | Jared Childress | The 8 Limbs of the Black Yogi
WINNER | Broadcast | KTSF | Christino Choi | Three features on Chinese-owned San Francisco small businesses Canton Bazaar, Nam Kue Chinese School, and YC Wong Kung Fu Studio
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Saigon Nho News | Doan Trang | The story of a boat person who opened a successful medical school in America
Making It in California
WINNER | Print/Online | India Currents | Ritu Marwah | Undocumented And Abandoned. The Story Of The Punjabi Farmworker
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Kiosko News | Nora Estrada | She is 70 years old and makes a living selling nopales on the street … And she is doing very well!
Health and Health Care
WINNER | Print/Online | Vida En El Valle / The Fresno Bee | Maria G. Ortiz-Briones | Doctors from Mexico help meet the needs of some patients in the Central Valley
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Los Angeles Blade | Christopher Kane | New data shows HIV infections dropped – mostly among whites and The new mission to fight HIV devastation in rural America
The Rise in Hate Crimes and Efforts to Find Healing
WINNER | Print/Online | ChicoSol | Natalie Hanson | Activists turn from personal pain to community healing
WINNER | Broadcast | EST Media / Eastern Standard Times | Keshia Hannam, Ryan Alexander Holmes | Monterey Park: How Do We Heal Our Community?
RUNNER-UP | Broadcast | World Journal – Los Angeles | Jian Zhao | Reporting series of the 2023 Monterey Park mass shooting
The Struggle for Rights in California
WINNER | Print/Online | The San Fernando Valley Sun / El Sol | Semantha Raquel Norris: Right-Wing Protestors Prevent Drag Queen Storytime at San Fernando Public Library
WINNER | Broadcast | Little Saigon TV | Kayla Nguyen, Ngoc Lan, Jenny Vo: LGBTQIA+ Rights Against Vietnamese Americans
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Al Enteshar Newspaper | Dahlia M. Taha, Fatmeh Bakhit | Breaking the Chains of Fear: Empowering Muslim and Arab Americans to Speak Up and Report Hate Crimes
Coming of Age in a Polarized Society
WINNER | Print/Online | Sing Tao Daily | Justin Ma | For One Adoptee, Xi-Biden Meeting at APEC is ‘Personal’
WINNER | Print/Online | The Contra Costa Pulse | Ronvel Sharper | The Internet Brings Out the Worst In Us
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | Black Catholic Messenger | Nate Tinner-Williams | How one Black Catholic fought racism at her Catholic high school—and what’s next in her journey
Politics and Public Policy that Foster Change
WINNER | Print/Online | Korea Daily | Inseong Choi, Hyoungjae Kim, Suah Jang | Six months after state of emergency, homelessness persists in Koreatown, not concentrated but scattered
WINNER | Print/Online | Black Voice News | Breanna Reeves | Reporting series California’s Marijuana Reform: Progress Made, But Challenges Persist for Black Communities
RUNNER-UP | Print/Online | palabra | Aitana Vargas | Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Connecting Global With Local News
WINNER | Print/Online | Community Media Alliance | Eduardo Stanley | The “Other” Incarcerated Japanese and Kidnapping of the Naganuma Family in Peru
WINNER | Print/Online | Indian Voices / Indigenous Network | Veronica Wood | Between The Rains: A Documentary About the Climate Crisis in Kenya for Indigenous Peoples
Special Awardees
Career Achievement | Viji Sundaram
Media Innovator | Manuel Ortiz Escámez
Conveners of Community | Nichi Bei News, Inland Valley News
Collaborating Across Racial and Ethnic Divides | Philippine News Today, Myanmar Gazette, Community Alliance Newspaper, Asian American News, Impulso News, El Popular
