Serving Black Communities

Public media has a unique opportunity to serve Black communities in the U.S., an integral part of the nation’s history, culture and social fabric, by providing information, content, and engagement initiatives that are culturally relevant and responsive to their needs. However, to do so effectively, public media organizations must understand the distinct experiences, perspectives, and expectations of Black audiences. Black communities are not monolithic; they encompass diverse backgrounds, including descendants of enslaved Africans, recent immigrants from African and Caribbean nations, and multigenerational families with deep roots in the U.S. This diversity requires thoughtful and intentional approaches to content and engagement.

Public media stations must also recognize that Black communities think the U.S. media “specifically characterizes them as disproportionately poor, welfare-dependent and criminal,” according to a Pew Research Center study published in 2024.

Along the same lines, a study published by the Reuters Institute in 2023 examined how misrepresenting disadvantaged communities erodes trust in news. The study used data from 41 focus groups in Brazil, India, the UK, and the U.S. — including Black participants. It concluded that these communities “saw news media as not only out of touch but at times an especially harmful force that did real damage to their communities.”

This long-standing history has contributed to skepticism and distrust toward media institutions. To build and maintain trust, public media must prioritize consistent, accurate, and culturally competent reporting while ensuring Black voices are actively included in editorial decisions and newsroom leadership. Strengthening these connections requires a commitment to authentic storytelling, community engagement, and equitable representation at all levels of media production.

Obstacles and challenges

There are several key matters that newsroom staff will confront when trying to reach out to immigrant communities.

Diversity
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 50,579,102 “Black or African Americans alone or in combination” with other races in the United States in 2023. This represents about 15% of the population, including people who consider themselves mixed race.

Socioeconomic status
Almost 30.9 million of a total of 39 million Black people alone live above the poverty level.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 90.1% of African Americans age 25 and older with a high school diploma or higher diploma in 2022. In 2010, that figure was 84%; in 2000, it was 79%, showing that education is on the rise in the community.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported 194,585 Black-owned employer businesses in the United States in 2025.

1,997,837 was the number of Black civilian veterans in the United States nationwide in 2023.

According to the last U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 3.7 million, or 9.6% of Black people, are uninsured.

“Black Americans are overly represented in those diagnosed with the nation’s top chronic illnesses and have shorter life expectancies when compared to their white counterparts,” says the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

Core competencies

There are many ways that public media can serve Black communities. But to do so, your organization should take stock of what you have the bandwidth to do and can sustain. Competencies you should consider central to success include:

Staffing and time
According to the research conducted by the Reuters Institute mentioned above, Black participants in the US saw it as critically important that newsrooms improve diversity among both their reporting staff and their senior management to better reflect the communities they seek to serve. Keep in mind that the same participants were also wary of tokenism and suspicious of performative efforts they dismissed as pandering.

So, building a team of Black staff must be an authentic effort to ensure successful engagement with these communities. Hire staff that reflects the Black alone and mixed race communities you aim to serve to lead engagement journalism initiatives. If you want them to succeed, ensure they have decision-making power in the editorial process, not just participation. Let your reporters decide which communities to visit, how much time they dedicate to those communities, and the best storytelling format for their reporting, and ensure they feel supported in those choices. If, for different reasons, you don’t have the capacity to build a culturally representative staff, consult with people and experts from the community to ensure accurate reporting and cultural competency.

Also, specific training on cultural competence should be considered.

Know your staff, the work hours they have available to do the work you envision, and how much time you can intentionally make for them to get initiatives completed.

Community partners
Many public media newsrooms are partnering with local nonprofits that serve Black communities and co-hosting events and listening sessions to collect insights into coverage needs and interests. Lean on community leaders’ connections and make yourself visible to community partners. Make hosting the events a safe and collaborative process with the communities.

Host inclusive and balanced community gatherings: review the generation, ethnicity, gender, background, affiliation, location, etc., of people invited to the initiatives. Curate the event environment to make people comfortable: plan initiatives and sessions around traditions, music, arts, and food. Bring people together around these universal ways of expression to engage with them.

Language and translations
As media professionals, we sometimes don’t always have the language, skills, resources, or support required to serve Black communities, especially if they come from other countries.

Translation work has emerged as the cornerstone of business strategies for many media outlets. Having access to automated translation services is more accessible than ever. However, engaging with non-English-speaking Black communities is much more than using AI translation tools. If your newsroom cannot show up and have an actual conversation with these communities in their languages, earning their trust will be a challenge.

For your audiences to relate and engage with your coverage, deeply think about the stories that you are going to translate if you want to serve them in their dialects. Your newsroom will have to thoroughly edit those stories by adding or deleting specific content or information to make them relevant. Other editing components include working on link-building in other languages to improve the story’s SEO and to repurpose previous content. Do not forget to include metadata in those languages or dialects for accessibility and performance.

New types of content and platforms
Provide Black communities with news and information about issues that are important to them, as well as programming that highlights their traditions, culture and history. You might prefer to go digital or broadcast, but leverage your community partners to find out what is most interesting and relevant to these communities and what platforms they use.

According to a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center, “Black Americans stay informed through a variety of sources, with national and local news outlets, interpersonal connections, and social media all playing large roles. While social media is one of the most common sources of information for Black Americans, they generally view it as less credible or reliable than other types of sources.”

Approximately 41% of Black Americans report frequently turning to local news outlets for information, with national news sources and social media platforms closely behind at 35%. Additionally, 33% say they often rely on family, friends, and acquaintances for news, according to the report.

Key tips for reaching Black audiences

Get to know the community
Talk with local nonprofits and consider partnering with Black-serving organizations, hosting events and listening sessions that address specific issues affecting them. These relationships provide a sounding board for your public media organization to understand how your ideas resonate and to hear more about what community leaders feel they need from coverage and content. Ask about the cultural nuances when communicating with these communities. Test your content ideas and ask for feedback.

Set objectives
Establishing clear and measurable objectives is crucial in effectively engaging with Black audiences. Begin by identifying what success looks like for your news organization when it comes to serving them. Are you aiming to increase Black readership or viewership by a specific percentage within a certain time frame? Do you want to enhance trust and credibility among Black audiences, or are you focused on increasing engagement with your social media platforms? Defining specific outcomes will provide a framework for measuring progress and adjusting your strategy as needed.

When setting goals, consider the unique needs and preferences of Black communities. Understanding them will help you define realistic, culturally sensitive goals that align with your audience’s lived experiences.

Listen
Immerse in the community, learn from them and listen to internal and external stakeholders. Seek input from Black staff members, local community leaders and experts and trusted organizations that serve these populations. Their insights can help you identify gaps in coverage, uncover potential barriers to engagement, and shape goals that reflect the true needs of the community. Visit shops, parks, fairs and places where the communities live. Be there for the joy, too! Explain your role and the work you do. Remember that journalists aren’t well-known in Black communities. Most of them have never met a journalist in their lives. And ask over and over again: How can we serve you?

Fortify
A study published in 2024 showed that Black participants are more likely to read an article written by a journalist who shares their race or ethnicity than one who does not. Keep it in mind when building your editorial strategy.

If your goal is to offer content relevant to Black audiences’ lives and experiences, featuring stories about their culture and issues affecting these communities, ask yourself: Do you have the staff to make this happen?

Culturally competent media outlets need leaders and journalists who can share mutual respect and understanding with their readers are critical to addressing barriers and fostering a culture of trust.

To become culturally competent and fortify your newsroom, the first step is to identify one’s biases and determine whether they are conscious or unconscious. Black Americans overwhelmingly say unconscious bias is a major barrier in their lives, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Undefeated.

Co-create
Avoid doing parachute journalism into Black communities. Instead, develop collaborative projects where their members have a key role in the production process.

If possible, consider offering community members training on journalism to help them understand the process and set them up for success.

Make content relevant and useful to Black audiences. Offer value that answers questions and/or addresses needs. Ensure you understand which platforms these communities use to get their news and information and tailor your content to those platforms.

Go back to them and ask for their feedback and collect their opinions on where a story did or did not excel or how it can be improved next time.

Educate yourself
Humbly educate yourself to understand the historical challenges and strengths the Black communities in your area have experienced. Do research on what stories have been told and learn from previous coverage.

Analyze the current narrative and shift it following community advice. Ask Black communities what stereotypes they would like to change, what narratives they don’t feel comfortable about, or have been historically overlooked. Ask questions such as: Is there anything about how the media portrays you or people that feels inaccurate? What’s the one thing you want people to understand about your community?

Discover these communities’ information needs and provide resources to meet them.

Dialogue
Keep an open dialogue with your audience and staff. Listen to feedback and make improvements.

Additional Resources

Tune in to trust: How collective listening can guide us to deeper conversations with Black communities
How News Audiences Respond to Journalist Race and Ethnicity in Bylines
Q&A: How can newsrooms better serve communities of color? by Columbia Journalism Review.
Q&A Series: How nonprofit newsrooms serve communities of color by the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Journalists, hold yourself accountable for earning the trust of BIPOC communities. This rubric will help.
Polarizing, oversimplified reporting causes mistrust. Let’s work on that.
The Kansas City Defender toolkit, radical black press and the future of media
Check pocinaudio.com or post on social media groups such as Journalists of Color in Public Media or Public Media for All.

From our stations

Stations have detailed their work-around content and audience engagement for Black communities. You are encouraged to learn from their examples and adapt their lessons to your community: