Our #MediaMonday profile at present has been featured on our weblog a couple of instances previously. Right here, right here and right here.
Fernanda Santos has not too long ago been named managing editor at The 19th Information, an impartial, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and coverage.
Fernanda, inform us extra about The 19th Information and its vital function in sharing the tales of these in our communities which have historically been underrepresented.
The nineteenth was created within the wake of Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, when it grew to become clear to our founders that mainstream information organizations weren’t well-equipped to cowl ladies in public life. We deal with politics and coverage tales and inform them by means of the lens of gender, with particular emphasis on underrepresented and misrepresented communities. To us, gender doesn’t have a binary definition and due to that, we report from a extra inclusive perspective and likewise one which extra precisely represents our society.
Our reporting is free — and straightforward — to republish; all it takes is clicking a button on our web site. We additionally run The nineteenth Information Community, a collective of nationwide, regional and native information organizations that seeks to advance racial and gender fairness in politics and coverage journalism. A few of our companions are primarily based in Arizona, akin to Arizona Mirror and Arizona Heart for Investigative Reporting.
You’ve got lengthy been a vocal advocate for illustration of numerous voices not solely in information protection, however in newsrooms as effectively. How do you’re feeling that’s going?
I’ve remained centered on that purpose and work for a information group whose mission revolves round that purpose, so I’d say it’s going splendidly. Does the media business have points? For certain it does. Nonetheless, I’ve chosen to take the how-do-you-eat-an-elephant method, which is one chunk at a time.
What matters can we anticipate to examine over the following a number of months within the lead-up to the Presidential Election?
Our first large piece after we launched in 2020 was an unique interview with Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian lady who’s now operating for president. We’ve grown and developed since then and we’re prepared to satisfy the second by. We have now unparalleled protection of LGBTQ+ rights; our collection “The toll of America’s anti-trans warfare,” revealed in late August, explores the influence that laws meant to hurt this group impacts us all. Our reporters are additionally offering stellar protection of reproductive rights, local weather, schooling, caregiving and the economic system, and incapacity, amongst different key coverage points which might be additionally prime of thoughts for voters.
You’ve got had a profitable profession as a journalist, as a professor of apply and as a guide creator. What are a few of the tales you’re most happy with?
There are such a lot of. One which involves thoughts is my protection of the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fireplace, which can be the theme of my guide. It’s centered across the individuals who struggle fires, their households and the way the system that we use to make use of and compensate wildland firefighters is rooted in exploitation. I’m additionally keen on the tales I wrote in regards to the work that younger undocumented immigrants in Arizona performed in serving to remodel the political panorama within the state. Additionally, a chunk I did in regards to the first 12 months of freedom for a younger man who, on the age of 17, was convicted of a rape and homicide he didn’t commit.
Is there a narrative or topic that you simply’d prefer to revisit?
What I’d like is to take one in every of my most favourite tales, “A Boy of Uncommon Imaginative and prescient,” by the late Alice Steinbach, and write a model of it primarily based on the story’s important character and the life he lives at present.
In case you might spend the day with one other journalist (previous or current) who would that be and why?
Josefina Álvares de Azevedo, a pioneering Brazilian journalist who, within the late nineteenth century, staunchly advocated for girls’s proper to vote and a top quality schooling, which she considered a software for his or her emancipation.
What was the final guide you learn?
“Soul by Soul,” by Adriana Carranca, which tells the story of Christian missionaries from Brazil who moved to Kabul, Afghanistan, to unfold the gospel. It’s an interesting have a look at the worldwide evangelical motion and the challenges and clashes the missionaries endure within the Center East.
What are a few of your favourite TV reveals?
I principally watch information and films on TV, however my daughter and I are tremendous into “The Umbrella Academy,” which has simply launched a brand new season, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting for the following season of “Stranger Issues.”
Checklist three issues our readers can be stunned to learn about you?
I took on browsing on the age of fifty and am so into it! I’ve simply purchased my first surfboard, really, an 8-foot Diploma 33 that may be a magnificence.
I’m from Brazil, a rustic that’s identified for its churrasco, however I don’t eat pink meat.
I can communicate, learn and write in 4 languages.
Are you open to receiving story pitches? What’s one of the best ways to succeed in you? The place can we discover you on the socials?
The nineteenth doesn’t publish freelance tales. We do, in fact, take pitches from public relations companies and communications groups. The easiest way to get these to us is by emailing [email protected].
I’m at all times completely satisfied to attach on LinkedIn, Instagram and X.