About us

You’ve found us! We are a community of Journalists of Color aka JOCs, and this website is for you – the public – to peruse, find out what we’re all about and maybe even join us.

We created a Slack team to start gathering people and ideas, and we quickly learned a few things:

  • The media diversity struggle is real real in newsrooms across the country.
  • The conversations we’re having are ones that need to be had on a wider scale.
  • Members agree that a community like this is wanted and necessary.

We founded this group to put Journalists of Color in the same "room" (you know, so you’re not the only one.) And having a Slack team allows us to branch out and create infinite rooms to discuss a variety of topics, collaborate on projects or chat/scheme/vent privately via direct messages or private groups.

We are dedicated to growing and expanding this community, and its conversations and opportunities. We’ve already branched out from Slack to a couple of meetups on the East and West coasts. So stay tuned because we’re just getting started.

Who's Invited

You are or identify as a person of color and work in journalism.

“Work in journalism” = Do you identify as a journalist? Is your job something that helps to push journalism forward? Yeah? Sweet!

Allies: While we appreciate your support, this space is for us. Check out our resources tab for more ways to encourage diversity.

The Rules

What happens in the JOCs Slack stays in the JOCs Slack – everything said or gif’d or bot’d is OFF THE RECORD. This is a safe space to talk about whatever, network, commune and support one another. Now, we’re all smart enough to know that nothing on the Interwebs is 100% safe or secure and we’re supposed to trust no one, so that’s where common sense comes in.

In earlier discussions we agreed that the same decorum and discretion we apply to social media or professional listservs should be used in the all-access, public channels. Be respectful, don’t be a jerk, and help keep this space as accessible and inclusive as possible.

Join

Click the button below to join JOC!

Resources

Some Style Guides

More JOC Organizations

Other dope JOC projects