The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced a grant of $1.475 million to continue the work of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC) in reporting on community life and the city of Detroit’s future. The grant will help support news in the public interest and improve the quality and quantity of news coverage about Detroit. The Detroit Journalism Cooperative consists of five non-profit media organizations including Michigan Radio, Detroit Public Television (DPTV), WDET Public Radio, the Center for Michigan’s Bridge Magazine, and New Michigan Media, a network of ethnic and minority newspapers.
With this new grant, the cooperative will begin a new effort to connect the voices of Detroit’s residents with watchdog reporting coverage to help citizens better address their concerns. This new support from Knight Foundation, which works to strengthen local journalism nationwide, will continue the work of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative into 2018.
Since 2013, members of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative have combined their resources to produce multimedia projects and coverage about Detroit’s recovery. Michigan Radio’s DJC coverage has covered subjects such as historical segregation in Detroit schools, police working to reduce racial bias, and how Detroit’s neighborhoods are faring compared to the center city. The station also produced an hour long documentary, “Separate and Unequal,” which looks at the history of racial tensions in Detroit, beginning with the 1967 unrest, and compares the racial tensions of that time to what exists today. Michigan Radio’s Detroit Journalism Cooperative stories can be found here. All of the stories produced by the DJC partners can be found at The Intersection website.
