When that kind that.

Hello and welcome to.

Or isn't there a weekly series where we take a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens?

I'm your host, Catherine, aniya.

The role of independent journalism has been growing.

In fact, you've probably noticed some prominent national and local journalists shifting from legacy media to new media through platforms like Substack, podcasts, social media, and YouTube.

So what does it mean to be an independent journalist, and what does it take to make an impact?

We'll find out from two veteran Arizona journalists who made the shift.

Take a look.

Politics and Osama is always messy.

That's why today's conversation matters.

I'm speaking with state Republican Senator John Covenant about his legislative proposal to shield small political donors.

But we ended up talking about public education.

The governor's race, and the fight for control of the Arizona legislature next year.

Stick around.

You don't want to miss it.

So welcome to not us, Senator.

And are you looking forward to the new legislative session?

Oh, absolutely.

I think this will be my 18th or 19th.

So, always an interesting journey, always something new.

And it keeps me occupied.

Hola.

So, Maritza Felix.

Soy latina mexicana.

Migrant.

This will be mid-November in the 2020 cuatro ciudadanos Estados Unidos.

Este es el rhythm episodio de la segunda temporada lineas.

It is a local mystery.

A more personal candidate attribution and mission is a person known as the erroneous.

The theories, the seeing thing.

Como.

Yes.

Joining me now is Elvia Diaz, a former Arizona Republican AG Central editorial page editor who now hosts a weekly bilingual news and current events podcast called Not Us, and she's a commentator on Substack.

Also here is Maddie to Felix, an award winning journalist, producer and writer who started Connecti Arizona, a Spanish language news service that connects people in Arizona and Sonora.

She also hosts a podcast of new border initiatives called Grow Santa Lineas.

Welcome, ladies to Arizona.

So good to see you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the invitation.

You bet.

I'm so excited to talk about this subject, particularly because you're new.

You've been in it for a while.

It's a brand new kind of media that you both have not been doing prior to this.

So I'm anxious to get into exactly what does it mean to be an independent journalist and and how does that influence the work that you're doing right now?

We'll start with you, Marissa.

I think the freedom I think being an independent journalist has a lot of challenges, but at the same time, the freedom to say and do the work that you want to do, to tell the stories of your communities and embracing your identity at the same time when you're doing so, when you work for traditional news organizations, sometimes you need to detach yourself from the community that you serve in order to be more objective or impartial, or just to fulfill the traditional way of doing things.

Now, being independent, you have the opportunity to see the landscape and the ecosystem and actually to represent that community that you belong.

The community has built you and keeps building with you.

That's something that we're doing with Connect Arizona, and then we have more time to listen.

To assume less and less and more and actually get to know the community better so we can serve them better.

And I know freedom is a big reason for you doing what you do, Elvia.

Right.

Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

And thank you for the introduction, because the fact that I was the first Latina and the Latina to lead the editorial page editor of the Republic since 1890, something I'm very proud of.

I'm very proud of the work that I did.

But I was there at the Republic for 25 years and did it all reporting, editing, column writing, opinion writing and leading the editorial, page.

So one, nothing is forever.

Second, the landscape, the media landscape has changed tremendously in the past ten years.

It is not the same that investment in local journalism has changed dramatically across the nation and also here in Arizona.

And so it was time for me to leave, but it was not time for me to leave journalism at all.

And so being independent, I'm finding that out that is very difficult is very hard.

Learning everything from scratch in terms of the technical aspects of podcasting.

I have been writing for 25 years, essentially, so now I am on video on social media, Substack and YouTube everywhere.

So it's difficult.

It's a very challenging job, but at the same time, it is that freedom that you are talking about.

Marissa and to react quickly to whatever is happening and to do it the way that you want to do it and do it fast.

Well, and you're also going back to skills that you probably used early in your career, where you are out in the streets, kind of this grassroots approach to journalism.

What has been the most challenging part for you or actually what has been the the biggest highlight for you in terms of going back to those roots?

I think that's the most rewarding part of that because in my role, I was editing, I was leading a team.

So, not necessarily writing as much.

So, in the office a lot.

And now I'm out in about chess.

When I exactly what I was doing 25 years ago, connecting directly with people, you heard a piece, at the beginning, an interview with a state legislator.

That was what I was doing before in English and Spanish, interviewing people.

And so that's to me, that's the most rewarding part about this.

But also it's time consuming.

It's a lot of work.

It takes time to go out there.

But to me, that's why I wanted to do it.

I want a connection direct connection to the people that I cover, to the people that I listen to on social media.

And fortunately, it is happening.

I'm having that connection.

But in terms of being independent, it's very difficult.

Well, we talk about, you know, your passion and being able to be more authentic and what you're doing.

But we don't, I think, talk enough about just how hard and how many hours you're putting in to the work that you're doing.

Can you just tell me about that, Marissa?

Because we talked back in 2020, just days after you started Connect to Arizona and it's grown and I haven't sleep.

Yeah.

Yes, exactly.

So tell me how how difficult it has been for you and how much of an investment has it been for you, you know, for your time and your efforts?

Of course, in my family and everything that is around us, I was only a journalist and that's fine.

Just a journalist doing the reporting job.

I never thought about, media liability insurance.

I never thought about intrepid or never thought about how am I going to make things that I really, really like and enjoy.

And it's my passion.

And you're good at.

Yeah.

And but it's like, what is the long run to sustainability?

I had to change as a Latina my perspective to money, my perspective to fund raising, my perspective to ethics.

There is so many things that are involved in in launching your own thing in the way that I do journalism before, if you tell me, told me that what's up in news where like together in a sentence, I will laugh out loud.

Now this is what I do for a living.

So my journalism lives in WhatsApp.

That is a nontraditional platform.

Lives in TikTok now I my face is out there everywhere and with my community.

And I actually, I think one of the biggest lessons is stop fixing everything.

Sometimes we as journalists, we assume a lot, and just stopping and listening to the community and being flexible to the formats and the platforms that we use has been very, very valuable.

But it's hard, but it's hard because we don't have the backup of a big corporation that is going to protect ourself.

We don't have all the infrastructures that others who are working for traditional media have, so we have to rely a lot on resources and networks, and colleagues are going to be watching our backs when we are out there in the street doing our job well.

Tell me a little bit about the work that you're doing right now, because you are out in the Latino communities at a time that is fearful, anxiety ridden, a time probably that some folks that you've talked to have never experienced before in their lives.

So tell me about how crucial what you're doing is to this moment in our communities, but also how it impacts how you do your job.

Because I understand that there are some fears for safety for yourself when you're out there trying to do your work, right.

Yeah.

The community that I serve right now is under attack, and I'm part of the community that I serve.

So I am and my family is basically under attack.

I work in Spanish, I'm Latina, I'm loud.

I just recently became a U.S.

citizen, but I was not a U.S.

citizen before.

So I represent everything that this country is not celebrating and is not embracing anymore.

And that's something that I can see and doing the work that we do, even speaking Spanish in the street or speaking English with the thick accent that I do have, and I actually love, can make me a target.

And that's the reality of most of my community live.

So that's why we need to change so many things, because we work in digital platforms, so digital security is a huge concern we're going to have pretty soon for training and hostile environment training for Hispanic journalists.

Our immigrants are living in Arizona just because we need to be very mindful of how our immigration experiences affect our work.

What's going to happen with my team?

Because I now lead a team of different immigration experiences, people who are here with that, our work visas with permanent residents there are afraid of traveling.

They're afraid of covering those protests, and they feel that this country is not giving them the opportunities that they came here for.

Right.

It's very, very hard.

And it's a very lonely, path.

But I think that most of us, since we are still connected, I think with stronger we're changing the way that we tell the stories.

And we're not letting that fear to drivers, but the opportunity to actually find joy in journalism, find the way to embrace difficult conversations and find the way to actually connect as humans with our communities, which is so important.

Elvia, tell me a little bit about these conversations that you have in the community.

And do you feel like you are empowering our community and making perhaps just, a better or more authentic, difference and impact than perhaps you may have been able to do before?

I wouldn't say more authentic, because I'm a Mexican.

I grew up, I was a worn and was raised in Mexico.

And so I grew up speaking Spanish, and so that's unavoidable.

But I do I do see that there is a need in the community for reliable information.

And that's why I'm doing this in English and Spanish and not I am, doing the bilingual deep dive every week, on YouTube and all that channels.

And I also have the, English focused Substack.

And then I have reels on social media almost every single day, and I'm doing that mostly in Spanish.

So I think the difference here is that I was doing it 100% in English.

Right.

But I do see a tremendous need to do it bilingually as well, to do it in English and do it in Spanish.

So I think there is a huge need and yes, I do believe that they see the impact, and I do believe that people, not everyone, but that people understand that reporting that independent, I want to say independent like independent minded journalists are essential to a democracy.

And we live in this very difficult time where there are fewer reporters covering our neighborhoods, period.

Not just in English and not just in Spanish overall.

So, journalism is extremely essential, more so than ever.

And most unfortunate, that's when we see, a lot of the cuts that it has happened.

And legacy media.

And so, yes, I think that community is, is reacting to that.

But then again, it's also very difficult because not a lot of people want to pay for, for its horrors.

It is it is very difficult.

And we have to pay our bills.

Yes.

We don't pay our bills.

Then we have to maintain the session.

Well, that brings me to my final question.

Because I knew we were going to run out of time with this did, but we're down to about a minute.

So I want to ask you each, because there's a lot of misinformation out there, where would you advise people to go?

Or how do they go about finding news that is factual?

I think if you speak Spanish, obviously connect Arizona.

That will be my first speaking.

I no, no, no, find your trusted messengers in their community.

Sometimes is journalist, sometimes it can be faith groups.

Sometimes it can become, you know, organizations that are doing that, filling the gap of providing factually reliable information.

Don't believe everything that you see online, Althia.

And I will add that when you see a headline that makes you angry, just pass because misinformation is filled with headlines that are designed to make you angry and react to it without thinking.

Thank you both.

I am just so appreciative of your work.

I love you both and I appreciate you being here on the show.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Continued success.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yes, Garcia.

Come on plateau.

And that's our show for autism and Arizona PBS.

I'm Catherine, and I'll see you next time at the.