Fall in New York, community media, and more links
Welcome to Export Quality, your home for news by and about South Asian Americans and Canadians
If you’re new here, welcome! Here’s what this newsletter is all about.
The weather in NYC has been phenomenal, no longer the sweat fest that makes you question our over-reliance on fossil fuels and why Al Gore with his commitment to fighting climate change never became president. Actually, you should question the former more often - as a reporter I covered the Paris Agreement/United Nations negotiations for years and it’s pretty disturbing.
We haven’t hit that one annoying week in September where its sweltering again so for now I can dream of the best scenes from When Harry Met Sally, which all took place in autumn.
Since I’m not fortunate enough to use seasons as verbs, I have been working all summer between trips to the beach, wedding season, tacos in Texas, and only the kind of people watching a humid Manhattan street produces at dusk.
In late June/early July, I wrapped up my time as the Managing Editor/Mentor for the Elections Reporting Mentorship (Fellowship) program, run through City University of New York’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and the Center for Community Media. It was incredible to coach 16 seasoned journalists in hyperlocal and ethnic media outlets to report about all things elections and set them up to keep doing so until November.
These aren’t just the ‘newspapers’ and magazines we find at the Indian grocery store or temple/mosque, though they can be. As larger media outlets have experienced mass layoffs, more of us move over to formats like this newsletter, and are also a vital resource for information about everything from local ballot initiatives to where to get covid vaccines
These journalists work for outlets that serve niche audiences, the ones we mine for stories when we do parachute reporting in swing states or during big, usually tragic events. They are unheralded by national media, underfunded by advertisers and philanthropists, and still manage to produce some excellent journalism.
Community media is also a largely ignored landscape when it comes to learning more about immigrant and rural voters, every political operative’s white whale.
I’m really proud of them so please check out a selection of my Fellows’ work here: from how artists in northern Manhattan are processing the political turmoil we’re all experiencing, a guide for first-time, immigrant voters, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the influence of Black sororities and fraternities on VP Harris’ campaign.
A little art interlude: Perhaps my nod to the upcoming presidential debate
9x12, recycled cardboard, magazines, paint. 2024
In early August, I had a wonderful time at the Asian American Journalist Association’s conference in Austin! Catching up with old friends, making new ones, hosting a mixer, stuffing my face with Tex-Mex, and moderating a panel on how to report on South Asian voters in Texas and beyond, and seeing the GOAT Connie Chung. It was great to be surrounded by such incredibly talented AAPI journalists and I felt a bit better about this ridiculous profession we’ve all chosen.
And now I’ll be reporting a bit more on the election for various news outlets and for this newsletter, focusing on AAPI voters and candidates around the country - or anything of particular interest. Have story tips? Send them here: exportqualitynews@gmail.com!
What you should read/watch/listen to/celebrate this week:
not only reported on what a Harris presidency could mean for the fight for abortion rights but has also started
, an exciting newsletter about bringing attention to forgotten stories, conflicts, and people around the world. Check out her intro post here!Siri Chilukuri is a Fellow at Mother Jones and reported on how the Sunrise Movement (founded and led by Varshini Prakash) thinks climate is the key to voters’ trust
Manu Raju reports from Pennsylvania and the tough Senate race there
Amna Nawaz reports on how Russia and other countries are running disinformation campaigns in the US election
Deepa Shivaram talks about how VP Harris’ past debates set the stage for the presidential debate tomorrow night (Sept 10) in Philadelphia
A big congratulations to Meet The Press/NBC News Researcher and Production Associate Juhi Doshi, who was chosen to be part of Gold House’s Journalism Accelerator program for rising AAPI journalists!
Priya Krishna and Tejal Rao did a really interesting video piece on how the burger became a portrait of America (and maybe consequently became the target of many an immigrant mom’s food-related ire!)
Arun Venugopal, a senior reporter WNYC/Gothamist’s race and justice desk, reports on how foot traffic in midtown is almost near pre-COVID levels thanks to office workers and about how New York Fashion Week is back, but the industry is bleeding jobs and influence
Shriya Bhattacharya reports on the creator economy and her latest piece for Business Insider is about how Instagram is adding comments to their Stories feature to bring users out of their DMs and in front of advertisers
Rya Jetha, a national reporter for Bloomberg, wrote recently about a new housing initiative at UC Berkeley and a startup that says it can tell the difference between real and AI-generated voices
My fellow SAJA Board member Sabrina Malhi is the national health care reporter at Washington Post. She has a particular interest in telling stories about infant and maternal mortality. Her latest stories are about how Trump proposed covering IVF costs but was scant on details and how mpox vaccines are now available in Chicago (with Fenit Nirappil, reporting on public health for Washington Post as well!)
Tanais, the author of In Sensorium: Notes For My People and 2022 winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, spoke to
for Harpers Bazaar about what comes after the girlboss and redefining successNiraj Warikoo, a reporter for Detroit Free Press, wrote recently about an Arab American convention in Dearborn to feature Macklemore, Jill Stein, Cornel West - and a conversation on the crisis in Gaza and its impact on the elections
Stay tuned for more reading recommendations and my thoughts on tomorrow’s presidential debate in the next issue!