{"id":96969,"date":"2021-07-17T11:54:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=96969"},"modified":"2021-07-17T11:54:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T16:54:03","slug":"black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Melody Guernsey and Isabelle Stroobandt<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p>DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Dana James is no stranger to the way Black people in Des Moines, Iowa, are covered by the traditional news media. Having grown up in the area, she\u2019s seen the impact local news can and has had on her community. James worked at the Des Moines Register until 2006 when local newsrooms began downsizing. She transitioned to working in other corporate positions for over a decade, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she saw the way Black individuals were being disproportionately impacted and with that a new opportunity to inform her community. Having previously attempted making what she called a \u201cmini-CNN,\u201d James turned to Substack when starting <a href=\"https:\/\/blackiowanews.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Black Iowa News<\/a> as a way to avoid the technical, back-end issues that accompany formatting and running a website.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/560009780?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>James is currently working on a story that showcases the Black activists of Des Moines\u2019 past and present. Throughout the week, she met with a number of activists \u2014 like Jalesha Johnson, Jaylen Cavil and Mat\u00e9 Muhammad, leaders from the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement. She also spoke with Sekou Mtayari, a local college student who created Shop Black DSM, a website that compiles all of the Black-owned companies in Des Moines. Mtayari, who was previously interviewed by James for an individual feature story showcasing his organization around its conception, said he\u2019s appreciative of James\u2019 work to showcase more than just the violent statistics or mug shots often replayed by the mainstream media.<\/p>\n<p>Through Black Iowa News, James shares vital news during a time when, for many, access to accurate information is the difference between life or death. She is able to showcase her community fairly, while also reminding her audience that today\u2019s Black narratives and experiences are deeply rooted in the past. For her story on past and present-day activism, James visited handfuls of historic Black sites across the Des Moines area \u2014 like the Tuskegee Airmen World War II red-tail plane and the Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School Museum.<\/p>\n<p>Melody Guernsey is a graduate student at Medill focusing on community storytelling. You can follow her on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MelodyThinks?s=20\">@melodythinks. <\/a>Izzy Stroobandt is an investigative reporter at Medill. You can follow her on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/izzystroobandt\">@izzystroobandt.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Melody Guernsey and Isabelle Stroobandt Medill Reports DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Dana James is no stranger to the way Black people in Des Moines, Iowa, are covered by the traditional news media. Having grown up in the area, she\u2019s seen the impact local news can and has had on her community. James worked at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,452,5061,5092],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-beyond-chicago","category-featured","category-spring-2021"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Melody Guernsey and Isabelle Stroobandt Medill Reports DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Dana James is no stranger to the way Black people in Des Moines, Iowa, are covered by the traditional news media. Having grown up in the area, she\u2019s seen the impact local news can and has had on her community. James worked at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-17T16:54:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"craigduff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"craigduff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/\",\"name\":\"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-17T16:54:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/54d2913b2fea7d79302c0af1eb61f946\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"In Des Moines, veteran reporter Dana James follows up with Sekou Mtayari, co-founder of Shop Black DSM, a website database of the Black-owned businesses across Des Moines. (Isabelle Stroobandt\/MEDILL)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/54d2913b2fea7d79302c0af1eb61f946\",\"name\":\"craigduff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc29fd087f691dc45b66fad29444fcd12dea89d3c80f9effdf747e7551ad2e85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc29fd087f691dc45b66fad29444fcd12dea89d3c80f9effdf747e7551ad2e85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"craigduff\"},\"description\":\"Video journalist, filmmaker and professor of journalism at The Medill School at Northwestern University\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/craigduff.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/craigduff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Melody Guernsey and Isabelle Stroobandt Medill Reports DES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 Dana James is no stranger to the way Black people in Des Moines, Iowa, are covered by the traditional news media. Having grown up in the area, she\u2019s seen the impact local news can and has had on her community. James worked at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2021-07-17T16:54:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1080,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"craigduff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"craigduff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/","name":"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg","datePublished":"2021-07-17T16:54:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/54d2913b2fea7d79302c0af1eb61f946"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/06\/DanaSekou_web.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"In Des Moines, veteran reporter Dana James follows up with Sekou Mtayari, co-founder of Shop Black DSM, a website database of the Black-owned businesses across Des Moines. (Isabelle Stroobandt\/MEDILL)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/black-iowa-news-reaches-its-audience-via-substack-platform\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Black Iowa News reaches its audience via Substack platform"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/54d2913b2fea7d79302c0af1eb61f946","name":"craigduff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc29fd087f691dc45b66fad29444fcd12dea89d3c80f9effdf747e7551ad2e85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc29fd087f691dc45b66fad29444fcd12dea89d3c80f9effdf747e7551ad2e85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"craigduff"},"description":"Video journalist, filmmaker and professor of journalism at The Medill School at Northwestern University","sameAs":["http:\/\/craigduff.com"],"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/craigduff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96969"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97102,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96969\/revisions\/97102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}