The Community Media Workshop, founded by a journalist, Hank De Zutter, and a community activist, Thom Clark, is a small institution trying to link the two Chicagos by encouraging the media to tell the stories of the other Chicago, the oft-neglected neighborhoods and back streets of Chicago, where the problems are felt most deeply and where solutions are most likely to be born.

The Workshop trains people working on these problems to tell their stories to the media, tips sensitive journalists to the importance of these stories, and tries to create better relationships between the media and the diverse communities which make up Chicago.” Source: Community Media Workshop

“We:

• hold workshops throughout the year to train nonprofit communicators on how to effectively reach the media, (via pitching, messaging, social media and spokesperson training)
• publish an annual media guide (a yellow pages of media contacts) of all of the media outlets (including journalists’ & reporters’ full contact info) in the Chicago land area and beyond. (Now online, as well as in print, at www.chicagomediaguide.org)
• organize an annual conference in June – Making Media Connections – which brings hundreds of nonprofit leaders in the same room with reporters and journalists…
• host the Studs Terkel Media Awards Benefit each year to honor journalists and reporters who cover stories in their communities, much like Studs Terkel did…
• Blog! Our blogs include: NP Communicator: Tips and tools for nonprofit communicators. http://communitymediaworkshop.org/npcommunicator
• Newstips: Our long-time grassroots news service providing journalists with stories and sources from Chicago-area nonprofits. http://communitymediaworkshop.org/newstips
• Chicago is the World: A resource for Chicago’s ethnic media. http://communitymediaworkshop.org/chicagoistheworld” Source: Community Media Workshop