Public media's next leadership wave

Keyris Manzanares on the importance of diverse voices and inclusive narratives

Jul 12, 2024

There is a new energy around diverse leadership in public media, with a unique blend of cultural insight and journalistic prowess. It’s exciting, but change is ongoing. 👁️

This new movement in public media is fueled by a desire to tell stories with greater depth and context, and a mission to represent the best of our communities. Transitioning from our traditional approaches will require a lot, including a sense of urgency and a multifaceted vision. 🔭 The enthusiasm and energy Keyris Manzanares thus brings to the industry is what we need more of.

Keyris Manzanares is a dynamic, bilingual, Emmy-award winning multimedia journalist at VPM, Virginia's public media. Passionate about stories that impact underserved communities, she previously worked at Richmond’s ABC affiliate, where she created and anchored Hoy En RVA to inform Central Virginia's Latino community. She’s covered issues like health disparities, housing, education and immigration.

In our interview, Manzanares shares her perspective on the need for public media to embrace and elevate Latine voices. Her work demonstrates how representation can foster trust and engagement within communities, highlighting that issues like housing and education resonate universally. By advocating for more bilingual journalists and collaboration, she envisions a public media system that is reflective of its audience’s diversity. Hers is an interesting journey that presents the transformative potential of Latino/a leadership in enriching public media's vision and reach. 👇

How did you come to public media?

I was born and raised in Virginia, and news was a big part of my life. I remember sitting down with my parents and we would watch Aqui y Ahora and all the news that my parents introduced me to. News had always really been prevalent in my life, so I chose to study broadcast journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University. That's where I got exposed to what journalism really is.

While I was at VCU, I did a couple of internships here at local stations. My first station when I graduated was commercial TV. So I was there, reporting for digital. At the time, there was a big initiative at the company to be digital first. I was mainly doing general assignment. But as covid hit, there was a big need to integrate being bilingual and bicultural with my work. I was pushing for that, but it wasn't until the pandemic that the company embraced it.

Then, there was a real lack of information, which was being drastically affected by the virus, given the work that they do, as well as the multi-generational nature of households. Also, there was a lot of underreporting and misinformation.

There, I started in initiative called Hoy en RVA. It was news for you, in your language, and easily accessible. It was for the community, and I always think of as news if my parents lived in Richmond. They would have no idea what's going on besides what they see and hear on Facebook, So Hoy en RVA was a way for me to try to fill that void and to show the community that there was someone in media that was looking out for them. Hoy en RVA became a program that I was known for, and I really enjoyed it.

Down the street at the time, VPM actually had an office in front of my prior employer. VPM was launching a new show called VPM News Focal Point. The purpose of the show was to be long form, and to have more time for stories so to give greater context. The goal was to zoom in on the issues that Virginians are facing. To me, it was intriguing as a show concept, because I always craved the longer story. And so that's really how I made my switch over to public media.

Did your experience in commercial television bring any sensibilities to your work in public media that you found beneficial?

A sense of urgency would be the first thing. The public media space sometimes is known for operating in a slower kind of pace, but sometimes people need the news now and they're looking for it now. So, bringing that knowledge and not losing that sense of urgency has really helped me thrive.

Also, the multimedia skills of that I've learned — writing for web, putting together TV packages, recording audio for radio — and being able to use all of those skills in a different way has helped. Sometimes our community is not going to jump at the opportunity to be on TV. A lot of us are shy, a lot of us think of how we're going to look, how it's going to affect our life, our job. But if you're saying ‘hey, this is for radio,’ or ‘this is for web,’ the medium allows people to feel more comfortable. My combination of skills has allowed me to feature more voices that may not want to be on the TV side, but have important stories.

Focal Point just won a few awards. Could you share a little bit of your effort there?

One of my biggest accomplishments was that one of those stories won an award from the Virginia Broadcasters Association. It was two-part series on mobile home parks, and the state of mobile home parks in Virginia. We feature two men who become the focus of each story, but they're so different. One man is facing a 40 percent increase in costs and has nowhere else to go. He's invested pretty much his life savings into this trailer. Then we feature another man who's in a different situation because the owner of the park is a local non-profit that has vowed to not raise rents and not displace anyone. Both of the men are Latino and a lot of the stories are bilingual. It's not a story that we see very often. Being on this show has presented an opportunity to get to tell stories like that.

What has it been like bringing the bicultural experience that you have?

I'm at a point where I have the in-depth in context to my work. I've lived in the Richmond community for about seven years now. I've been a reporter for almost as long and I really feel like I understand the issues. When I started with Hoy en RVA, I got a clear understanding of what's going on in the community because it's very similar to what my family has gone through, or my cousins or my aunts and uncles. Throughout that work, I got that understanding and also the empathy that is required when you are reporting. As I showed up, I feel like there grew a mutual trust.

Now, bringing that learning over to VPM, it's about trying to create more content that centers the community, such as the mobile home park feature or a feature on migrant farm workers, which I did in the first season. There, we compared farmers in two different types of Industries — one in vegetable farming and the other on the Southwest side of Virginia, which was Christmas tree farming. I've really gotten the chance at VPM to expand the work I've always wanted to do. I never really touched the depth and the context until now, because there's more opportunity to give pieces that breathing room. There's more time for production. There's more time to really be intentional with the type of story you're presenting. So I truly feel like that's the opportunity at VPM that I've created for myself, as my own personal initiative.

Today, I'm trying to expand the original reporting that I'm doing. For so long, when you have to choose between two worlds, the English-speaking media and the Spanish-speaking media, it's sometimes difficult to try to merge them together and create news that people will enjoy, even if you’re not bilingual or a native Spanish speaker, and feel empathy for what's going on in the story. It's trying to bring original reporting and still incorporate translation of my own work, if it is beneficial for the community.

How have you managed to merge those two worlds?

I’m looking for those opportunities where the story can lend itself to having someone who’s bilingual, rather than going to the same English-speaking expert all the time. I’m trying to incorporate a variety of voices. They don't have to be Spanish-speaking. I want to share more of a bicultural experience for whoever's reading my stories.

Merging both worlds is also trying to focus more on certain areas where there is not enough coverage or where it's underrepresented, and where I can bring in those Latino voices. Focusing on people first, and finding the right people to tell the story.

What does representation mean to you?

I heard someone once compare the difference between equality and equity. Creating more resources on the equity side can ensure there is equality in the representation of us in the news. I feel like that’s really important. It’s also about presence — bringing our voice to community events, and raising up where we see ourselves, and how we see ourselves portrayed in the news.

How do you feel the public media industry should think about representation?

I feel that it's very isolated. Different stations are doing different things, and that's great because, as the local station, you truly know what the community wants. But nine times out of 10, it’s spearheaded by one person.

Also, more communication between different stations on what they're doing, what they've tried to do that maybe wasn't successful, and maybe could be a good learning moment for another station would be helpful. More communication across public media stations is needed especially as we start to think of how are we going to serve this growing demographic.

In Virginia, the projected population growth by 2030 is 1.5 million people. A huge number are second generation. They speaking English. They've gone to college. They're turning to news organizations like NPR. So how can we serve that audience? I think that we start by hiring more people that are bicultural and bilingual and to foster more communication across public media spaces on what we're doing what worked and what hasn't worked. That's how we can learn as this network of public media in being more successful when serving audiences.

The investment from public media needs to be put in trying to recruit more bilingual journalists to the public media space, so that more newsrooms can have a variety of knowledge and a variety of culture. We're not all the same.

What has been a big challenge that you faced in your public media journey, and how did you overcome it — or is it something you're still working on?

While I wanted to do long-form storytelling, but I didn't know what that meant truly. In the pieces for VPM News Focal Point, we had a lead piece that ran four minutes. Then we had a feature that ran eight minutes, and then a spotlight, which ran about 3:34. Coming from a world where your package was always one minute 30, one minute 45, and you had to get special permission to go longer than two minutes, it was a challenge that I felt like I really had to overcome and put myself more in a news magazine/documentary style of storytelling that I never really learned.

The obstacle really for me at the moment is merging my worlds and trying to put more of a bilingual hat on. A lot of us are navigating how to elevate the voices of our community in daily coverage. For a long time, we've had to pick and choose the reporting. We've had to ask, ‘are we going to be on the English-speaking side?’ ‘Are we going to be on the Spanish speaking side?’ And there really is no roadmap.

Now, I am starting to reach out to different people and trying to see what's worked for them, so I can overcome my own obstacle and be a more efficient bilingual reporter. It's a lot of growing, but also just being okay that there is no roadmap and that coverage looks different for every community and for every area, whatever state you're in. Trying to learn from different people is what's going to help me overcome that.

What is the appetite among leadership and the audience for a bilingual approach?

At VPM, there is a big appetite to fill that gap, and so for me, it's a world filled with possibilities. But I also have to create and craft the most intentional approach, the most sustainable efforts. I would like whatever we create at VPM to live beyond me because that's the way to be successful and have a lasting impact.

We're seeing that our community is continuing to grow, and they are looking for news. I’m thinking through how they get it, because they may get it on Facebook, WhatsApp or different social platforms. So we need to invest more of our approach in talking to community members where they are, and people that are bilingual like me.

Sometimes stories are not so focused on news or economic development. There’s an opportunity for more business stories for this community. There’s a lot of foodie stories, which I love, but you know, we care a lot about different issues.

Someone recently asked me, ‘what are the issues that Latino people care about’ and I said, ‘they care about the same issues that you care about — transportation, housing, how development is impacting their communities where they live, food insecurity.’ Latinos care about all the things that all people care about. That's the type of content they're all so looking for.

What tips do you have for someone who is just getting into the public media space?

To enjoy all the different avenues that public media has to offer. A lot of the public media stations have radio, have web, have podcasts, have documentaries, have TV productions. That's the beauty of it. You can truly be a multimedia journalist in that space because all the tools are there.

Another thing is knowing that the barriers to your dreams are your own insecurities. Those are simply things that you need to work on and develop. As you do, you’ll find there are no barriers for you. If you're trying to achieve a certain thing and you put your mind to it, you can create the space for yourself. Don’t give up. You can do it. 🟢

Cafecito: stories to discuss ☕

Radio Bilingue has expanded to Buffalo, NY. 📻 It’s on Buffalo Toronto Public Media’s third HD Radio channel, so reach is a consideration, but still important.
KUER has named Edgar Zuniga program director of bilingual station KUUB. 👏
Texas licensee KZSM-LP penned a bilingual invitation in the San Marcos Record to tune in. 🖱️ The station also offering PSAs to community groups.
José A. Fajardo (May OIGO feature) announced that the Hawai‘i Public Radio board of directors has created a Student Internship Fund in his honor. 🎊 Monies will support the next generation of public media professionals.
A nice music engagement idea! 🎧 San Antonio radio KLMO is doing a month-long series devoted to Latino/a artists in country music.

El radar: try this 📡

Cover transitional kindergarten and Hispanics. KQED’s coverage of transitional kindergarten may inspire your own reporting. 🍎 While kindergarten admits children who turn five by a specific date, California’s program accommodates children who miss the age cutoff, but will turn five during the academic year. This is not without challenges.
Discuss Latinos and math. An Ohio community center offers services such as tutoring and STEM programs for Hispanic girls. 📏 WYSO notes the local school district has a high percentage of Latine and English-learning students.
Explore how creatives share local Latinx stories. Jefferson Public Radio has a story of a theater group portraying history, using opera in English and Spanish as its foundation. 🎭 I would bet this may be happening in your state.
Investigate Hispanics and HIV locally. WSIL has an important story on the growing numbers of HIV cases among Latinos nationwide. 💉 It surely bears coverage at your organization.
Take elections inspo. Latine voter stories, interviews and commentaries are ongoing. 🗳️ If you’re looking for approaches, here is coverage from Connecticut, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Utah, Georgia and Montana.
Examine flea markets and community. This New York Times article on a market, which turns some nights over to dancing, is sure to make you smile. 🪩 However, I’m sure it’s a story happening near you too.

Public media's next leadership wave

Keyris Manzanares on the importance of diverse voices and inclusive narratives

Cafecito: stories to discuss ☕

El radar: try this 📡

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