Listen "Why Solidarity Journalism Can Help Restore Trust in Mainstream Media and Strengthen Democracy, with Dr. Anita Varma"
Episode Synopsis
Dr. Anita Varma is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Media at UT Austin where she focuses on media ethics. She leads the Solidarity Journalism Initiative at the university’s Center for Media Engagement. She received her Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University, and her dissertation, Solidarity in Action: A Case Study of Journalistic Humanizing Techniques in the San Francisco Homeless Project, received the inaugural Penn State Davis Ethics Award. Her research, teaching, and public engagement all focus on the role of solidarity in journalism. She believes journalism can help change the world for the better, and dedicates herself to helping journalists do their best work.
Anita joins us today to discuss the mainstream media’s credibility crisis and how solidarity journalism offers a way forward for the media industry to build public trust, strengthen democracy and better serve its audiences.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
SOLIDARITY JOURNALISM RESOURCES:
The Center for Media Engagement - Solidarity Journalism
Mainstream Media Faces a Credibility Crisis – My Journalism Research Shows How the News Can Still Serve the Public, by Dr. Anita Varma
Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company, by Alice Driver
The Defender Handbook, by The Kansas City Defender and the Reynolds Journalism Institute
Tahera Rahman
Cecilia Lei
285 South
The Texas Tribune
Outlier Media
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music.
Follow us on BlueSky:
@buckscountybeacon.bsky.social
@cmychalejko.bsky.social
@rcpress.bsky.social
Anita joins us today to discuss the mainstream media’s credibility crisis and how solidarity journalism offers a way forward for the media industry to build public trust, strengthen democracy and better serve its audiences.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google and iheart
SOLIDARITY JOURNALISM RESOURCES:
The Center for Media Engagement - Solidarity Journalism
Mainstream Media Faces a Credibility Crisis – My Journalism Research Shows How the News Can Still Serve the Public, by Dr. Anita Varma
Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America's Largest Meatpacking Company, by Alice Driver
The Defender Handbook, by The Kansas City Defender and the Reynolds Journalism Institute
Tahera Rahman
Cecilia Lei
285 South
The Texas Tribune
Outlier Media
Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music.
Follow us on BlueSky:
@buckscountybeacon.bsky.social
@cmychalejko.bsky.social
@rcpress.bsky.social
More episodes of the podcast The Signal
America Is a White Christian Nationalist Project, With Religion Dispatches Editor Megan Goodwin
29/10/2025
The History of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in America, with Bill Mullen and Christopher Vials
02/10/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.