What Independent Media in Asia Taught Me About Rebuilding Journalism With Community in Mind

Aotearoa New Zealand’s media industry is ever-dwindling. Major outlets have gone through several restructures, resulting in youth news platforms downsizing or closing, and community newspapers folding. Reaching underserved communities has never been harder, just as the need for their stories to be heard has never been greater.

When I shifted careers and pursued journalism at 28, I positioned myself as an inclusive storyteller, keeping underserved communities at the forefront of my work. As a Filipina immigrant, I know what it’s like to not see myself, and my community, represented on mainstream media. But finding my space within it proved harder than I first thought. 

Building an independent media platform must be the way to go? But with what money, and where do I even begin? 

Then, a glimpse of hope. 

Alongside three other New Zealand journalists, we travelled to Thailand to attend Splice Beta 2025—an annual gathering of media professionals from across the Asia-Pacific region. This opportunity was made possible by the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s Asia Media Centre.

Splice Beat is was a community that understood the same pressures: layoffs, AI, unstable revenue streams, climate reporting, among other things. But it also saw the desire of emerging voices that wanted to go against the grain of traditional media. Splice Beta posed a different question: what if we rebuilt journalism around the community it is meant to serve? 

Inclusive journalism can be lonely and isolating work. At Splice Beta, I found myself surrounded by an inspiring and ambitious bunch of doers, dreamers, and innovators. 

Nicolás Ríos, founder of Documented NY, shared how his newsroom rebuilt its infrastructure to include immigrant voices in every decision-making process. He saw how undocumented migrants in New York associated migrant coverage with fear rather than information. 

Documented NY adopted a listening-first approach, letting the community’s needs and feedback help shape their news. Stories are published in Spanish, Mandarin and Haitian Creole, to address language barriers, and they hired community reporters with the cultural capability to build relationships with community leaders and attend community events. 

Patrick Lee, an environmentalist and Instagram Reel creator from Malaysia, deliberately removes ‘climate change’ in climate reporting. Steering away from ‘doom-and-gloom’ rhetoric, he tells local stories and works with community groups who deserve more visibility. 

One of his most viral Reels shows how locals have turned the suckermouth catfish – an invasive species damaging river biodiversity – into food, specifically satay. Another features retired Uncle Andrew, who transformed a sidewalk near his house into a lavender garden. He grew tired of seeing the rubbish, and believed people would think twice littering in green spaces.  

Patrick said mainstream climate coverage can often leave people powerless. But when they are shown solutions, and how they can take action, that’s where the real impact happens.

Former TV sports reporter, Ceej Tantengco-Malolos founded Go Hard Girls, a podcast-turned-media-platform that uplifts Filipina (women) athletes. She argues the media needs to stop reporting on the community and start working with them instead. Through partnerships with NGOs, commercial brands and grant funders, Go Hard Girls expanded its work to community events and workshops that improves the visibility and coverage of Filipina athletes. 

During the pandemic, when most legacy outlets hesitated over social media, former TV anchor and reporter Jacque Manabat used TikTok to deliver the news. “News is about reaching people where they are,” she said, and online is exactly where they are. Since leaving mainstream media, Jacque has built a creative lab Amber Studios. Her combined social media following has grown to nearly 400,000 followers, but her real impact is in how she keeps news accessible and immediate to young audiences. 

Inspired by their confidence to step away from mainstream media and build something of their own, I asked Ceej and Jacque for a mentoring session. Both challenged how I saw journalism.

Journalism, they said, is a function and a skill, not just a job title or a career.

Impact journalism shouldn’t be measured on awards alone, but by your reach, relevance and the tangible change it creates for the communities you serve. 

There will always be a need for traditional journalism. But in a shrinking media landscape with limited job opportunities, particularly here in New Zealand, how can we pivot as journalists? Whose stories continue to go unheard? Who are the communities we are serving – and what do they need from us right now? 

Splice Beta not only offered a community for me to lean into as I navigate what independent journalism looks like for me here in Aotearoa, it also showed practical steps we can take to build community-based journalism. 

Seeing inclusive, independent journalism in action has given me a renewed sense of hope. While it’s difficult, it is not impossible to build a digital media platform for underserved communities.

-Asia Media Centre