A $50,000 donation to The Mānoa Mirror will enable the student-driven and community-centered online newsroom at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to hire its first paid student and professional staff members. Prior to this, all the student contributions to The Mirror have been voluntary, supported by UH Mānoa journalism professors.
The donation was made by Press Forward, a national initiative that aims to address long standing inequalities in journalism coverage and practice in the U.S. by supporting small, local newsrooms that provide original reporting in underserved communities.
“The rapid loss of local media sources in the United States is a huge threat to democracy,” said Hye-ryeon Lee, chair of the School of Communication and Information (SCI), which houses the journalism program. “The award from Press Forward will strengthen The Mānoa Mirror so that we can better contribute to expanding the news ecosystem in Hawaiʻi and also serve as an important resource to train our students to become conscientious and trustworthy journalists necessary for democracy.”
Founded in 2023 within the UH Mānoa journalism program, The Mirror aims to teach journalism students how to create impactful local journalism. The free, online and mobile-accessible program enables students to write about a variety of stories that before The Mirror likely would have gone untold, and collaborate with professional media organizations to enhance the quality of local news coverage.
“Support for The Mirror signifies our belief that college news services can provide a vital source of information for communities,” said Marika Lynch, a spokesperson for Press Forward. “We’ve seen this across the country. In areas rural and urban, where few news sources exist, colleges and universities can play an essential role in meeting local information needs. We’re thrilled The Mānoa Mirror can help fulfill this role in Hawaiʻi.”
SCI is housed in UH Manoa’s College of Social Sciences.
