In abstract
The awards honor the accomplishments of reports and authorized leaders whose work embodies the values of the First Modification.
Sisi Wei was honored because the 2024 Freedom of the Press Rising Star by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Wednesday.
The award honors a rising journalist, media lawyer, or group that has made nice strides in defending freedom of the press or who has conquered vital roadblocks in the middle of telling an essential story. Sisi was editor-in-chief of The Markup and is now chief affect officer of the newly mixed group of CalMatters and The Markup.
“This year’s honorees embody the tenacity, commitment, and courage that underpin a free press,” stated Stephen J. Adler, chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “Across journalism and the law, their work shows us the true power of the First Amendment to make informed democracy a reality.”
The committee famous Sisi’s capacity for “empowering her journalism colleagues for years, whether it was overseeing editorial teams at ProPublica to produce investigations that served the public interest; her leadership at OpenNews and the DEI Coalition to foster a more anti-racist and equitable journalism industry; or her current role at CalMatters and The Markup, where she is developing new ways for journalism to drive positive change.” Sisi accepted the award on the Oct. 16 ceremony on the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York Metropolis.
“Joining The Markup two years ago gave me the opportunity to try and build out a journalistic mission that’s centered deliberately and clearly around impact,” Sisi stated. “Impact, which we define as tangible improvements in people’s quality of life, and as journalism that restores people’s sense of agency, and does not further feelings of hopelessness. In the last two years, we did just that.”
“I think Sisi is a quiet revolutionary. She’s not a person who will be out there championing her own work. The way she affects change is by equipping other people to do it,” Nabiha Syed, The Markup’s former CEO, stated when the committee requested her about Sisi’s honor. “(Her) work is about amplifying the best of what is around to tell the truth in the most comprehensive way.” Nabiha was the committee’s inaugural Rising Star Award recipient in 2018 when she was a media lawyer at Buzzfeed Information. She is now government director of the Mozilla Basis.
The Markup, beneath Sisi’s management, was acknowledged as the perfect small digital newsroom on the earth by the On-line Information Affiliation earlier this yr. And Sisi’s position because the chief affect officer of the CalMatters and The Markup permits her to now carry her affect technique to the almost 100-person group, and forge new methods for journalism to be actionable, serve communities and drive real-world affect.
“Earlier this year, CalMatters and The Markup joined forces — becoming one newsroom, doing work that holds the powerful accountable, whether ‘the powerful’ means California legislators or tech companies,” Sisi stated. “Now, as the Chief Impact Officer, I get the privilege of focusing even more on how our work as journalists can have greater impact. I really can’t wait to see what we’ll have done in a year.”
This affect mannequin pioneered by Sisi helps “people understand how to take action,” stated Jeremy Gilbert, Medill’s Knight Professor in Digital Media Technique.
“It’s a very different kind of journalism, but it’s not at all surprising given the nature of Sisi’s character. About her desire to change things for the better, not just tell the stories, but help the community improve itself.”
Beforehand, Sisi was co-executive director of OpenNews and founding father of the DEI Coalition, a journalism neighborhood devoted to sharing data and taking concrete motion in service of a extra anti-racist, equitable and simply journalism trade. She was assistant managing editor at ProPublica from 2018 to 2020, the place she oversaw three editorial groups centered on information apps, interactive storytelling and visible investigations. She additionally managed giant, interdisciplinary investigations throughout the newsroom, certainly one of which received the Pulitzer Prize for nationwide reporting in 2020. In 2021, the Worldwide Ladies’s Media Basis awarded Sisi the Gwen Ifill Award, which acknowledges an excellent lady journalist of coloration whose work carries ahead Ifill’s legacy, particularly by serving as a task mannequin and mentor for younger journalists.
The opposite 2024 Freedom of the Press award recipients embrace: Stephen Paul Engelberg, Editor-in-Chief at ProPublica; Maria Hinojosa, Founder and President at Futuro Media; Josie Huang, Reporter at LAist; and Mazin Sidahmed, Co-Founder at Documented.
