Immigrant residents living along the No. 7 train now have a web site that serves as a hub for local and political news.
The hyper-local online news site, www.Queens7.com, aims to serve immigrants living in Woodside, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst with information and news that helps them make informed decisions, said Noel Pangilinan, executive editor of Queens7.com
“It aims to bridge the gap among the various immigrant groups in Queens; it aims to build solidarity among people from different ethnic backgrounds in these communities,” Pangilinan said.
“What gives me great satisfaction about this project is the fact that we are doing something for the community,” Pangilinan added.
The web site, launched on December 19, is a product of the Philippine Forum, a non-profit organization in Woodside that provides an array of social and political services to the Filipino community.
However, the web site brands itself as an organization that caters to the general immigrant community at large.
The site has three full-time workers and relies primarily on volunteer journalists. Some of the positions include web site administrators, web consultants, outreach coordinators, an executive director, and a managing editor.
The organization is looking to hold training workshops throughout the year that provide innovated models of news exposition utilized to develop citizen journalists from the communities covered.
Writing and reporting workshops will be held in February and photography workshops will be held in March.
According to Pangilinan, delving into community-based news media is essential towards successful journalism.
“We at Queens7.com believe that for it to grow and succeed, it would need the support of the communities that it covers,” said Pangilinan. “That is why we are encouraging members of the community to be part of Queens7.com by contributing stories, photos and videos to this web site.”
“As a long-time journalist, I believe that for journalism to survive in these uncertain times it has to go local; it has to go online; and it has to go non-profit,” Pangilinan said.
Maricris Taeza, managing editor of Queens7.com, felt that the web site has a continuing mission of covering the often under-represented immigrant communities of northern Queens.
“For the web site, we are still working on reaching out to other immigrant communities to have more volunteers and diversity as we intend to cover other ethnic groups,” Taeza said.
“If this project will succeed, we might expand to other communities along the No. 7 Train line,” Taeza added.
The site is looking to partner with local Latino organizations to spread the awareness of the growing media organization. “I am proud, very proud, of what our team has done so far,” said Pangilinan.
Members also look to develop web sites for neighboring communities beyond the stretches of the 7 train.
“Despite the meager resources and a limited manpower, we were able to set it up,” Pangilinan said. “But Queens7.com is still a work in progress.”
