The Council of Korean Americans was proud to be a Jade Sponsor for #AAJA25, the annual convention for the Asian American Journalists Association held in Seattle, Washington. Many CKA members attended the event and presented on panels, including Jinhee Ahn Kim and Jonathan Sposato. CKA’s presence at this national conference demonstrates its commitment to partnering with AAPI media organizations and community leaders and amplifying the voice of the AAPI community. CKA Managing Director Linda Butcher and Community Engagement Manager Alpin Hong attended numerous panel discussions and strengthened ties with prominent journalists, business leaders, local elected officials, authors, and students.

CKA also presented a panel “Ethnic media, data, and the real stories of Asian America”, moderated by CNN Correspondent Natasha Chen and featuring Neil Ruiz from Pew Research Center and Sam Cho, Port Commissioner for the City of Seattle and co-owner of Northwest Asian Weekly. Topics discussed included:

How the speakers found their way into leadership roles and the barriers they may have experienced

The gap between the AAPI community and its ability to leverage government resources and business connections (Sam Cho described the example of AAPI business owners not being aware of or how to access retail opportunities at SeaTac Airport)

The importance of AAPI news sources, even to non-AAPI readers, as ethnic media can put spotlights on cases/individuals that larger or mainstream media outlets might not illuminate

Neil provided high-level statistics and some data points on immigration, AAPI demographics in the U.S., and polling data regarding AAPI perspectives on loyalty to the U.S. vs. their countries of origin

How and why the impact of immigration and deportation policies on the AAPI community is largely missing in national media, and how local ethnic media are bridging that information gap