L.A. TACO is thrilled to announce the launch of the L.A. TACO Media Lab, an initiative designed to strengthen and sustain local hybrid journalism and content creator-style platforms by combining the best of both worlds through collaboration, innovation, and the dedicated training of new voices.
With the support of the Press Forward Grant that our newsroom received last month, L.A. TACO is taking a small step forward in addressing the challenges facing our city’s news ecosystem by guiding the next generation of storytellers.
For years, L.A. TACO has been sworn to serve the people of Los Angeles with authentic, community-focused journalism that highlights the city's diverse cultures, underrepresented voices, and untold stories. We've published more than five dozen first bylines in the last seven years.
With the launch of the L.A. TACO Media Lab, we are building on this commitment by creating a space where journalists, social media creators, and community members can come together to learn and collaborate, while elevating engaging stories that affect all residents of Los Angeles County.
What is the L.A. TACO Media Lab?
The L.A. TACO Media Lab grew from the vision of our editor, Javier Cabral, and our dedicated staff, who sought a new path towards embracing the changes affecting the world of news reporting, without giving up the lessons and integrity learned over years of working in local journalism.
The lab is a new nonprofit initiative designed to provide resources, training, and opportunities for collaboration between social media creators, journalists, and community members. Our goal is to help foster a more inclusive and sustainable local journalism ecosystem by sharing resources, hosting training sessions, and promoting open-source content production across our collective outlets.
We’re here to fill the information gaps left by traditional media, with a special focus on covering issues that matter to L.A.’s Latino community and beyond—the city's largest single block of residents—who remain too often underserved by mainstream news outlets.
"Journalism isn't dying, it's just evolving,” says L.A. TACO editor-in-chief Javier Cabral.
“I can't wait to share the knowledge I've learned from almost two decades of adapting to changing mediums while professionally covering food, news, and culture with this media lab. It's become a passion of mine to work with emerging writers and pay it forward by continually adding diverse and fresh voices to L.A. TACO. It's been a long time coming."
The Next Generation of Journalist Storytellers
The L.A. TACO Media Lab will serve as a collaborative hub where emerging journalists and digital content creators can access the tools, training, and support they need to tell stories that resonate with their communities. We will be launching training programs that cover everything from multimedia storytelling and investigative reporting techniques to social media strategies and ethical and community service journalism. Our mission is to provide journalists with greater social media skills and creators with more exacting and ethical journalism standards.
Bridging Journalism and Digital Storytelling
In today’s evolving media landscape, we understand that storytelling is no longer confined to traditional formats. Even those of us working in journalism every day get a large portion of our news leads from social media. That’s why the L.A. TACO Media Lab will bring together social media content creators, podcasters, video producers, and trained journalists to collaborate on content that engages audiences in new and innovative ways.
We’ve already done this informally with some of our favorite creators and seen the impact it can have. We believe we can do more together than we can apart. Everything produced by the lab will be open source, meaning other publications, like those in the L.A. Local News Initiative, which we joined this year, can freely use the content we produce and collaborate with us.
What’s Next for the L.A. TACO Media Lab?
We’re launching the Media Lab internally this week, with plans to expand our capacity through additional fundraising from interested foundations and groups. In June, we will launch our first training sessions and begin onboarding participants in the program to produce open-source content by May 2025. A steady stream of stories will be told every month going forward.
We will also be engaging with the public, starting with loyal L.A. TACO paying Members, to see if there are stories they want told that we can shine a light on. By combining content creators, journalists, and the community, we believe we can help create a new model of responsive, community driven journalistic storytelling.
Join Us in Strengthening Local Journalism
The L.A. TACO Media Lab is a community-focused initiative, and we want you to be a part of it. Whether you’re an aspiring or existing journalist, a digital content creator, or just someone who cares about local news, there will be opportunities to get involved, share your stories, and help shape the future of media in Los Angeles.
If you're interested in being a part of the Lab after reading this, please fill out this form so we can get in touch when the time comes. This includes potential funders.
To start, we’re teaming up with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to help provide education and training expertise to a new generation of journalists. The school has developed a new course, “Bridging the Gap Between L.A. Influencers and Independent Journalists,” which will provide time and space for USC students to contribute to the L.A. TACO Media Lab.
Together with USC Annenberg and additional collaborators, we will grow the L.A. TACO Media Lab into a truly impactful project for the city of Los Angeles. Where it ends up, only time will tell, but we’re thrilled to have this opportunity to innovate and make a meaningful difference in the city’s news ecosystem.
“USC Annenberg is thrilled to collaborate with L.A. TACO on this exciting project,” says Amara Aguilar, professor of Professional Practice of Journalism at USC. “We look forward to exploring how content creators, community members, and journalists can learn from each other in Los Angeles, all for the benefit of our communities. The new class, ‘Bridging the Gap Between L.A. Influencers and Independent Journalists,’ will allow students to explore the modern media landscape in L.A. and examine best practices, partnership models, ethics, and rigorous storytelling techniques while taking a modern approach to connecting with communities in a way that resonates with them.
We will document best practices and share them so that as many people as possible can have access to lessons learned and resources around the rapidly growing area of content creation. In addition, students will create collaborative content for the L.A. TACO Media Lab to gain practical experience and showcase content creator style stories through the lens of community journalism.”
Stay tuned for more updates as we prepare to launch this exciting new chapter for L.A. news. Together, we can build a more inclusive, informed, and connected Los Angeles.
