Some of the most interesting journalism experiments aren’t taking place on the websites of publications. Instead, they’re happening on Facebook and WhatsApp and Reddit and WeChat and even Nextdoor, which I didn’t realize was anything other than a place for Karens to complain about loitering.

Documented, an eight-year-old digital outlet that covers and serves immigrants in New York City and beyond, is behind many of these experiments—from producing a Chinese-language newsletter on WeChat to starting conversations on Nextdoor with Haitian Creole speakers in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In her first eighteen months at Documented, Ethar El-Katatney, the editor in chief, has elevated the publication’s investigative work and begun an expansion into video, but she refuses to lose sight of the mission: to give immigrants the information they need on the platforms they use.

I interviewed El-Katatney about the common threads between Documented’s guides to city living and its long investigations, how differently her reporters work depending on what community they serve, and why Documented is expanding its ambitions to help other newsrooms. 

Show notes:

Documented Gears Up for Trump, Lauren Watson, CJR

The Lost Prisoners of Chinatown’s Gang Era, April Xu, Documented

Fake Immigration Courts Take Advantage of Immigrants Desperate for Answers, Rommel H. Ojeda, Documented.

Guide of Resources for Immigrants, Nicolás Ríos, Documented

Megan Greenwell, host

Amanda Darrach, producer