Media Masters - Max Siegelbaum

Media Masters

Max Siegelbaum is co-executive director of Documented, an innovative non-profit news site solely dedicated to covering the plight of New York’s immigrant community, and the policies which affect them. Last year, they won an Online Journalism Award and LION Award for their use of WhatsApp as a news distribution platform to their most vulnerable readers, and also for their coverage of how the Coronavirus pandemic made life unthinkably harder for those seeking a new life in the Empire State. In this in-depth interview, Max recalls the early stages of the venture, gaining the trust and support of an ever-increasing readership, but also experiencing the struggles of having to “fight for a space” in the industry; discusses the lack of awareness of how tough the life of an immigrant can be, and how arduous a task it is to be represented in a city as fast-paced as New York; and reflects on how Donald Trump’s presidency created an “extreme and almost immeasurable impact” for immigrants - in which the ‘othering’ of recent settlers to the city only increased.