Our Mission
Our mission is three-fold:
- To encourage Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to enter the ranks of journalism
- To work for fair and accurate coverage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
- To increase the number of Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists and news managers in the industry.
Our History
The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) was founded in 1981
by a few Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) journalists who felt a need to support one another
and to encourage more Asian American and Pacific Islanders to pursue journalism at a time when
there were few Asian American and Pacific Islander faces in the media. AAJA owes its founding
to the vision of a small group of Los Angeles journalists. They included
KCBS-TV News Anchor Tritia Toyota; Los Angeles Times Business Editor
Bill Sing; and Los Angeles Times Fashion Editor Nancy Yoshihara. AAJA's
expansion into a truly national organization took off in 1985 with the
formation of additional chapters.
As a non-profit membership organization with approximately 2,000 members in 20
chapters across the U.S. and Asia, AAJA's largest membership bases are
generally concentrated in metropolitan areas on the West Coast (Los Angeles,
San Francisco, and Seattle), East Coast (New York City and Washington,
D.C.) and Mid-West (Chicago). Members are also organized in other areas
throughout the U.S. (Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan,
Minnesota, New England, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento, Texas, and
San Diego).
In addition, AAJA has a growing number of members working throughout Asia -- in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangladesh, which underscores the rapid growth of media properties in Asia and points the way to future expansion of the organization. Close to one-third of AAJA's members are students, attesting to the organization's emphasis on bringing young people into the news business. AAJA has also relied on leadership in the community and Asian-language media.
AAJA is proud to include among its members some of the top journalists in the country, from network news anchors and reporters to Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, editors and photographers, to national radio show producers and major magazine editors.
In 1995, AAJA was honored with the Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism by the University of Missouri for its contributions to the industry.