Bia Medious - Profile and Journalist Details

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Biography

Bia Medious is a native Chicagoan, journalist and audio producer. Passionate about storytelling, Bia commits to projects that challenge traditional narratives, seek justice, and encourage civic participation. She's investigated alternative courts in Cook County as part of a civic reporting fellowship with City Bureau, a local media organization. She's helped produce podcasts at USA Today, including “The City” which investigated the environmental injustice that remained after the FBI closed Operation Silver Shovel. Later, she joined the podcast team at WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR Station, working on a variety of narrative and news-based podcasts. Bia's work on “South Side Stories,” a first ever partnership between public media and a cable network - Comedy Central, earned her three Peter Lisagor awards, but she's most proud of her byline with the historic Chicago Defender. Honoring her commitment to challenge narratives, Bia recently founded the audio production company, BIA Media, to get more Black stories told. Bia earned her bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric: Creative Nonfiction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She followed this with stints in law school where she studied international human rights in the United States and Spain. She spent over 10 years in education, including three years teaching high school students on the south and west sides of Chicago. She worked several political cycles since 2008: both of President Obama’s campaigns (Indiana ‘08 and Ohio ’12; both went blue), and a boutique consulting firm that she co-founded to help campaigns of various sizes. At this point, Bia deepened her skill set through attending the graduate program at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Pairing the intimacy of audio with the power of messaging and effective engagement has become a sweet spot for her.

Content

Total articles 2

• Class X: Who Gets a Second Chance in Our Criminal Justice System?

  By Sajedah Al-khzaleh, Bia Medious| South Side Weekly Verified Illinois has been making moves toward reducing incarceration, but there is a large group of people who are being left behind. People like twenty-one-year-old Joe Montgomery, who have been sentenced with Class X felonies, make up almost a third of Illinois’ prison population, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Some say these individuals who need the most help are instead left with few options but prison.

  By Sajedah Al-khzaleh, Bia Medious · South Side Weekly

  Oct. 11, 2018

• Alternative Courts Offer Paths to Avoid Convictions

  By Bia Medious| Chicago Defender Verified We spoke with the head of Cook County’s alternative court system to find out more about how they divert people from jail and decrease incarceration rates. Though the vast majority of Cook County’s criminal cases are tried in criminal courts, the county also has a substantial “alternative” court system—or courts that aim to rehabilitate defendants rather than sending them straight to jail. Nineteen problem-solving courts have been established throughout the county since 1998.

  By Bia Medious · Chicago Defender

  Sep. 04, 2018

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