Many movements in 2017 were either started or shaped by black women. From #MeToo to the recent special election for the Alabama Senate seat, black women showed up and showed out. But too often their voices were drowned out by those with more visibility and left unheard by those who were able to silence them.
In 2018, journalism will need to do a better job of seeking out the voices of black women. It will not be enough to give black women credit for the things that they do; it will be crucial to allow their stories to be told through their own voices.
Representation of black women in journalism will matter. The days of a white women or a non-black women of color reporting on things such as the natural hair movement or other things indelibly tied to the black experience are over.
You can’t speak on why Auntie Maxine is important if you have never had or been an Auntie Maxine. You can’t talk about why hair politics is still issue or why the rise of Fenty Beauty is so important or why Black Panther and the new live-action Lion King movie with Beyoncé as Simba matters if you don’t have the lived experience to understand the nuances of undertones and representation.
At the end of John Singleton’s 1991 movie Boyz n the Hood, Ice Cube utters what has been one of the most quotable lines in the film: “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care what’s going on in the hood.”
In 2017, the same could be said about the stories and identities of black women in journalism. Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s happening to black women in America and across the globe.
2018 is the year that this can, will, and must change.
Monique Judge is a staff writer at The Root.
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen The Snapchat scenario and the risk of more closed platforms
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Kristen Muller The year of the voter
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Juleyka Lantigua Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Hannah Cassius The year of the echo-chamber escapists
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Feli Sánchez The year for guerrilla user research
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Susie Banikarim R.I.P. Pivot to Video (2017–2017)
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Michelle Ferrier The year of the great reckoning
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Helen Havlak Keywords, not publishers, power the world’s biggest feeds
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Basile Simon We need better career paths for news nerds
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Alice Antheaume Are you fluent in AI?
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices