For far too long, we’ve tried to get our voices, stories, and faces out and into the air. And for far too long, one group has controlled and metered the narratives, people, and places we could visit to tell those stories. Well, the dam on power and control in 2018 won’t just break — there will be a flood, a tsunami unlike anyone has seen. That wall of water has been building, and now the perfect storm is about to let itself loose to invade every crack, dry spot, and patch of land that has been under artificial flood control. The gates will come crashing open, and they won’t be able to do anything about it. The white-male power dominated landscape will give way to color, of all shapes and sizes, in all manner of place and locale.
Women of color will seize their power, telling their stories. No longer asking for permission, waiting for that phone call to come, that job interview that says, “Yes, you matter, we want you.” You don’t need that approval anymore. Look into that mirror every morning and see that beauty that I see, that resilience that gives you the autonomy and agency to build something inherently better — because you are better, and no one can own that but you. Your brothers will be there alongside you and will bear witness when needed. We won’t just be bystanders.
Men of color will rise, for they too can compete against their white counterparts while not trying to alienate the dominant white, 18-34 audience, but the audience that has been left in an abyss — an absence of information and representation. Brother, your people need you. Your sons, your daughters want you to be a strong character of moral influence. To say that daddy was there and he worked it. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Wherever you are, right now is temporary, and the way forward is through and by you. Don’t forget your sisters. They need you.
We will no longer accept the narrative of being an impostor, for the previous ownership has revealed themselves to be the true impostors. They lack the humanity to lead us through this defining moment, for they’re the ones that have gotten us to this moment. The door is now open, so step in, not out. It’s time we create the moment, one that is irrefutable and in which their dominance will be toppled. We will seek our funding, donors, and supporters. We’ll bootstrap it, we’ll be scrappy, and we’ll prove once and for all what we’ve always known: We got this.
We will follow in the powerful footsteps of those who came before us, busting down doors, slapping away the hands who wanted to touch us, our bodies, our hair, our minds, just to say that diversity mattered. It didn’t. In 2018, we will produce our own annual reports with those fancy corporate headshots, pie charts, and hockey sticks of growth. We won’t be floating on white-limbo backdrops, or be the sole token of color in the executive wide shot. We will be the shot, and we’re not going to throw it away.
We will lock arms, all of us, and finally say: This is ours. There is no going back.
Andrew Ramsammy is founder of UnitedPublic Strategies.
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Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
P. Kim Bui The reckoning is only beginning
Frédéric Filloux External forces
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Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
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Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
Jessica Parker Gilbert Design connects storytelling and strategy
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
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Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
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Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
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Felix Salmon Covering bitcoin while owning bitcoin
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
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Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
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Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
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Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
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Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
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Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
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Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
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Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
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Mariano Blejman News games rule
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Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
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Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
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Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
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Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
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Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Nushin Rashidian Publishers seek ad dollar alternatives
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Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer Skepticism and narcissism
Carrie Brown-Smith Transparency finally takes off
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
L. Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Juleyka Lantigua-Williams Women of color will reclaim and monetize our time
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Hossein Derakhshan Television has won
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Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
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Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Errin Haines At the ballot, it’s time to count black women
Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
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Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea
Alfred Hermida Going beyond mobile-first
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)