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.
Molly de Aguiar Good journalism won’t be enough
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Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
Amy Webb Listen to weak signals
Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
Mary Meehan Real lives are at stake in rural areas
Umbreen Bhatti The trust problem isn’t new
Lam Thuy Vo Breaking free from the tyranny of the loudest
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Amy King Let’s amplify visual voice
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Caitlin Thompson Podcasting models mature and diversify
José Zamora Revenue-first journalism
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Bill Keller A growing turn to philanthropy
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
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Michelle Garcia Navigating journalistic transparency
Mario García Storytelling finally adapts to mobile
Debra Adams Simmons And a woman shall lead them
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Lanre Akinola Making noise is not a strategy
Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
Alexios Mantzarlis Moving fake news research out of the lab
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Vivian Schiller Pivot to tomorrow
Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
Elizabeth Jensen Show your work
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
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Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Aron Pilhofer We can’t leave the business to the business side any more
C.W. Anderson The social media apocalypse
Heather Bryant Building the ecosystems for collaboration
Renée Kaplan The year of quiet adjustments (shhh)
Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
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Juliette De Maeyer A responsible press criticism
Emily Goligoski Looking beyond news for inspiration
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Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
Doris Truong Computer vision vs. the Internet vigilantes
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
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Damon Krukowski Reviving the alt-weekly soul
Millie Tran and Stine Bauer Dahlberg (Hint: It’s about your brand)
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Tim Carmody Watch out for Spotify
Sara M. Watson Feeds will open up to new user-determined filters
Andrew Haeg The year journalists become relationship builders
Zizi Papacharissi Women come back
Nikki Usher The year of The Washington Post
Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
Andrew Losowsky The year of resilience
Sally Lehrman Trust comes first
Kinsey Wilson Facebook and Google: Help out or pay up
Rachel Davis Mersey AI, with real smarts
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Federica Cherubini The rise of bridge roles in news organizations
Mariana Moura Santos Think local, act global
Ruth Palmer Risks will grow for news subjects — especially minorities
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Niketa Patel Live journalism comes of age
Dannagal G. Young Stop covering politics as a game
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Michael Kuntz The only pivot that might work
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jim Brady With the people, not just of the people
Frédéric Filloux External forces
Matt Thompson Here come the attention managers
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Amie Ferris-Rotman More female reporters abroad (please)
AX Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
Emma Carew Grovum Newsroom culture becomes a priority
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
Laura E. Davis Writing answers before you know the question
Sydette Harry Listen to your corner and watch for the hook
Julia B. Chan Looking for loyalty in all the right places
Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Mi-Ai Parrish Blockchain and trust
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Seeking trust in fragmented spaces
Marie Gilot No assholes allowed
Corey Ford The empire strikes back
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
Tanzina Vega It’s time for media companies to #PassTheMic
Ray Soto VR reaches the next level
Dan Shanoff You down with OTT? (Yeah, DTC)
Dheerja Kaur Fun with subscription products
Steve Grove The midterms are an opportunity
Raju Narisetti Mirror, mirror on the wall
Eric Ulken The year local publishers get smart(er) about change
Mike Caulfield Refactoring media literacy for the networked age
Jassim Ahmad Thriving on change
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Publishing less to give readers more
Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
Alastair Coote The year of self-improvement
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Mary Walter-Brown Show a little vulnerability
Mandy Velez texting is lit rn, fam
Monika Bauerlein The firehose of falsehood
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Cindy Royal Your journalism curriculum is obsolete
Cory Haik Suffering from realness, pivoting to impact
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Yvonne Leow The rise of video messaging
Christopher Meighan Passive partnership is in the rearview
Jennifer Brandel and Mónica Guzmán The editorial meeting of the future
Tracie Powell The muting of underserved voices
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Mira Lowe The year of the local watchdog
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
Imaeyen Ibanga Longform video leads the way
Francesco Marconi The year of machine-to-machine journalism
Julia Beizer A longer view on the pivot
Miguel Castro The arrival of the impact producer
Claire Wardle Disinformation gets worse
Matt DeRienzo A recession, then a collapse
Kim Fox Audience teams diversify their approach
Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
Rodney Gibbs Tech workers turn to journalism
Lucas Graves From algorithms to institutions
Craig Newmark Working together toward sustainable solutions
Richard Tofel The platforms’ power demands more reporters’ attention
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
S. Mitra Kalita The arc of news and audience
Rachel Schallom Better design helps differentiate opinion and news
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Andrew Ramsammy The year ownership mattered
Cristina Wilson The year of the Instagram Story
Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Raney Aronson-Rath Transparency is the antidote to fake news
Charo Henríquez Training is an investment, not an expense
Jesse Holcomb Information disorder, coming to a congressional district near you
Carlos Martínez de la Serna The new journalism commons
Brian Lam Sketchy ethics around product reviews
Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Jennifer Coogan The future is female
David Skok Finding an information-life balance
Kyle Ellis Let’s build our way out of this
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