While I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions, here’s one I’m definitely encouraging for 2019: It’s time for all of us in journalism to pledge to not just report on racism, but to call it out.
Many of us know racism when we see it, and we’ve seen plenty of it in recent years, from the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville to white people repeatedly calling the police on black people for doing everyday activities. But we haven’t always reported it that way, and we should be asking ourselves and our colleagues why race continues to be treated like a four-letter word.
We don’t say “gender-tinged” when we mean sexist. If we’re honest, talking about race makes white Americans — including journalists — uncomfortable. We see constant proof of this in the journo-gymnastics of our headlines and ledes, with toothless phrases like “racial rhetoric,” “racially charged” or “racially tinged.” They mean little, and do even less to convey what it is that we’re actually trying to report.
But more than that: Such phrases have risen to terms of art for our profession that often feel like a wink and a nod to viewers, readers and listeners that assumes a shared set of values, putting the onus on them to figure out what we mean instead of being explicit. It’s a “both sides” approach that leaves room for doubt and dismissal.
Our avoidance of this issue — and the historical harm done as a result — has already come under scrutiny on social media and in essays. It also leaves many journalists of color, who are often less hesitant to make it plain when racism makes news, alone in the fight and pleading their case to squeamish gatekeepers.
By not confronting racism or reducing it to matter of opinion on an individual or systemic level in our journalism — the first draft of history — we leave a less accurate record for those who come behind us. We are not in the hint business; we are here to report facts, including the difficult facts of racism.
There will be much more to report in the coming year. As race intersects with every aspect of our society, from sports to politics to education, journalists must have their own reckoning around talking about race.
In an era that has seen a resurgence in racial polarization, retreat cannot be the response. We must resolve to do better, and make this a resolution that actually sticks.
Errin Haines Whack is The Associated Press’ national writer on race and ethnicity.
Celeste LeCompte Local news needs local conversation to survive
Ariel Zirulnick Participation gets professional
Kelsey Proud Journalism becomes the escape
Angilee Shah The year news orgs say “yes” to real leaders
Reyhan Harmanci Selling more stories to Hollywood
Annie Rudd A more intimate aesthetic of politics — on Insta
Almar Latour Reported facts, weaponized in service of action
An Xiao Mina The death of consensus, not the death of truth
Mandy Jenkins Fight the urge to run away from social media
Kevin D. Grant A year to embrace journalism as public service
Mandy Velez Putting the social back in social media
Tyler Fisher This is journalism’s do-or-die moment
Adam B. Ellick Video forensic reporting goes mainstream — and local
Errin Haines Say it with me: Racism
Michael Rain The year of the culturally relevant curator
Craig Newmark The end of “loudspeakers for liars”
Elva Ramirez News — but make it cinematic
Monique Judge Committing to the truth, calling out lies
Chase Davis We can acknowledge what we don’t know
Johannes Klingebiel We all grow hooves
Rishad Patel A design system for responsible publishing
Cindy Royal For journalism curriculum to change, its faculty needs disruption
Kawandeep Virdee Media wants to take care of you
Masuma Ahuja Make foreign coverage less foreign
Soo Oh Just showing our work isn’t enough
John Garrett You can’t raise prices forever
Jennifer Dargan You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions
Carl Bialik Fatigued news consumers will pay more for less news
Victor Pickard We will finally confront systemic market failure
Elite Truong What do we owe the next generation?
Joshua P. Darr The nationalization of political news will accelerate
Zainab Khan Publishers whose products can stand up to social media giants will win
Dave Burdick Seeing our blind spots
Linda Solomon Wood The year of the climate reporter
Adam Thomas In Europe, foundations invest in news
Bill Grueskin Toward a symphony model for local news
Amy Schmitz Weiss Local news isn’t where you thought it was
Pia Frey You can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis
Jonas Kaiser Catching up with “Neuland”
Sarah Marshall A return to destination journalism
Jonathan Gill Publishers build a common tech platform together
Greg Emerson Power to the user
Jenée Desmond-Harris It finally sinks in that some people aren’t white
Nathalie Malinarich Video — yes, video
Joel Konopo Influencers become the new liberated power in Africa
Christa Scharfenberg and Vickie Baranetsky The year of the lawsuit
Julia Rubin Meeting people where they are
Patrick Butler Measuring impact will increase audience trust
Thomas Hanitzsch The rise of tribal journalism
Mike Isaac The old exit doors for digital media companies are closing
Julie Posetti The year of the fight back
Geetika Rudra The year of actionable (local) journalism
Darryl Holliday Let’s talk about power (yours)
Nicholas Jackson More transparency around newsroom decisions
Stephanie Edgerly It’s time to understand the un-audience
Joanne McNeil Building a digital hospice
Simon Rogers Data journalism becomes a global field
Andrew Donohue Voting rights becomes the new climate change
Nico Gendron Reaching Generation Z beyond the coasts
Steve Grove A reckoning for tech’s work with news
Jared Newman AI-generated fakes launch a software arms race
Steve Henn Smart speakers get smarter
Alyssa Zeisler We expand what (and how and who) we serve
Logan Molyneux Seeing social media for what it is
Marie Shanahan Newsrooms take the comments sections back from platforms
Rubina Madan Fillion Fighting the reality of deepfakes
Kristen Muller Local news fails — in a good way
Raney Aronson-Rath We learn “digital” doesn’t have to mean “short”
Peter Bale Venture capital runs out of patience
Alberto Cairo A year of uncertainty and confidence
Taylor Lorenz Personal branding is more powerful than ever
Francesco Marconi The year of iterative journalism
Mario García The rise of content “pilots”
Pablo Boczkowski Reimagining the media for post-institutional times
Manoush Zomorodi Tech will do for information overload what it did for mindfulness
Laura E. Davis More access, but not that kind
Dan Shanoff Bet on sports gambling
Stefanie Murray Local news wakes up and starts collaborating
Cory Bergman Journalism as a technology service
Knight Foundation A year of local collaboration
Emma Carew Grovum The year of the loyal reader
Frank Mungeam Tonight at 11: News, sports, and climate change
Justin Kosslyn Text hits a tipping point
Heather Bryant We are responsible for how we use our power
Renée Kaplan Our future could lie within our own organizations
Claire Wardle Forget deepfakes: Misinformation is showing up in our most personal online spaces
Angèle Christin Algorithms and the reflexive turn
Ben Werdmuller The platform tide is turning
Eric Ulken The year you actually start to like your CMS
Jeremy Gilbert AI finally becomes helpful
Rick Berke The year of loyalty
Kyra Darnton A shift to depth in video
Efrat Nechushtai Journalism wants to be your friend, not your teacher
Tushar Banerjee Interactive ads will be the new face of display advertising
Catalina Albeanu Being responsible for what we don’t know
Umbreen Bhatti The story doesn’t end for the people we quote
Seema Yasmin We will create our own spaces
Jean Friedman Rudovsky Cross-newsroom collaborations strengthen communities
Simon Galperin After capitalism’s fire, journalism’s secondary succession
Charo Henríquez Pivot to journalism
Matthew Pressman The battle over objectivity intensifies
Amy King We should listen to the kids (especially on Instagram)
Michael Grant More newsrooms experiment their way to success
Heather Chaplin Agree we’re partisan — for the democratic system
Sarah Stonbely Mapping the local news ecosystem — with scale but detail
Sue Cross Return of the water cooler
Rebecca Searles From silos to Swiss Army knife teams
Colleen Shalby Representation becomes more than a talking point
Francesco Zaffarano Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media
Nikki Usher Three ways national media will further undermine trust
Adam Smith Platforms will have to help rebuild trust in news
Carolina Guerrero Spanish-language audio blows up
Mat Yurow Content competition from the tech companies
Brian Moritz The subscription-pocalypse is about to hit
Josh Schwartz A pullback from platforms and a focus on product
Mike Caulfield Ditch the media literacy cynicism and get to work
Tamar Charney Seriously: What do you do for people?
Kainaz Amaria We consider who’s behind the camera
Lauren Katz Community becomes a core newsroom value
Glyn Mottershead and Martin Chorley When a tech company pulls the plug on your story
John Saroff The pivot to reader revenue’s unintended consequences
Millie Tran There is no magic — you’ve got this
Elisabeth Goodridge Yes, they signed up — but our job’s not over
Moreno Cruz Osório Damaged credibility and a new threat in Brazil
Andrea Faye Hart Doing less harm, not just more good
Kate Myers Journalism continues to be bad for democracy
Zizi Papacharissi Old interface, say hello to the new interface
Alexandra Svokos Good luck convincing us millennials to pay
Heba Aly The rise of international nonprofit news
Alexandra Borchardt Newsrooms need to build trust with their journalists, not just the audience
Talia Stroud Engaging people across lines of difference
Rachel Glickhouse Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs
Dheerja Kaur A focus on problems, not platforms
Matt Skibinski Quality and reliability are the new currencies for publishers
Seth C. Lewis The gap between journalism and research is too wide
Libby Bawcombe Haikus of the news
John Biewen Podcasts keep getting better
Rachel Davis Mersey Local news goes minimalist
P. Kim Bui The misfits become the bosses
Steve Myers From trying to cover it all to covering what matters
Hossein Derakhshan The news is dying, but journalism will not — and should not
Andrew Ramsammy The great re-pivot to audio
Elizabeth Jensen Going where the Acela can’t take you
Jonathan Stray More algorithmic accountability reporting, and a lot of it will be meh
Frank Chimero Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist
J. Siguru Wahutu Think 2018 was bad? Wait until you see 2019
Ernie Smith The year we step back from the platform
Ruth Palmer and Benjamin Toff From news fatigue to news avoidance
Renan Borelli Developing loyalty means developing your talent
Borja Bergareche Sainz de los Terreros Entering a more balanced era
Gideon Lichfield Goodbye attention economy, we’ll miss you
Matt Karolian Publishers come to terms with being Facebook’s enablers
Cherian George Fake news wins in Asia
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer The most beautiful sentence in 2019 is “No.”
Elizabeth Dunbar Local reporters reflect on what’s not important
Jesse Brown Canada’s subsidy for news backfires
Nisha Chittal The homepage makes a comeback
Jake Shapiro Podcasting is media’s slow food movement
Juleyka Lantigua Podcasting battles East Coast bias
Tshepo Tshabalala Ahead of African elections, unlock partnerships with fact-checkers
Ole Reißmann The rise of vertical storytelling
Carrie Brown-Smith Advocating a healthy civic life is no journalistic crime
Gabriel Snyder Journalism doesn’t fit well in a funnel
Zuzanna Ziomecka News leadership gets an overdue upgrade
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau A more sincere definition of “community”
Alexis Lloyd & Matt Boggie The year product leads media
Peter Cunliffe-Jones The focus of misinformation debates shifts south
Jeff Chin We detox from Chartbeat
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen A long, slow slog, with no one coming to the rescue
Eric Nuzum The year of the DIY podcast network
Jesse Holcomb We’ll get better at making the case for local journalism
Sarah Alvarez Simplify and redistribute
Salem Solomon Correcting our corrections
Jim Friedlich Meet Citizen Kane 2.0
Rebecca Lee Sanchez We are all actors in the running rampant of political theater
Ben Smith The pendulum starts to swing back
Winny de Jong Data journalism goes undercover
Sue Robinson Reporters go on the offensive
Robin Kwong Tech shouldn’t be the only field pollinating “news nerds”
Whitney Phillips Our information systems aren’t broken — they’re working as intended
LaToya Drake Listen up: New stories, new storytellers
A.J. Bauer The coming splintering of conservative media
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Readers are only getting started
M. Scott Havens Time to swing for the fences
Kjerstin Thorson Time to get mad about information inequality (again)
Robert Hernandez Racists and sexists get replaced
Mike Rispoli and Craig Aaron Government funds local news — and that’s a good thing
Candis Callison Learn from Indigenous journalists on covering climate change
Axie Navas The traffic hunt, CMS battle, and magazine identity crises loom
Mariana Moura Santos From pageviews to impact
Matt Waite “I went to Node.js because I wished to live deliberately”
Bill Adair Another year fighting Trump’s falsehoods
Jack Riley Facebook refugees, from ad revenue to news habits
Shannon McGregor More bogus embedded tweets in our stories
Rodney Gibbs A bright — and young — year for audio
Callie Schweitzer The rise of the conveners
Cristi Hegranes A year to invest in the security of local journalists
Tim Carmody Unlocking the commons
Joe Amditis Give the audience a seat at the table
Becca Aaronson From bridge roles to product thinkers
Ståle Grut A new dawn for 3D tech in journalism
Shalabh Upadhyay A culture clash on India’s growing Internet