Bright light can be unforgiving.
For years, journalists of color have been working to illuminate the systemic racism that our field has been content to keep hidden. In 2020, the spotlight was glaring. From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, very candid, very public declarations from journalists of color about their experiences working in this industry exposed a painful part of our collective reality.
In 2021, we will see a shift from conversations about the grave inequity faced by journalists of color, particularly women journalists of color, to actions that address these structural inequities.
This year’s JOC tweet threads and columns and websites were a rallying cry for change and accountability. More than a few media executives were shown the door — either because that ousted person was actually problematic, or because something unacceptable happened under their watch and someone had to take the fall. In some instances of masthead turnover, there were other demands — lists drafted by journalists of color — for measures that create environments of belonging and for behavior change.
In 2021, these lists must be front and center in the push towards more equitable structures. If we could speak it into existence, 2021 will be the year when newsroom leadership will start doing the hard work — whether by choice and good intention, or economic and social pressure — that it takes to make our industry more equitable.
This must include industry leaders being more proactive than reactive. Diversity and inclusion conversations and interventions — almost always focused on numbers, compliance, and representation — will instead zero in on the policies, people practices, and workflow that enable real equity in a newsroom.
This will mean, for example, conceptualizing equity as something not separate from paid parental leave policies and the health benefits offered to employees. This is the year we see DEI resources invested in legal and IT to protect and support reporters targeted by online violence and abuse, which disproportionately impacts women and women of color. An equitable structure demands honesty and transparency and calls out racism and oppression, both overt and systemic, and builds power and momentum towards achieving goals while encouraging the grace and humility to sustain the endeavor. (Shout out to PolicyLink for the inspiration for Resolve Philly’s definition of an equitable structure.) 2021 will force newsroom leaders to address how they are — or aren’t — meeting these demands.
There is a tectonic shift happening in which people are speaking their truths and media companies are called to task to answer. There really is no other option here. We cannot truly consider ourselves stewards of public trust and information if we aren’t embodying equity at every level. In 2021, journalism will get its shit together. For the sake of democracy. For the sake of our economic future as an industry. For the sake of the communities we serve. For the sake of the people we employ.
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes are the co-executive directors of Resolve Philly.
Bright light can be unforgiving.
For years, journalists of color have been working to illuminate the systemic racism that our field has been content to keep hidden. In 2020, the spotlight was glaring. From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, very candid, very public declarations from journalists of color about their experiences working in this industry exposed a painful part of our collective reality.
In 2021, we will see a shift from conversations about the grave inequity faced by journalists of color, particularly women journalists of color, to actions that address these structural inequities.
This year’s JOC tweet threads and columns and websites were a rallying cry for change and accountability. More than a few media executives were shown the door — either because that ousted person was actually problematic, or because something unacceptable happened under their watch and someone had to take the fall. In some instances of masthead turnover, there were other demands — lists drafted by journalists of color — for measures that create environments of belonging and for behavior change.
In 2021, these lists must be front and center in the push towards more equitable structures. If we could speak it into existence, 2021 will be the year when newsroom leadership will start doing the hard work — whether by choice and good intention, or economic and social pressure — that it takes to make our industry more equitable.
This must include industry leaders being more proactive than reactive. Diversity and inclusion conversations and interventions — almost always focused on numbers, compliance, and representation — will instead zero in on the policies, people practices, and workflow that enable real equity in a newsroom.
This will mean, for example, conceptualizing equity as something not separate from paid parental leave policies and the health benefits offered to employees. This is the year we see DEI resources invested in legal and IT to protect and support reporters targeted by online violence and abuse, which disproportionately impacts women and women of color. An equitable structure demands honesty and transparency and calls out racism and oppression, both overt and systemic, and builds power and momentum towards achieving goals while encouraging the grace and humility to sustain the endeavor. (Shout out to PolicyLink for the inspiration for Resolve Philly’s definition of an equitable structure.) 2021 will force newsroom leaders to address how they are — or aren’t — meeting these demands.
There is a tectonic shift happening in which people are speaking their truths and media companies are called to task to answer. There really is no other option here. We cannot truly consider ourselves stewards of public trust and information if we aren’t embodying equity at every level. In 2021, journalism will get its shit together. For the sake of democracy. For the sake of our economic future as an industry. For the sake of the communities we serve. For the sake of the people we employ.
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes are the co-executive directors of Resolve Philly.
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Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
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Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
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Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
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Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
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Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
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Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
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Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
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Jody Brannon People won’t renew
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
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Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
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A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
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Jessica Clark News becomes plural
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John Garrett A surprisingly good year
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Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
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Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
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Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
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John Davidow Reflect and repent
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Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes