Have you joined your newsroom’s diversity committee? Are you active in your union? Are you proud of a particular story? Did you write something that you feel accurately reflects the reality of people who have been excluded or misrepresented in American journalism?
Personally, while I’m proud of small things like this, it’s the structural problems that keep me up at night.
It’s been more than 50 years since the Kerner Commission asked American newsrooms to stop seeing news only through “white men’s eyes and white perspective,” yet newsrooms are stagnant in efforts to diversify. Major legacy newsrooms still, in 2020, seem unable to reckon with the fact that they often write their coverage for and to the comfort of wealthy white American cisgender men. And many still seem unable to understand — let alone apologize — for their own history propagating racist and xenophobic myths.
Even the new crop of nonprofit and for-profit digital-first newsrooms, despite being founded in the last two decades, sometimes still look like newsrooms thirty years ago. In a similar vein, public media often looks nothing like the public.
It’s easy for newsrooms to make excuses and statements. As a Black journalist, it’s harder for me to understand how many newsroom leaders can sleep at night knowing that they exist in a state of perpetual failure. If newsrooms don’t look like the communities they serve, the newsroom is failing. If your newsroom doesn’t know who they’re writing for and why, it’s failing.
Journalism as a field has been shrinking for decades, and yet even in its decline, the largest and best-funded outlets in the industry have found little room to reinvent their understanding of mission beyond vague platitudes and mottos. There are many exceptions to this rule, but they’re often underfunded, understaffed, and under-resourced.
2020 has been unique in that unions and journalists of color have forced bosses and editors to publish statements and make commitments. But current newsroom leaders have given no reason to trust them moving forward.
It shouldn’t have taken the death of George Floyd for them to make commitments. It should not be Black newsroom employees who, to the detriment of their own jobs, force the hand of executives who in the past refused to listen. In an ideal world, we find the space and the capital to create our own newsrooms, free of the baggage of intentional exclusion and racism — but that will take time and resources many of us don’t have.
So what will come of the commitments to anti-racism and staff diversity?
Here’s my prediction: If newsroom leaders and editors were unable to see the magnitude of their failures over the past few years, then even with all of their commitments of 2020, 2021 won’t be any different. They are ill-equipped to understand their failures and support their staff in changing their newsroom.
Newsroom leaders at large publications need to be held accountable by journalists, readers, and the broader public. And if they don’t produce results, they need to resign.
Gabe Schneider is co-founder of The Objective and assistant managing editor of Votebeat.
Have you joined your newsroom’s diversity committee? Are you active in your union? Are you proud of a particular story? Did you write something that you feel accurately reflects the reality of people who have been excluded or misrepresented in American journalism?
Personally, while I’m proud of small things like this, it’s the structural problems that keep me up at night.
It’s been more than 50 years since the Kerner Commission asked American newsrooms to stop seeing news only through “white men’s eyes and white perspective,” yet newsrooms are stagnant in efforts to diversify. Major legacy newsrooms still, in 2020, seem unable to reckon with the fact that they often write their coverage for and to the comfort of wealthy white American cisgender men. And many still seem unable to understand — let alone apologize — for their own history propagating racist and xenophobic myths.
Even the new crop of nonprofit and for-profit digital-first newsrooms, despite being founded in the last two decades, sometimes still look like newsrooms thirty years ago. In a similar vein, public media often looks nothing like the public.
It’s easy for newsrooms to make excuses and statements. As a Black journalist, it’s harder for me to understand how many newsroom leaders can sleep at night knowing that they exist in a state of perpetual failure. If newsrooms don’t look like the communities they serve, the newsroom is failing. If your newsroom doesn’t know who they’re writing for and why, it’s failing.
Journalism as a field has been shrinking for decades, and yet even in its decline, the largest and best-funded outlets in the industry have found little room to reinvent their understanding of mission beyond vague platitudes and mottos. There are many exceptions to this rule, but they’re often underfunded, understaffed, and under-resourced.
2020 has been unique in that unions and journalists of color have forced bosses and editors to publish statements and make commitments. But current newsroom leaders have given no reason to trust them moving forward.
It shouldn’t have taken the death of George Floyd for them to make commitments. It should not be Black newsroom employees who, to the detriment of their own jobs, force the hand of executives who in the past refused to listen. In an ideal world, we find the space and the capital to create our own newsrooms, free of the baggage of intentional exclusion and racism — but that will take time and resources many of us don’t have.
So what will come of the commitments to anti-racism and staff diversity?
Here’s my prediction: If newsroom leaders and editors were unable to see the magnitude of their failures over the past few years, then even with all of their commitments of 2020, 2021 won’t be any different. They are ill-equipped to understand their failures and support their staff in changing their newsroom.
Newsroom leaders at large publications need to be held accountable by journalists, readers, and the broader public. And if they don’t produce results, they need to resign.
Gabe Schneider is co-founder of The Objective and assistant managing editor of Votebeat.
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Nik Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration