Historical context will improve local journalism

“If historical context about racial discrimination is on the checklist for every story journalists pursue, it will change how we write about labor, education, health care, transportation, crime, technology, and the environment.”

Efforts to prevent schools from teaching about our country’s history of racial violence and discrimination will lead to better local journalism about race and inequality in 2022. For the first time in generations, some newsrooms will start to question their own understanding of how the past has shaped who has wealth, power, and problems in their communities — and how their own narratives shaped that understanding.

While Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project has challenged the dominant white narrative of U.S. history, it’s the scrambling, over-the-top reaction to it by those whose power relies on the policies it helped justify that will awaken local newsrooms.

The word “redlining” is showing up in local news stories about current problems with increased frequency — glimpses of acknowledgement that housing discrimination shaped the modern identity and disparate wealth of almost every major city and town in the country.

If historical context about racial discrimination is on the checklist for every story journalists pursue, it will change how we write about labor, education, health care, transportation, crime, technology, and the environment.

A starting point for some will be to write about how the telling of local history has been warped to protect and perpetuate the power of those who benefited from that discrimination. That’s where coverage of the backlash to the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory at the school board level should naturally lead. A few are even daring to write about how their own local newspapers, TV, and radio stations led that past propaganda effort, through either outright complicity or casual deference to power.

Newsrooms — realizing they can’t put out accurate and meaningful journalism without giving historical context the weight it deserves — will insist that reporters and editors be serious students of this history. Stories about unequal outcomes by race, ethnicity, gender, or other demographic factors will be rejected as incomplete without it.

Matt DeRienzo is editor-in-chief of the Center for Public Integrity.

Efforts to prevent schools from teaching about our country’s history of racial violence and discrimination will lead to better local journalism about race and inequality in 2022. For the first time in generations, some newsrooms will start to question their own understanding of how the past has shaped who has wealth, power, and problems in their communities — and how their own narratives shaped that understanding.

While Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project has challenged the dominant white narrative of U.S. history, it’s the scrambling, over-the-top reaction to it by those whose power relies on the policies it helped justify that will awaken local newsrooms.

The word “redlining” is showing up in local news stories about current problems with increased frequency — glimpses of acknowledgement that housing discrimination shaped the modern identity and disparate wealth of almost every major city and town in the country.

If historical context about racial discrimination is on the checklist for every story journalists pursue, it will change how we write about labor, education, health care, transportation, crime, technology, and the environment.

A starting point for some will be to write about how the telling of local history has been warped to protect and perpetuate the power of those who benefited from that discrimination. That’s where coverage of the backlash to the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory at the school board level should naturally lead. A few are even daring to write about how their own local newspapers, TV, and radio stations led that past propaganda effort, through either outright complicity or casual deference to power.

Newsrooms — realizing they can’t put out accurate and meaningful journalism without giving historical context the weight it deserves — will insist that reporters and editors be serious students of this history. Stories about unequal outcomes by race, ethnicity, gender, or other demographic factors will be rejected as incomplete without it.

Matt DeRienzo is editor-in-chief of the Center for Public Integrity.

Moreno Cruz Osório

Francesco Zaffarano

Brian Moritz

Zizi Papacharissi

Simon Galperin

Amara Aguilar

Izabella Kaminska

Jesenia De Moya Correa

Meena Thiruvengadam

Nikki Usher

Matthew Pressman

Kristen Jeffers

Kristen Muller

Parker Molloy

Shalabh Upadhyay

j. Siguru Wahutu

Matt Karolian

Victor Pickard

Tom Trewinnard

Gonzalo del Peon

Joanne McNeil

Amy Schmitz Weiss

Millie Tran

Errin Haines

Jim Friedlich

Joe Amditis

S. Mitra Kalita

Raney Aronson-Rath

Joni Deutsch

Jesse Holcomb

Ståle Grut

Cristina Tardáguila

Robert Hernandez

An Xiao Mina

Julia Munslow

Andrew Freedman

Mario García

Rachel Glickhouse

Janelle Salanga

Chase Davis

Catalina Albeanu

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Whitney Phillips

Melody Kramer

Mike Rispoli

Sarah Stonbely

Doris Truong

Richard Tofel

Anika Anand

Simon Allison

Christina Shih

Eric Nuzum

Burt Herman

A.J. Bauer

Kathleen Searles & Rebekah Trumble

Mary Walter-Brown

Megan McCarthy

Anita Varma

Wilson Liévano

John Davidow

Gabe Schneider

Tamar Charney

Paul Cheung

Alice Antheaume

Christoph Mergerson

Mandy Jenkins

David Skok

Ariel Zirulnick

Larry Ryckman

Matt DeRienzo

Jody Brannon

Gordon Crovitz

Joshua P. Darr

Jennifer Coogan

Jennifer Brandel

Stephen Fowler

Don Day

Kendra Pierre-Louis

Chicas Poderosas

Jessica Clark

Stefanie Murray

Tony Baranowski

Cherian George

Natalia Viana

Shannon McGregor & Carolyn Schmitt

Daniel Eilemberg

Sarah Marshall

James Green

Sam Guzik

Juleyka Lantigua

Anthony Nadler

Cindy Royal

Julia Angwin

Michael W. Wagner

David Cohn

Kerri Hoffman

Laxmi Parthasarathy

Joy Mayer

Candace Amos

Jonas Kaiser