At Chicas Poderosas, for almost 10 years we have been working for more and more voices to be heard, to make the media more diverse, to see more women in leadership positions, BIPOC in command and people from the LGBTQ+ community making decisions about editorials.
Journalists have the great power to present the reality as it is, whilst connecting to its variety through different investigations — making us think differently. This is how their work has the ability to change the world.
Chicas Poderosas’ mission is to transform the media so it becomes more representative and inclusive. We believe journalism should portray, not only the diverse realities and realities of women, but LGBTQ+ communities, afro descendants, indigenous and other dissenting voices.
Because today 79% of the directors of newspapers and television are white middle class. With the diversity of media we play a lot. Much remains to be said when the media is monopolized by white men. What happens when you read a newspaper that is not inclusive?
You only receive a small part of the story, important problems fall in the shadows, you do not understand reality for what it is and it creates polarization, marginalization and lack of representation in politics, in business leadership positions — leading to an ultimately weak democracy.
More inclusive media is the fast track to creating greater acceptance and openness to all that transcend the norm.
The media are the ultimate “influencers.” The media are, for better or worse, the ones that can exert the most pressure on the most powerful people and groups in the world. If you manage to influence from the top down, the rest of the world will follow you. This power is huge.
Those who lead the media are always the same. They say that it is important for them to be diverse and inclusive, and it is true that this reality is changing, but having women journalists and reporters is not the same as having women leading a newspaper — because it’s the leaders who decides how each story is published. There are very few leaders in the media who put people of diverse origin in decision-making positions.
Why is it necessary to have diversities in command of the media? Because it will result in a more balanced, healthier society with a smaller gap between those who have a lot and those who have nothing. You will form a more peaceful, empathetic, tolerant, and cooperative mindset. This will materialize in more sustainable, stronger, and diverse economies, less loneliness, fewer mental disorders and suicides, less gender injustice.
With the new generations coming up, we see fewer and fewer people accepting a working life where their rights are not respected — not only in newsrooms but also in corporations. As an organization of journalists, we have several challenges for 2023: to increase diversity in the media, to have narratives that provide a real reflection of the world, and to stop violence, so that our journalists stay alive. Together, we can create an equal and strong democracy.
Mariana Santos is the founder and CEO of Chicas Poderosas.
At Chicas Poderosas, for almost 10 years we have been working for more and more voices to be heard, to make the media more diverse, to see more women in leadership positions, BIPOC in command and people from the LGBTQ+ community making decisions about editorials.
Journalists have the great power to present the reality as it is, whilst connecting to its variety through different investigations — making us think differently. This is how their work has the ability to change the world.
Chicas Poderosas’ mission is to transform the media so it becomes more representative and inclusive. We believe journalism should portray, not only the diverse realities and realities of women, but LGBTQ+ communities, afro descendants, indigenous and other dissenting voices.
Because today 79% of the directors of newspapers and television are white middle class. With the diversity of media we play a lot. Much remains to be said when the media is monopolized by white men. What happens when you read a newspaper that is not inclusive?
You only receive a small part of the story, important problems fall in the shadows, you do not understand reality for what it is and it creates polarization, marginalization and lack of representation in politics, in business leadership positions — leading to an ultimately weak democracy.
More inclusive media is the fast track to creating greater acceptance and openness to all that transcend the norm.
The media are the ultimate “influencers.” The media are, for better or worse, the ones that can exert the most pressure on the most powerful people and groups in the world. If you manage to influence from the top down, the rest of the world will follow you. This power is huge.
Those who lead the media are always the same. They say that it is important for them to be diverse and inclusive, and it is true that this reality is changing, but having women journalists and reporters is not the same as having women leading a newspaper — because it’s the leaders who decides how each story is published. There are very few leaders in the media who put people of diverse origin in decision-making positions.
Why is it necessary to have diversities in command of the media? Because it will result in a more balanced, healthier society with a smaller gap between those who have a lot and those who have nothing. You will form a more peaceful, empathetic, tolerant, and cooperative mindset. This will materialize in more sustainable, stronger, and diverse economies, less loneliness, fewer mental disorders and suicides, less gender injustice.
With the new generations coming up, we see fewer and fewer people accepting a working life where their rights are not respected — not only in newsrooms but also in corporations. As an organization of journalists, we have several challenges for 2023: to increase diversity in the media, to have narratives that provide a real reflection of the world, and to stop violence, so that our journalists stay alive. Together, we can create an equal and strong democracy.
Mariana Santos is the founder and CEO of Chicas Poderosas.
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Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
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Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
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Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
An Xiao Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
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Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
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Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
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Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
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Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Sarah Marshall A web channel strategy won’t be enough
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter