Read on Twitter
Having a conversation with a colleague and one point of frustration in news is the constant talk of hiring a more diverse set of newsfolk. Yet no one seems really interested in keeping that staff once they have it.
Many colleagues of color have told me in conversation how news management doesn’t seem to take them seriously when suggesting stories of relevance to the communities they’re from.
Sometimes, the response is: “Well our audience is in the suburbs and they’re not interested. If they tune out so will the advertisers.”
Our job as journalists is not to tell people what they want to be happening but what is actually happening! Ignoring a community like say Central Falls - mostly poor, mostly POC, most with English as a second language - except when something bad happens heightens prejudices.
I remember once I did a story on a murder in #PVD and someone said in a FB comment ‘that’s what happens when that mayor is trying to turn it into Little Guatemala!’
If you can’t understand what’s wrong with that sentiment it’s because you’re not trying. And comments in that vein are repeated ad nauseum on news social media pages all over the country on the daily.
What about the good stuff happening in these towns? It gets ignored in favor of suburbia. That’s not to say suburbia is not important- it definitely is - but it’s segregated from urban zones very intentionally (look up white flight).
Even so, suburbia is becoming more diverse and with that so are audience tastes. Yet far too often news seems to be stuck with an antiquated idea of what their audience is. Even if your idea of what the audience looks like, why not think of what it COULD be?
What I’m saying is far too often do I hear talk of diverse newsrooms but far less often are those reporters given the opportunity to do what they are theoretically hired to do; often resulting in disenchantment and them leaving the industry.
That rant needed to happen. The conversation with my colleague was not the first one in that vein, won’t be the last probably, but it did push me to say this.
