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the easiest way to diversify source lists is by aiming to talk to white guys last for almost every story
•Ask PR people to connect you to non-white and female sources
•Ask your sources who else should be interviewed
•Read papers and research published by junior researchers + faculty
•Follow people on Twitter
•
Dothework that make BIPOC sources want to reply quickly to you
•Ask your sources who else should be interviewed
•Read papers and research published by junior researchers + faculty
•Follow people on Twitter
•
Dothework that make BIPOC sources want to reply quickly to you
•Spend extra time on your intro email explaining why you want to talk to them specifically, incl. why their insight + perspective matter
•Include great examples of your past work
•Ask how they identify themselves
•Don't misquote them
•Send them the story when it's online
•Include great examples of your past work
•Ask how they identify themselves
•Don't misquote them
•Send them the story when it's online
I cannot stress enough as a former PR person at a university how important it is for reporters and news people to send academics or junior economists and other sources the story immediately after it goes online. For tenure, promotions, the school's own PR department, all of it.
Journalists of color are not just diverse source repositories for white reporters. Trying to gain access to these journalists' rolodexes for professional gain, without recognizing the long-term work involved in building them, will only lead to further sourcing issues in newsrooms
If a name is ambiguous, I do a quick search online first or aim to interview more women. I ask how hapa, mixed-race and white-passing POC identify and what everyone's pronouns are. This doesn't solve *every* issue with diversifying sources, but it solves a lot of them.
You can do this in small towns, at a student paper, in fields like economics, video games and mining, in trade pubs and big publications too. You'll get scoops and better stories. It takes time to do. But it's really worth doing, and incredibly important for more people to track.
Don't forget to drink a big glass of water today.
For the youngs: a "rolodex" was a thing that held business cards and was like a personal contact list in physical form.
Too many journalists default to interviewing white dudes or the same limited sources and don't want negative consequences for continuing this practice even though it hurts public trust, especially among minority communities.
Are you doomscrolling? Don't stay up too late tonight.
Are you doomscrolling? Don't stay up too late tonight.
