In about half an hour at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center I’m giving a speech called Be the Media You Want to See: How Social Mediaand Citizen Journalism Are Changing the World.” (Per my usual procrastinatory superpowers, I got my powerpoint done about half an hour before I had to hop on the train to New Haven.)
Earlier today I spoke on WNPR (Connecticut) about how digital technology is transforming journalism, as well as issues of race and diversity in journalism. (My interview begins at 00:23:23; the first half of the show is about the new PBS documentary Digital Nation which premieres tomorrow night.)
I talk about the ways that media has to grow in technological sophistication, but also become more inclusive. We have not only to rebuild journalism on a business level (as a functioning part of society/democracy), but we have to do it better– by being more inclusive. Among other things, during the interview a caller said “a great risk and danger in trying to over-diversify” media. My argument, as you might expect, is the opposite. America is a nation where many of the biggest cities have no racial majority (including New York, where I live); and America as a whole, the Census estimates, will have no racial majority by 2042. Many media outlets fail to reach a sufficiently diverse audience (For example, NPR’s own audience survey shows that its audience is 86% non-Hispanic white. The Census says the U.S. population is 2/3 non-Hispanic white; 1/3 Hispanic and non-white.) A recent report called Grow the Audience urged public media to be more inclusive of people of color… in part because that’s the only way public media will grow. You can extrapolate and point out the obvious: if America’s population is growing primarily among Hispanic and non-white groups, then media must catch up in attracting these groups As I said, speaking of the future (not of niche publications/broadcasts but of mainstream ones), “You cannot have a mostly-white media audience and expect to thrive. You have to speak to a wide audience, or die.”
As I also said on air, “There’s nothing magic about diversity.” It’s hard work to survey your community; find authentic voices that represent different demographics; and make sure you do adequate coverage. If you don’t have a connection to communities, you don’t get the news. You get blindsided by social issues rather than being plugged into evolving social, political, and economic realities. We can do better, and we have to, or we (professional journalists) will find our already compromised role in society diminished even more.
