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This week, the Federal Trade Commission will be convening a high-level hearing in D.C. looking at "How Will Journalism Survive The Internet Age."
Media giants like Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington will likely slug it out on pay walls, copyrights and the prospect of Microsoft buying its way into the search world.
I, on the other hand, am going to talk about how white the Web is, and the threat that reality represents to journalism for our increasingly diverse nation.
Look no further than the 17 staff members of AOL's new Sphere.com. Or the single African-American reporter at Politico. Or the lack of diversity in Chicago's new co-op journalism venture. We are starting off on the wrong foot.
You see, journalism is not dead. Not by a long shot. It is, however, in the process of painfully shedding its old skin for a new one. But, in the battle for its soul between old media and new media, something important is being lost: we are now living in a new America.
With the recent closures, bankruptcies, declining circulation and layoffs, the legacy media business has proven that cutting its way to success just won't work. We now know we cannot grow from a crouched position.
For the underlying DNA of journalism --accuracy, inclusion, clarity, storytelling, fairness and truth -- to live on it must now find a new host. To succeed, we must make sure diverse voices -- all voices -- are represented in digital and on the Web.
So far, though, online journalism ventures haven't figured out that to not just survive, but thrive, they must reflect a changing nation.
The U.S. Census Bureau projects that, by 2023, half of all U.S. children will be non-white. By 2042, people of color will outnumber whites in America.
But in conversations about Web sites and mobile, digital journalism versus soybean-ink-on-dead-trees, there has been little discussion about of the importance of capitalizing on emerging communities with broad content and diverse editorial staffs.
In fact, just the opposite has happened.
Chalk it up to either inattention or "diversity fatigue," but when it comes to newsroom diversity and serving inclusive audiences, we've actually seen the gains of the past 50 years being erased by the declines of the last five.
In the old school media world (read: newspapers, magazines and broadcast TV), we have watched as those last hired -- usually journalists of color -- become the first fired in round after round of newsroom downsizing.
And we know how well that's been working for them.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Tribune Company are both in bankruptcy; AP and Time Warner are slashing staffs; NBC may be sold to Comcast.
Meanwhile, the Web world is heading in the wrong direction, too.
For instance, the new AOL news and features site, Sphere.com, recently touted its fresh editorial staff lineup. Guess what, according to recent reports, all 17 out of 17 new writers, editors and producers announced last month were white. They say they are just getting started, and promise more diversity, but all we have is what they have announced so far. Here's what they said on their site, next to mug shots of their new staff:
"Welcome to this preview of Sphere, the next phase in the evolution of AOL News."
That is evolution, eh?
When the political news site Politico.com started in 2007, very few of its staff members were journalists of color. Today, only one African-American journalist, White House correspondent Nia-Malika Henderson, is on the reporting staff (she took the place of Helena Andrews, Politico's only other African-American writer, who left last fall).
In Washington D.C.--a city that is 54 percent African American-- a new local Web offering funded by Politico owners Allbritton Communications debuts next year and is expected to be staffed with at least 50 people. How many, if any, of the writers, editors and top management will be journalists of color?
In Chicago, a new public service journalism consortium, Chicago News Cooperative (CNC), was recently announced with great fanfare and $500,000 in initial funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Among its roster are award-winning journalists and leading minds in the Chicago media space.
Problem is, its initial staff and leadership lineup announced included no Blacks, no Asians and no Latinos, no one under 40, and they have taken a beating in the press for that oversight. (Since the Oct. 22 announcement, its Web site now lists at least one African-American writer, the stellar Don Terry, and a Hispanic picture editor, former Trib photographer José Moré.) Still, the board of directors is virtually all white, and all but two members of the 10-person board are male. They will be covering a city that is 58 percent non-white, more than 1/3 Black and half female.
If this is what "new media" is supposed to be, it is looking a lot like "old media" --only less diverse and more isolated.
So, why does all this matter, anyway? In the age of Obama, aren't we all supposed to be over all this? Well, if our newsrooms lack the broad ranges of culture, backgrounds and life experiences reflective of our society at large, how can we even hope to know what to cover and what appeals to a rapidly diversified marketplace?
Yes, there are Web ventures such as BlackWeb 2.0, whose young, diverse staff has built a large following by cultivating it through Facebook. Mainstream companies like NBC have created TheGrio.com and the Washington Post launched TheRoot.com with Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates. Both are solid journalistic ventures with growing audiences but should not be seen as substitutes for inclusion in the broader media world.
Still, new local digital ventures have also sprung up across the nation. In Philadelphia, more than 240 new community sites have emerged, including several aimed at Black and Hispanic audiences. In Richmond, Calif., richmondconfidential.org appeals to their diverse readers by providing local news and context. In the Central Valley, GreatValley.org speaks to the rural, agricultural community that is largely Latino. They've even teamed up with AT&T to launch the Pixley Digital Connection project about wired teens of Latino farm workers.
Local, community-based Asian and Spanish language newspapers are also growing -- up 16 percent in a recent study -- as they cover immigrant and ethnic communities, according to a poll by New America Media. Another recent study conducted by American University's J-Lab Institute for Interactive Journalism showed that community journalism is far more participatory than legacy media, and it requires the skills of those close to their communities, those who know their communities best.
And I am on the advisory boards of two new media ventures: rrripple.com, a start-up in Silicon Valley offering a safe, secure, social media alternative to MySpace or Facebook, and Urban Access Media Group, a private television network that connects beauty salons and barber shops in the Chicago area with free 42" flat screen LCD TVs attached to smart, addressable Internet routers serving up content, information and advertising. Both companies are led by African-American entrepreneurs and have talented, diverse staffs and investors.
For media entrepreneurs of color, access to capital and technology still remain big obstacles. In a good year, getting banks, angel investors and venture capitalists interested in any idea is difficult enough. But when they all run in circles that are often exclusive of people like me, gaining access to that access becomes nearly impossible.
And what about programmers, engineers and those who write code for the Web? Finding African Americans and Hispanics in the engineering schools of MIT, Stanford or Cal Tech continues to be, at best, a rare occurrence.
Sure, with enough money, you can hire top software talents, whether they are in Silicon Valley or Bangalore. But what about the "hook-ups," the informal networks that come from college relationships, that first startup or "friends and family?" How can a budding media entrepreneur in Atlanta or Chicago or Oakland get his or her idea off the ground without deep involvement from technologists? Cultivating the next wave of engineers of color is critical to the creation of the next media powerhouses.
That's why efforts from groups such as the National Black Programming Consortium, The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council and Unity: Journalists of Color, --organizations that help expose investors to great media ideas and media minds--are even more critical in the 21st century. What if media foundations invested in the development of partnerships between VCs, engineers and journalists to birth new ventures?
Meanwhile, the digital divide still keeps 40 percent of Americans -- and, disproportionately, people of color -- away from full digital citizenship because of the barriers of wealth, class and age. Many still lack adequate access to broadband, Wi-Fi and mobile Internet. For instance, The Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that Blacks are much more likely to lack computers or broadband access at home, and their broadband adoption is growing at a much slower rate than the American population at large. There is the fierce urgency of acting now, before that digital divide gets even greater.
For most young people, a diverse, "majority-minority" America is already their reality. Those 18-35 have grown up in a much more diverse America than the nation of their parents. They are more likely to have hung out with Blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans, more likely to have had bi-racial friends and more likely to have been exposed to diverse ideas.
And, by the way, most young people under 30 have come to expect their news and information to be free. Like the air they breathe. Free.
Now, that doesn't mean that they won't pay for content that they want --just think ringtones and iPhone apps. But if news providers and media outlets think that erecting a pay wall or charging for community news will rescue their flailing business model, then they will be in the short term disappointed and, in the long run, only hasten their own one-way voyage to irrelevance. For these young folks that ship has sailed.
Still, I remain an optimist. I am encouraged by the energy and passions of students I run into on campus and the young minds trying to create the next big thing. Sure, they know that mainstream media is in decline, and know they won't likely find jobs at the Washington Post or NBC waiting for them when they graduate, but they nevertheless want to become part of what's next -- in social media, on the Web or wherever.
Enrollment at Medill and other major journalism schools around the country is actually up. Many students still want to learn the fundamentals of editing and good writing, the ethics and discipline of journalism and the solid techniques of storytelling, but then want to take those skills and launch their own media start-ups or community news platforms.
Yes, they want to shine the light and speak for the voiceless, and not just stalk reality TV stars. But they have little desire to become the next Bob Woodward or Walter Cronkite, instead set their sights on being the next Arianna Huffington, Mara Schiavocampo or Omar Wasow.
And many of those young, talented minds are media entrepreneurs of color. All they need is that access to capital, access to technology, access to jobs and access to hope.
-- Bryan Monroe is a visiting professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He was the former president of The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines and assistant vice president/news at Knight Ridder. He has also been a regular contributor to CNN and helped lead the team in Biloxi, Miss. that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He can be reached at www.bryanmonroe.com.
Follow Bryan Monroe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bkmonroe
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Great post and discussion ... The rapper Common recently said he had to stop complaining about hip hop & make the type that he wanted to hear. What's happening at BlackWeb20 is an example of that. Black Americans have always found issue with all forms of American media, and usually with good reason. The old media excuse was cost, as access to the millions necessary to launch a TV channel or radio station or publish a paper was more than hard to come by. It doesn't take millions to launch a website, and I'm not advocating for separate but equal, but if the technology offers so many new opportunities why are we still having these old discussions? And WHO is really having them? I never saw rap fans complaining about The Source or XXL Magazine not doing enough online. That's because that generation took matters into their own hands and created allhiphop.
It is troubling. I'm a blogger and a social media marketer. So from the news point of the view I have been quite discouraged by new media's relunctance to work with people of color, but the ad agencies are just as bad or even worse.
You would think in this racially diverse society we live, companies would understnd the need for diversity in digitla media and social media, but I guess what is old is new again. If there are any advisory committees can help serve on this contact me.
Kevin Lockett
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A few decades ago the black community was screaming about the following. And they were correct.
A disparity or few black role models depicted in:
* Television
* Movies
* Commercials
* Sports (or some sports).
* Education
Some laws were put into place. Some positive changes took place without laws, based solely on skils of the person. And for many there were benefits from these changes.
And the results for this all important need for black role models?
* Lowest education performance of any demographic in America.
* Hip-hop music role models.
* Black community has kicked Bill Cosby to the curb because he preaches accountability.
* Ebonics alive and well.
* WCIU or EBN or whatever station the black shows are broadcast on. Have you watched them? This is what the black community desires in television shows to influence their kids?
Thankfully many have turned on the blame gamers. And they are better off for it in their own lives and the lives of their children.
I'm glad you brought this up...amazi
What a powerful article here, great message...
See David Ormsby's Profile
Are you suggesting that white journalists are unqualified to successfully leverage new media platforms and help transition and transform old to new media journalism in the 21st Century? Are you suggesting white journalists are unqualified to report on events in minority communities or on public policy that affect those communities?
And where were the NFP indy's who are not insiders and who can cover Corporate Big Oil messing around with people lives and ecology all over this world, propped up by a Pentagon and more of our money! They aren't trying to be part of an elite media club NYC/Beltway!
FTC did a good job showing the failure of holding companies to evolve when they had 40% margins. No news there, just like trains, autos, banks. That point was made. But, FTC needs to work harder to get a lot more viewpoint in that room to show Liebowitz's claim of "Market failure". Biz associations and profs paid by big shots will never agree with Adam Smith that markets fail to provide public goods! They deny the existence of public goods too, and get away with it, defying their hero Adam Smith who discovered capitalism.
Great thread. The looks of the FTC room yesterday is that even with 50% people of color in the country soon, white guys with law and econ degrees are still setting the policy rules for future media.
ProPublica is great, but Wash Post and WSJ alumns, insiders to that self congratulatory group. While they were going on about Pullitzers, and Poynters and Pews, only Arianna pointed out failure of MSM on Iraq War Intel and cheerleading the subprime bubble.
They can deny "market failure" and harp about 800,000 stories that won't get written this year cause of newspaper cuts, but what about the MILLIONS of stories that never got written in the first place with this ad paid MSM with its insiders and its narrow range of coverage interests safe to cover for advertisers. ProPublica claim "fracking" water pollution success, but that's been going on for years and water tables are damaged for good. Where was the MSM on that? And, that affects mostly poor white people in rural areas. Even they weren't in that room yesterday.
And the illustrious UChicago law school economist David Evans denies "market failure"??? Well, those UChicago donors paid to bring us Milton Friedman, and they're paying Evans too.
Well, let's face it. So many blacks and Hispanics are in prison that it's hard to hire any.
Bravo Mr. Monroe! You've hit the nail squarely on the head. Even as the nation grows more racially diverse, both old media and new media remain monotonously monochromatic and closed to people of color. It's not always racism (though it often is) but the entrenched interests in newsrooms---both the physical and virtual newsrooms---only seem to value diversity when it comes to other businesses and not their own.
Bryan, Excellent post and thanks for mentioning Black Web 2.0! I am so glad to see content like this on the Huffington Post but more importantly this type of content from your persepective. I am also very excited to have learned about Ripple. I don't have much to add here just that I agree with you wholeheartedly! :)
White people in the minority by 2042?...Pe
Bryan try something else, your pitch isn't working!
@48thGuy you've missed his point. What he's saying is that in this 'new media economy' all the new opportunities being created are going to the same demographic. Secondly, he's saying that the demographic getting this jobs no longer reflects society. Finally he's saying that the real danger is that we will marginalize the 'masses' versus 'minorities' as it did in the past.
And you seem to be fixated on race, Bryan argues on the behalf of white women as well as Asians, Hispanics and Blacks. I really don't understand your counter argument as nothing he wrote contradicts what you said. In fact by your argument, publishers should be looking for new markets and readers... Wouldn't that mean embracing change?
Jongos... What I'm saying is that if you want to effect change in journalism, you need to 'put some skin in the game'...St
While I applaud the ideals behind this blog, and truly want more diversity on the net, I think part of the story is being glossed over.
Blogging, political or otherwise, is at its most basic a personal thing. The people who started it and got it to the point where MSM is noticing it, did so with their own computer, or a public computer, with no pay restrictions, on their own. Now that the MSM and other employer groups are catching on, I'm guessing they are going with the people who had the drive to start their own blogs and thus have some experience with online journalism.
You want to change that dynamic? How about you post some actual blog links from diverse people and not just community and commerce links. Give us access to the personal voices that you are looking for in your pay sites.
In an internet world where people find a way to make their voices heard no matter what the means or message, you can blame tradition for a lack of diversity, but just like politics, it has to start at the grassroots, personal level and you arent showing us that it has, just that you want it to change.
the perennial issue is the public vs. the private sphere...w
Yes! Tell it like it is! This post is relevant, well-notated, and right on time. Thanks. New days, my friend. New days....
Bryan Monroe thanks for looking out for African Americans. The rules will always change when African Americans learn the rules and begin to win/succeed. The pay for content rip off is just another way to keep Blacks from gaining information/truth.
Please keep the African American blogosphere informed of your efforts. Good luck!
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