It almost feels too simple, right?
For far too long, newsroom leaders have been wringing their hands over how to serve Black and brown communities. How many diversity initiatives, recruitment efforts, and implicit-bias trainings do we have to endure without the follow-through?
The spring and summer of 2020 ripped the blinders off of newsroom leaders who were ignorant to how systemic racism works and what oppression looks like.
In newsrooms, that oppression looks like the marginalization of Black and brown staff, the stifling of ideas, the crafting of narratives about POC that center White audiences, and the canceling of shows. Audiences of color aren’t blind to these decisions. In 2019, before the launch of Truth Be Told, my advice podcast for people of color produced by KQED, I held in-person community gatherings and asked potential listeners what they wanted from a show like it.
At every one of those gatherings, audience members asked some variation of: “How committed is this organization to a show that speaks to us?” “How long will this last?” “How do we know this won’t be just another program we’ll fall in love with and then, like so many others before, gets canceled?”
Like most journalists of color, I couldn’t promise them that wouldn’t happen.
In Hollywood storylines, it’s the characters of color that are always the first to die. In journalism, it’s the canceling of your favorite show with a Latina host. It’s wondering why you never see the biggest newspaper in your town covering your neighborhood. It’s listening to stories about you that aren’t for you.
What’s different now is that we can’t unlearn the lessons of this summer’s uprisings. It’s not good enough to hire staff of color without making changes that will make your news organization look, sound, and feel different — a truer reflection of America.
So in 2021, true equity means ownership.
More Black, brown, and Indigenous journalists will team up to start their own media companies. Podcasters, writers, and other creatives are also learning more about the value of their intellectual property and having full control over the journalism they create and produce.
We’ve seen this happen already. In the summer of 2020, podcast host and producer Misha Euceph bought full ownership of her podcast centering Muslim voices called Tell Them, I Am from Los Angeles public radio station KPCC. Euceph has since started her own production company.
“Your intellectual property is like your child,” Euceph wrote on Twitter. “Think hard about who gets to hold her, keep her, make money off of her.”
Journalists Akoto Ofori-Atta and Lauren Williams‘ venture is another example. In 2021, the two veteran journalists will launch Capital B, a Black-led nonprofit local and national news organization.
These won’t be easy ventures. The media landscape is flooded with choices for the consumer. But in these newly formed “for us, by us” media organizations, the audience will begin to see themselves reflected in the product, and perhaps we’ll see a growth in support under the membership model, choosing to support POC-led organizations with regular small donations.
Philanthropic organizations and private funders in 2021 may also turn their attention to these POC-led startups, and find interest in backing media that is closer to the ground in serving communities of color.
And I predict that toward the end of 2021, we will see many full-circle moments: some media legacy organizations, understanding the value of POC journalists, partnering with POC-led startups and finally getting closer to fulfilling the mission of journalism: truer, more inclusive coverage that reflects our world.
Tonya Mosley is co-host of NPR’s Here & Now and host of Truth Be Told.
It almost feels too simple, right?
For far too long, newsroom leaders have been wringing their hands over how to serve Black and brown communities. How many diversity initiatives, recruitment efforts, and implicit-bias trainings do we have to endure without the follow-through?
The spring and summer of 2020 ripped the blinders off of newsroom leaders who were ignorant to how systemic racism works and what oppression looks like.
In newsrooms, that oppression looks like the marginalization of Black and brown staff, the stifling of ideas, the crafting of narratives about POC that center White audiences, and the canceling of shows. Audiences of color aren’t blind to these decisions. In 2019, before the launch of Truth Be Told, my advice podcast for people of color produced by KQED, I held in-person community gatherings and asked potential listeners what they wanted from a show like it.
At every one of those gatherings, audience members asked some variation of: “How committed is this organization to a show that speaks to us?” “How long will this last?” “How do we know this won’t be just another program we’ll fall in love with and then, like so many others before, gets canceled?”
Like most journalists of color, I couldn’t promise them that wouldn’t happen.
In Hollywood storylines, it’s the characters of color that are always the first to die. In journalism, it’s the canceling of your favorite show with a Latina host. It’s wondering why you never see the biggest newspaper in your town covering your neighborhood. It’s listening to stories about you that aren’t for you.
What’s different now is that we can’t unlearn the lessons of this summer’s uprisings. It’s not good enough to hire staff of color without making changes that will make your news organization look, sound, and feel different — a truer reflection of America.
So in 2021, true equity means ownership.
More Black, brown, and Indigenous journalists will team up to start their own media companies. Podcasters, writers, and other creatives are also learning more about the value of their intellectual property and having full control over the journalism they create and produce.
We’ve seen this happen already. In the summer of 2020, podcast host and producer Misha Euceph bought full ownership of her podcast centering Muslim voices called Tell Them, I Am from Los Angeles public radio station KPCC. Euceph has since started her own production company.
“Your intellectual property is like your child,” Euceph wrote on Twitter. “Think hard about who gets to hold her, keep her, make money off of her.”
Journalists Akoto Ofori-Atta and Lauren Williams‘ venture is another example. In 2021, the two veteran journalists will launch Capital B, a Black-led nonprofit local and national news organization.
These won’t be easy ventures. The media landscape is flooded with choices for the consumer. But in these newly formed “for us, by us” media organizations, the audience will begin to see themselves reflected in the product, and perhaps we’ll see a growth in support under the membership model, choosing to support POC-led organizations with regular small donations.
Philanthropic organizations and private funders in 2021 may also turn their attention to these POC-led startups, and find interest in backing media that is closer to the ground in serving communities of color.
And I predict that toward the end of 2021, we will see many full-circle moments: some media legacy organizations, understanding the value of POC journalists, partnering with POC-led startups and finally getting closer to fulfilling the mission of journalism: truer, more inclusive coverage that reflects our world.
Tonya Mosley is co-host of NPR’s Here & Now and host of Truth Be Told.
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Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
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John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front