How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media: Why the Future of Journalism Depends on Women and People of Color by Joshunda Sanders

Author:Joshunda Sanders [Sanders, Joshunda]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Language Arts & Disciplines, Minority Studies, Social Science, Journalism, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Media Studies, Race & Ethnic Relations
ISBN: 9781440830815
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2015-08-11T06:16:51.559510+00:00

Chapter 5

The Apex of Inclusion

for Traditional Media

The Rise of a Multicultural Narrative within and

Outside of Legacy Media

The 1990s were the glory days for traditional media and the apex of

inclusion for women and people of color in newsrooms. This decade rep-

resented a full generation since the advent of serious widespread social

contemplation related to identity politics and the meaning of America’s

growing diversity. It also reflected the maturity of women and people of

color who had utilized the total spectrum of legal actions available to them

to respond to legacy media stalwarts determined to exclude them in hiring

and coverage.

The money companies made as the society they covered was raking in

largely borrowed cash was sometimes used, too, to augment newsroom

staffs with diverse hires or boost diversity programs and training to get pre-

dominately white institutions to commit to making their staffs look more

like their audiences. While the money was flowing, diversity for audiences

who so craved it seemed assured.

Nearly two decades after affirmative action became a codified part of the

American social infrastructure, newsrooms were also making a concerted

effort to make newsgathering more of a public, “citizen journalist”-friendly

zone. Print editions, additional products, and shows geared toward a mul-

ticultural audience cropped up, even as affirmative action backlash proved

a deterrent to these items. As media grew increasingly corporate and

profit-focused, the alternative press, along with subculture product that

accurately covered the marginalized, began to proliferate. This included

but was not limited to the emergence of zines as grassroots media spaces

where women, people of color, and people with alternate gender identi-

ties could explore everything that was generally missing from corporate

96 How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media

media—from transgender bias and mental illness to rape culture, sexism,

and personal transformation stories.

Zines were an outgrowth of Riot Grrl culture and a subset of the alter-

native press that flourished as a precursor to widespread use of blogs and

social media. Zines also emerged during an American apex for ethnic and

cultural magazine publishing and growing cultural acknowledgment of hip

hop as a legitimate global and organizing force, including and apart from

its commercial aspects. These shifts coincided with a growing move toward

race and ethnicity as a focal point for stories instead of as afterthoughts.

As the analog predecessors for the power of individuals telling their sto-

ries before the Internet became ubiquitous, zines and their proliferation in

American culture made a statement about the ability of the traditionally

marginalized to center their narratives and define themselves outside of

the mainstream. These publications reinforce the notion that when women,

youth, and people of color frame their own narratives, the topics are myr-

iad, relevant, and a significant departure from how stories are framed about

them in traditional media spaces where their voices are largely absent.

These are stories of protest, whether related to war or inclusion in move-

ments where women of color are generally ignored.

It has to be noted that this is not the type of media, like social media or

blogs, that are financially viable or particularly sustainable. The power of

corporate, traditional media lies in their ability to attract advertising to pay

for news production and staffing. This is a luxury that small or

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.