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Welcome to the Midterms, Day 2, as major races for Governor and U.S. Senate remain undecided or headed to recounts. Instant hot takes have been flowing since the first exit polls yesterday and they'll continue for some time.
Inevitably, those stories will overshadow other, more nuanced ones. This isn't a new phenomenon, of course. Unless we seek them out, we are likely only to see the same stories from the same people. But even then, we're not getting the full picture of what's happening across the country.
Earlier this week, I attended a half-day conference hosted by the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) called "Race, Politics and the Press." It was part of the release of the fall issue of CJR, which is dedicated entirely to issues of race. The first time the publication has done so since its inaugural issue in 1961.
If, like me, you tried your best to avoid the 16-person(!) Election night panel over at ABC or the slightly smaller, but equally overdone group at CNN, then you'll appreciate the more measured and highly-thoughtful approach CJR takes in its analysis.
Its race issue, "Unfinished: The stories left untold in America's newsrooms," is fantastic. A collection of articles that examines how existing journalistic narratives came to be and how their ongoing usage biases our true understanding of communities.
From "Missing the Story":
I also was struck by the ways in which the efforts of a journalist, an editor, an expert, and even neighborhood residents seemed only to further a narrative of liberal condescension, missing crucial facts about life in [the Bronx] ... The people who are most likely to appear in these kinds of stories are the least likely to have a say in how those stories are told.
Along these lines, the issue also offers up a special report on race and ethnicity in newsrooms across the country. From the report:
In 1979, the American Society of News Editors pledged that, by the year 2000, the percentage of racial and ethnic minorities in newsrooms would match that of the population at large ... Newspapers have failed spectacularly at achieving that goal.
Articles from the issue are being posted all month long. If you're looking to get away from the simple real/fake binary discussions about the media in today's landscape, then it's worth some time diving into these pieces about race and the press. Why are the stories we are being told constructed the way they are? What are we missing as consumers of media content? What voices should we be hearing from? These are but a few of the topics that deserve our time.
No more sharks. No more who dumped who. No more who tweeted what. Let's spend some time thinking through and working toward reforming our newsrooms by demanding more of the voices and perspectives that reflect our communities.
Do you have a favorite writer or two that you feel capture your community well? Please share in the comments.
(Images courtesy of the CJR website.)
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