Carolyn Nielsen

Reporting on Race in a Digital Era

Carolyn Nielsen
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-35220-2e-ISBN 978-3-030-35221-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35221-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: eStudioCalamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

For the late Herb Kamm, who taught a generation of students to love journalism;

For David Domke, the esteemed mentor whose voice was in my head as I wrote this book;

And for the journalists past, current, and future, who are part of a noble calling. #NotTheEnemy

Preface

One of my first journalism jobs was covering police and fire news for a regional daily newspaper in Southern California. The communities I covered were deeply segregated along racial and ethnic lines and also by immigration status. My editors dispatched me to the communities where black and brown folks lived only when there was a major crime like a shooting. Even as a rookie reporter, it was clear that covering these communities as though criminal behavior and tragedy were their identities was not good journalism. My editors wanted “if it bleeds, it leads” stories. My ideas for follow-up stories about the toll on the community, mistrust of police, or the lack of employment opportunities were usually rejected. I tried to spend my free time earning trust with grassroots leaders—profiling the new YMCA director, attending some school meetings to listen to parent concerns, and chatting with folks at the panadería about the job market. These stories never made the front page if they were printed at all.

My early reporting experiences stuck with me. They have informed the way I teach journalism, including the ways in which I address topics of diversity, privilege, intersectionality, and systemic oppression. These topics were never part of my formal journalism education.

That unease with my own experience was perhaps what had me fixated on news coverage and social media in the summer of 2014 when unarmed African American teen Michael Brown, Jr., was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Residents of Ferguson were leveraging social media to speak back. Folks on Twitter were contradicting CNN. People in the streets were livestreaming things the TV cameras were not. Reporters were retweeting audience eyewitness accounts. News outlets began to talk about racial profiling, discrimination, and how the news was inaccurately portraying protesters as dangerous. This sense that something might be shifting in journalism fueled my curiosity to engage in the research that has become this book.

I’m indebted to the reporters who gave me their time and shared their expertise. It was a humbling honor to speak with them. I’ve carried their words of wisdom into my journalism classrooms and know they will play a role in shaping future journalists. I wish this work represented greater diversity. I made serious attempts to include Latinx, Asian American, and Native American reporters, but they declined to be interviewed. I hope those viewpoints might enrich future research.

This book is meant to start important conversations at a time of transition in journalism, a field to which I am deeply committed. I see this book as a tool to spark questions more than to answer them. I hope others—journalism students, professors, journalists, and people who care about good journalism as essential to democracy—find it thought provoking.

Carolyn Nielsen
Bellingham, WA, USA
Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to the journalists who agreed to be interviewed for this book:The Washington Post ’s Wesley Lowery and Krissah Thompson,The New York Times ’s John Eligon, NPR’s Code Switch’s Gene Demby, ESPN’s The Undefeated’s Soraya McDonald, Mashable’s Colin Daileda, BuzzFeed’s Darren Sands, and Evan McMorris-Santoro, formerly of BuzzFeed. Their authenticity, thoughtfulness, and experiences bring tremendous dimension to this book.

The research for this book began at the University of Washington, where it was mentored by Dr. David Domke, also a former journalist with a passion for exploring systems of inequality. It was also guided by Dr. Matthew Powers, who taught me new ways to think about institutions and how to conduct fieldwork, and by Dr. LeiLani Nishime, who fostered my passion for critical-cultural scholarship. This work was made possible by the scholars who produced the foundational work I sought to weave together and build upon: the scholars at Race Forward, whose work on systemic awareness is a key component of this book; Stephen Reese and Pamela Shoemaker, whose Hierarchy of Influences Model has carried into a digital era in journalism; and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, whose book,Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States planted seeds of understanding long before I considered writing my own book.

I would never have embarked on this journey without many “nudges” from my dear friend and colleague Dr. Sheila Webb. Finally, a special thank you to Claus, Maren, and Carter who put up with me, believed in me, and urged me forward.