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.
[...]
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. (more…)
It isn’t a diversity problem, bruh. It’s a management problem.
There are MANY Black news websites. The problem is that the people who run many of those sites are not internet savvy. YOU CANNOT TAKE THE “WEEKLY” CONCEPT TO THE WEB AND EXPECT TO GET TRAFFIC!!! Many of the Black newspapers within the NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) only update their news on a weekly basis, not daily. As a result, there are many Black bloggers (including yours truly) who do not have a staff yet are able to generate more web traffic than most of our nation’s Black newspapers. Complaining about how news sites like The Politico or AOL’s Sphere.com does not have enough Black folks is moronic. The message Monroe is really communicating here is that without the backs of White folks, Blacks cannot succeed with our own resources and skills.
Another point, not everybody wants to know the “Black perspective” on the news. Black news sites greatly limit their potential reach on the web when all we talk about are Black issues. If that is the preference, fine. But we should not expect to get the same type of traffic of, let’s say realclearpolitics.com.
I have been saying for a very long time that many of these Black news sites under the NNPA should just merge and focus on providing news on a DAILY basis. The downside of that would be of course a loss of many jobs. That is the real elephant in the room nobody apparently wants to deal with head on.
Sweep Around Your Own Front Door
by Duane on December 2nd, 2009 at 1:46 pmBryan Monroe writes in the Huffington Post
It isn’t a diversity problem, bruh. It’s a management problem.
There are MANY Black news websites. The problem is that the people who run many of those sites are not internet savvy. YOU CANNOT TAKE THE “WEEKLY” CONCEPT TO THE WEB AND EXPECT TO GET TRAFFIC!!! Many of the Black newspapers within the NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) only update their news on a weekly basis, not daily. As a result, there are many Black bloggers (including yours truly) who do not have a staff yet are able to generate more web traffic than most of our nation’s Black newspapers. Complaining about how news sites like The Politico or AOL’s Sphere.com does not have enough Black folks is moronic. The message Monroe is really communicating here is that without the backs of White folks, Blacks cannot succeed with our own resources and skills.
Another point, not everybody wants to know the “Black perspective” on the news. Black news sites greatly limit their potential reach on the web when all we talk about are Black issues. If that is the preference, fine. But we should not expect to get the same type of traffic of, let’s say realclearpolitics.com.
I have been saying for a very long time that many of these Black news sites under the NNPA should just merge and focus on providing news on a DAILY basis. The downside of that would be of course a loss of many jobs. That is the real elephant in the room nobody apparently wants to deal with head on.
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