Why young journalists of color leave the news industry

[KamaAina]

http://alldigitocracy.org/why-young-journalists-of-color-leave-the-news-industry/

News publications want young, rock star journalists. They want them to know how to zoom in on a compelling story, shoot it, write it, edit the audio, code, appear on camera, and do just about anything else an editor asks with a smile. All for as small a pay package as possible.

What happens when a news organization gets all that in one package? Most editors’ dream come true, right? The Boston Globe’s new life sciences start-up, Stat, just fired its wonderkid on Friday, but not before they switched the journalism and computer science grad’s job from research and reporting to primarily clerical work that included filing expense reports for the editor-in-chief (which is apparently against Globe policy), creating name tags for Stat events (which was initially assigned to an intern before the journalism grad was tasked with it), as well as booking lunches and ordering food for editors, and other reporters. ...

Like any good journalist, the young woman pushed further, asking for specifics regarding her termination. She said the human resources manager told her that she’d forgotten to make a name tag for an attendant at the recent company event; she was later told that her refusal to handle checks for the One Fund also played a role in her firing.

Now, before anyone helpfully chimes in that this is likely just a single case of a “bad fit,” or that the journalist must have done something egregious like plagiarize, lie or steal: 1) She had not published anything because the startup has not yet launched. 2) When the journalist inquired about her termination, she was told it was because she wasn’t a good fit and did not perform her administrative duties satisfactorily. Let’s consider that for journalists of color, this happens more often than some may think. I’ve seen it before. I can’t say how often it happens, but I have certainly heard plenty of stories and, in fact, experienced something similar myself.

[HassleCat]

1. Good fit, bad fit

From my experience, I would guess it had more to do with her being female. I don't know how male dominated her organization is or was, but it's tough when you have to talk about football and makes jokes about breast size to fit in.

[Warpy]

2. I suspect you're correct

but sometimes it's really hard to tell where the gender line stops and the color line starts. There is a tremendous amount of overlap.

Still, if the industry as a whole is losing more qualified POC than lily whites, the industry has the major part of the problem and the line is most likely a color one.

[RobinA]

4. My Experience

as well. And it doesn't really matter how male dominated the organization is. I work for a female dominated organization and its the same deal. Actually, I find that women can be worse in this respect.

[SoCalDem]

3. Cynical opinion here

Watch the black journalists recede as Obama's tenure looms..