Topic: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Last year, we published “Dear Funders: What Does it Mean to Care About Equity in Journalism?” where we outlined three priorities for foundations seeking to support equitable journalism: investing in journalism created for and by people of color; supporting groups that are building a more equitable industry overall; and closing the resource gaps that philanthropy has helped perpetuate.

This piece went up at the start of one of the most tumultuous times in our country’s history: the rise of COVID-19 and marches for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. White-centric and led media struggled to tell these stories from the lens of communities of color, while pushing out reporters of color who were. 

Following this surge, an unprecedented amount of philanthropic dollars went towards racial equity, as many newsrooms began to grapple with their histories of racism. But it’s now one year later and many funders still struggle to center POC-led organizations, while real progress on equity within newsrooms has yet to materialize.

Righting these wrongs will take incredible amounts of time and money from the field of philanthropy. But doing this work gives us energy and brings us joy. We’re investing in the incredible efforts of leaders of color that are shaping the future of journalism, and we hope you’ll join us. 

Here are some of the things we have been doing: 

In 2020, we increased investments to several partner organizations, including an additional $500,000 to the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund to ensure dollars could go directly to POC-led and serving newsrooms and to address the legal needs of journalists of color. We also provided an additional $100,000 to the Center for Community Media at CUNY to help ensure their media partners across the country had access to critical training and resources.

We increased the flexibility of our grant structures, like removing annual audit requirements, providing more mediums for annual reporting, and moving project grants to general operating (excluding grants with fiscal sponsors or agents). And we committed ourselves to using public platforms, as well as industry events like Media Impact Funders, the United Philanthropy Forum, and Council of New Jersey Grantmakers to highlight mediamakers of color and push our peers to increase their support of them.

And our team is continuing this work in 2021. We’ve committed over $1.5 million dollars to grant amendments and renewals to organizations like the Maynard Institute, Emma Bowen Foundation, and the Asian American Journalists Association, all of which support the growth and leadership of journalists of color while holding the journalism industry accountable for more fair and representative coverage. We’ve also renamed our portfolio “Equitable Journalism” to better reflect our funding priorities and guide future strategy. 

We know this is just the beginning. The violent racism that communities of color have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing new. Journalism has too often historically contributed to propping up racialized violence and harms, and philanthropy has persistently underinvested in journalism led by and serving POC communities or divested altogether. We don’t want to continue this legacy of harmful funding practices, and we hope you don’t either. We are collaborating more intentionally across our media grantmaking strategies to ensure equity is at the forefront. And Democracy Fund is working to infuse racial equity across the organization, while continuing to examine how our external grantmaking and internal culture uphold white supremacy. 

We’re calling on our peer funders to join this transformative moment, and share their plans and actions so we can all learn from each other. We look forward to sharing more about how we are increasing our investments in organizations led by and serving communities of color, LGBTQ communities, and other historically marginalized groups, and continuing to work on our internal practices and culture to ensure this support is sustained. 

This week’s tragedy could have been avoided. For months, AAPI women in journalism have been sounding the alarm on the dramatic rise in racist and xenophobic attacks. Unfortunately, their calls were not only largely ignored by the public and policy makers, they were also minimized within their own news outlets. This historic silencing of the AAPI community, and AAPI women especially, must end.

This is why we are committed to supporting AAPI women’s leadership in journalism. AAPI journalists and media leaders have shown incredible dedication to bringing nuanced, inclusive and community-based reporting to their audiences over the last year, while risking physical, mental and emotional harm.

This week, they carried the tremendous burden of providing responsible coverage, while fearing for their own safety. They have gone to work while grieving not only the loss of life from the Atlanta attacks, but the ongoing disproportionately high rates of COVID-19 cases and fatalities affecting the AAPI community.

The work of AAPI women journalists — spanning decades and even centuries — has continuously centered AAPI communities’ experiences, perspectives and information needs. They have pushed the entire journalism industry forward by demonstrating how to center and serve those who have been historically excluded by the media. This is why we’re urging our fellow funders to join us in supporting these leaders.

The work of AAPI women journalists… has continuously centered AAPI communities’ experiences, perspectives and information needs. They have pushed the entire journalism industry forward by demonstrating how to center and serve those who have been historically excluded by the media.

At the core of much of our work in growing trusted and equitable journalism is the leadership of AAPI women. Here are just a few of the groups at the helm of this work:

• The Asian American Journalists Association, led by Executive Director Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, is a membership organization working to increase the visibility and inclusion of AAPI journalists and promote fair and accurate reporting of the AAPI community.

• The Maynard Institute, co-directed by Evelyn Hsu, develops and champions the leadership of journalists of color and drives more diverse and inclusive practices within news outlets across the industry.

• Open News brings together journalists, editors, developers, and designers to create shared processes and tech within media. Sisi Wei, their Director of Programs, leads initiatives focused on creating a more just and inclusive journalism industry, including Vision25, a new coalition with Maynard Institute and the Online News Association.

• Solidarity Journalism is an initiative led by Dr. Anita Varma at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University dedicated to improving coverage of historically marginalized communities by centering their experiences and perspectives in reporting.

• URL Media, co-founded by Mitra Kalita, is a new, decentralized network of Black and Brown news organizations that focuses on content, distribution and other shared resources to build long-term sustainability.

Across our grantees other leaders like Anna Nirmala at the American Journalism Project, Alison Go at Chalkbeat, Anika Anand at LION Publishers, and Christina Shih at the News Revenue Hub are working to align journalism’s business model with more equitable and just coverage of communities.

The media’s historic stereotyping and exclusion of communities of color has done incredible harm. It’s time for a transformation. As funders, we must invest in the leadership of individuals and organizations doing the work to ensure fair and accurate reporting of AAPI communities. We must support their leadership not only in times of crisis — like the events of this week — but throughout our long-term strategies to build more community-driven journalism.

For those wondering where to get started, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) has put together a list of resources, organizations and coalitions that foundations can invest in to support AAPI communities.

2020 was a marathon for journalists preparing for an election that seemed very likely to go off the rails. They did it while also facing unprecedented issues of safety, security, and stability in a global pandemic, a census year, and becoming increased targets for police violence. Journalists of color, Black journalists in particular, tackled all of the above while continuing to navigate systemic racism and leading a reckoning over racial justice in the industry.

In the lead-up to November and throughout election week, many of us were tuned into cable networks and refreshing news feeds around the clock, but national election coverage — predictably — failed us in many ways. As in past years, it often dealt in generalizations and erased identities. In one notable high-profile failure, CNN labeled Native Americans and presumably other unidentified voters as “something else,” rather than naming their demographics. Communities of color were also overwhelmingly targeted by misinformation.

But reporters and newsrooms around the country rose to the challenge of engaging communities, holding candidates accountable, and centering equity. If you’re a regular EJ Lab reader, it will come as no surprise that the best place to look for examples of equity-first election coverage is from newsrooms by and serving people of color. Here’s a snapshot of what these newsrooms did:

• They spoke directly to immigrant communities. Borderless Magazine, committed to more equitable immigration journalism, spoke with Rohingya Americans in Chicago about voting for the first time. Sahan Journal, dedicated to news for and about immigrants in Minnesota, reported about candidate engagement with Hmong American voters and the political diversity of their community.
• They reported information voters need. Bilingual El Tecolote published analysis by San Francisco State University students on how state propositions on the ballot would specifically impact California Latino communities. Native America Calling dug into the latest information about Native voting access for tribes across the country.
• They served their communities. Nonprofit start-up Pulso provided news, information, and perspectives to Latino voters who are often much more generalized by national media, such as how Latino voters shape candidate platforms, the significance of National Voter Registration Day, or the impact of new laws. For Spanish-language newsroom Enlace Latino NC, the story of voter education and registration didn’t end with the November election. They highlighted the impact of organizers in North Carolina whose work is ongoing.
• They exposed voter suppression. MLK50 told the story of how an ex-offender legally regained his voting rights despite major challenges in Tennessee. Sahan Journal covered how Muslim faith leaders pushed back against efforts to discourage Muslim voter turnout in Minnesota. The Lakota Times reported on state violations of the National Voter Registration Act in South Dakota.
• They sought out individual voter perspectives. Flint Beat wrote about the experience of being a 2020 Latinx voter in Michigan: including how discrimination, White House policies, and community organizing all have an impact on voter decisions. And The TRiiBE spoke with young Black Chicago voters about their ballot options and their hopes for future policy reforms.

The accomplishments above didn’t just happen by chance. They are the result of long-term commitment and relationship building between journalists of color and their communities, and they were fueled by funders who understood the urgency of 2020 and worked together to coordinate and drive resources to support capacity building, staffing, and targeted projects focused on serving communities. As we turn the corner into 2021, the urgency is still with us, and the need for more coordination, more resources and more commitment to journalists of color continues.

As we turn the corner into 2021, the urgency is still with us, and the need for more coordination, more resources and more commitment to journalists of color continues.

We have seen what we can do when we work together to drive support to these newsrooms — and it’s time to keep building momentum. Here’s what funders can do to support engaged, equitable reporting in 2021:

• Give more. Join the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund to deliver resources directly to newsrooms led by and serving communities of color. Many of the newsrooms mentioned above are grantees of the Fund.
• Make some noise. Use your communication channels to share examples of ongoing equity-first reporting. Newsrooms like The Atlanta Voice, Bridge Detroit and Wisconsin Watch, in places subject to widespread false claims of election fraud, are working around the clock to ensure ongoing accountability, and they need more support.
• Continue the work in 2021. The full story of the 2020 election — and the state of elections coverage — hasn’t yet been told. Pay attention to what worked and what didn’t. Tune in for learning and debriefs from projects like Election SOS who is analyzing how the Citizens Agenda, newsroom fellowships, Experts Network, Rapid Response Fund and other initiatives fueled more engaged, trusted, and representative election coverage.

For our part, the Engaged Journalism team at Democracy Fund will be identifying clear action steps to shift our internal structures and practices to put equity first in our grantmaking. Stay tuned for updates on how this goes in 2021.

Published with research support from Public Square Intern Areeba Shah.

As part of our series of conversations with journalism leaders serving communities of color, I spoke with Alvaro Gurdián, Vice President of Operations at La Noticia, on how they’re adapting to COVID-19. La Noticia is a for-profit, print and digital news outlet that has served the Latino community in North Carolina for over 23 years. Alvaro and I met on the journalism conference circuit last year, and Democracy Fund proudly supports La Noticia through the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund.

Below is a lightly edited recap of our conversation.

LT: We’re now several months into COVID-19, and La Noticia has been serving communities across North Carolina since the start. What has this moment brought to light for you around the role of community media during crises?

AG: It’s only highlighted how important it is. We have readers who tell us, “I don’t know where to find food,” or “I don’t know where to find masks.” And really, that’s what we’re doing on the day-to-day. We’ll take one question and assume that if one person asks, there are probably dozens or hundreds of readers that have the same question. So we try to build content around that.

We know it resonates because we have people writing to us privately, saying, “Wow, thank you,” at a volume that we didn’t have before for things someone might consider very basic. So people are really taking to heart the value of this work. And that’s uplifting, because we’re obviously working far more hours than we were before.

LT: It’s really great that y’all have been able to continue to do this work and that folks are seeing its value. Are there any common themes coming from your readers right now?

AG: I don’t think the needs have changed that much, they’re just more pressing. Where we are, in North Carolina, Latinos have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. So they need help. For example, the North Carolina Restaurants Association had set up a fund to help people in the industry. But there was so much need, it closed within 24 hours. So what’s the next wave? Where else can we get help?

These things are changing so fast, and social media is a firehose. It’s great if you find what you need in the moment, but how do you search for it later on? That’s been a bit of a disconnect for us. So we’ve been putting more resources on our website, newsletters, and social media so people know where to reach this information again when they need it.

LT: How else are you staying connected with readers?

AG: Believe it or not, we’ve been reaching them through print. Our advertising may have gone down, but our take-up rate has only increased. Think about it: Even if you live in a metro area, not everybody has broadband at home. Many of our readers are used to getting their Internet from work, school, church, wherever they shop. Most of those are gone completely, so they need the newspaper now more than ever. Or they have basic plans where they’ll have social media but not actual Internet. They’ll get headlines, but they don’t have the details. So our print has become much more important than before, and we know it is still a core part of our mission to inform our community through print.

Many of our readers are used to getting their Internet from work, school, church, wherever they shop. Most of those are gone completely, so they need the newspaper now more than ever.

LT: How are you balancing that tension between the continued need for print and drop in ad revenue?

AG: We try to view it all as a whole. We’re for-profit, but as long as we’re not burning cash, we’re willing to stretch a little here and make it up somewhere else. For example, events are usually big for us, but those are obviously not a thing for us right now. I think that’s a serious conversation we need to have with funders. We have readers who are disadvantaged, and it’s not enough to say, “Alright, let’s put it online.” Data plans cost money. And that’s assuming that everyone has phones and knows how to operate them. There are a lot of barriers that people don’t consider from the 40,000 foot view. So that’s part of why we’re continuing to reach out through print. Of course, our digital has gone up, but not enough to make up for the print.

LT: Keeping some of those challenges in mind, what do outlets need to do to continue serving their communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized?

AG: Most of these outlets already know what they need to be doing. Sometimes it’s less of the “what” and more of the “how.” That could mean coaching or getting up to date on workflow automation. As I get further into this, I’m amazed at how much we were missing. We’re using new data software that does 90% of the work of posting new articles. It saves maybe five minutes, but when you have to do several stories a day, that counts.

I also think funders could focus more on bringing communities up to speed on digital — not only connecting them to the tools and technology, but training them on how to use it. People tell us, “I didn’t know I could save that story for later,” or “I don’t know how to search it for later.” I think that often goes unnoticed.

I also think funders could focus more on bringing communities up to speed on digital — not only connecting them to the tools and technology, but training them on how to use it.

LT: How do you see that as a part of media equity?

AG: Well, it’s not enough to simply put out information, whether it’s funded or not. People need to be able to access it and know how to access it. We’ll get comments saying, “I didn’t know how to get to that information,” or, “I called the number you told me but they weren’t picking up.” There are a lot of these resources we’re trying to connect them to, but they’re not always user-friendly — especially government ones. We try to condense that information, but when we refer back to them, it’s easy to get lost.

LT: As a final question, I was wondering what are some pivots you’ve made, or wish you could, to continue meeting those needs?

AG: We were already pivoting to digital, improving our website, adding a membership model. We just had to do it a lot faster than we thought we were going to be doing. Eighty-five percent of our [digital] readership is mobile, so those updates were critical. So we did that, and we launched the membership right away.

Moments like this show that if you [have the resources to] get started on this earlier, the better it is. It just so happens that we embarked on most of the things that we needed to do already. It just meant that we needed to speed up a lot of things we had already planned. We did have a plan in place, we just didn’t plan to have it in place so quickly.

In late September, the LA Times editorial board wrote, “For at least its first 80 years, the Los Angeles Times was an institution deeply rooted in white supremacy.” This editorial was the start of an eight-part series interrogating the Times’ history of racist coverage and its failure to represent the communities it purported to serve in staffing, stories and sources. This deep reflection is a good first step for the paper, and a necessary one for the entire industry. But the next step must be action — from the LA Times, from other newsrooms, and from the journalism funders who support them.

The next step must be action — from the LA Times, from other newsrooms, and from the journalism funders who support them.

One year ago, a group of concerned program officers from foundations across the country (many of whom are former journalists) sat down together in a classroom at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY to talk through not only the racist structures that undergird traditional outlets like the LA Times — but also those that shape philanthropic efforts aiming to transform journalism. We wanted to connect the dots and find opportunities for action. And we did — in a newly released report called, “Equity First: Transforming Journalism and Journalism Philanthropy in a New Civic Age,” created by Frontline Solutions.

The report comes as our nation marks eight months and more than 210,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately affected Black, Latino and Native American communities, and as the country continues to reckon with the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Together, these events have sparked a massive racial justice movement in the United States and across the world, and as advocates continue to march, journalists of color are demanding accountability in their newsrooms.

Journalists of color are demanding accountability in their newsrooms.

For years, many of these journalists have felt a dissonance between the kinds of reporting they know communities need, and the false “balance” and harmful narratives white newsroom culture have perpetuated. And now they’re taking action. In June, journalists of color at the Philadelphia Inquirer called in sick and tired in response to a tactless headline that belittled the nature of protests around Black Lives Matter. Staff members called for the resignation of a New York Times opinion editor for publishing an op-ed that suggested invoking the Insurrection Act to snuff out protests following the death of George Floyd. And then union members at the LA Times put together a list of demands for its new owner to transform coverage and staffing.

Many of us are not surprised by what is happening in newsrooms right now. “Equity First: Transforming Journalism and Journalism Philanthropy in a New Civic Age” is rooted in what The Kerner Commission of 1968 found: that the extreme lack of media diversity and equity is a driving force of inequality. As we marked Kerner’s 50 year anniversary in 2018, journalists noted how little progress the field overall has made in centering stories from historically marginalized communities. And philanthropy has persistently underinvested in organizations that are led by and serving these communities.

It’s time to do more. Our new report outlines three longstanding barriers to equity-centered journalism and grantmaking within journalism philanthropy:

1) Journalism’s prized ethics and values aren’t translating to DEI best practices.

Despite journalism’s stated values of accuracy, upholding the truth and elevating unheard stories, there is not enough acknowledgment that it is impossible to live these values in a newsroom whose leadership does not reflect the diversity of the country. The result is newsrooms that are ill-equipped to create resonant and relevant content for their constituents — much less protect them from disinformation actors (such as Russian interference campaigns) that have disproportionately targeted Black audiences. These failures widen the trust gap between communities of color and newsrooms.

2) The inherent cultures of journalism and philanthropy commonly reinforce white masculine norms.

Journalism tends to reinforce the myth of objectivity without considering who gets to decide whose narrative is grounded in reality…meaning that the white, male perspective is the default. Adding to the problem, journalism prioritizes urgency over taking the time to be inclusive, thoughtful or nuanced. And it upholds the paternalistic idea that newsrooms should decide what communities should know rather than practicing deeper engagement and relationship building.

Decision-making within philanthropy has similar flaws. It can occur in a vacuum and in ways that can be paternalistic and lack nuance. This is especially true when funders deploy rapid response funds — as many did during the early part of the pandemic — without taking time to diversify potential recipients and challenge our existing networks. Funders also tend to assume that resources are fairly allocated without critically examining structural inequities around accessing capital.

3) Foundations focus on addressing diversity because it feels most tangible. But what about inclusion and equity?

A diverse staff does not automatically make for an equitable workplace. To get there, power and decision-making authority have to shift. This work requires inclusion, and prioritization, of communities who have not had a seat at the table. Because both journalism and philanthropy have hierarchical structures that makes this kind of shift difficult, they tend to preserve power where it already is.

These challenges are complex, longstanding, and at the core of both philanthropy and journalism. But they are not insurmountable. The report highlights several steps that funders can take to change their internal structures and practices in order to address inequity, which will help make the news that we support more equitable as well. Our recommendations include:

1. Center equity in our definitions and funding of innovation;
2. Invest in leadership and emerging talent within communities of color;
3. Map and then move decision-making power to affected communities.

This past year has tested the spirit, health, and lives of communities of color, especially Black communities. But we know this fight for justice has endured for centuries. Early data suggests a long-needed shift in dollars is underway: Over $4.2 billion philanthropic dollars have gone to racial equity in 2020, compared to $3.3 billion dollars between 2011–2019. That’s 22 percent more funding this year than in the past nine years combined.

The question now is, “can philanthropy and journalism sustain this change?”. These investments must be matched by new systems, practices, and thinking. They must be sustained, not sporadic. They must put communities directly affected at the center of decision-making rather than an afterthought. And they must trust that these communities have solutions to the problems they face, because they have been working to solve them for as long as they have existed.

This is the only way philanthropy and journalism can invest in communities of color if we hope to be a part of the solution.

Liz Baker
Senior Manager, Independent Journalism and Media, Humanity United

Lolly Bowean
Media and Storytelling Program Officer, Field Foundation

LaSharah S. Bunting
Director of Journalism, Knight Foundation

Paul Cheung
Director of Journalism and Technology Innovation, Knight Foundation

Farai Chideya
Program Officer, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation

Jenny Choi
Director of Equity Initiatives, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY

Angelica Das
Senior Program Associate, Public Square, Democracy Fund

Tim Isgitt
Managing Director, Humanity United

Manami Kano
Philanthropy Consultant, Kano Consulting

Maria Kisumbi
Senior Advisor, Policy and Government Relations, Humanity United

Lauren Pabst
Senior Program Officer, Journalism and Media, MacArthur Foundation

Tracie Powell
Program Officer, Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, Borealis Philanthropy

Karen Rundlet
Director of Journalism, Knight Foundation

Roxann Stafford
Managing Director, The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund

Lea Trusty
Program Associate, Public Square, Democracy Fund

Paul Waters
Associate Director, Public Square, Democracy Fund

This letter was updated with new signatories on October 19.