Hey Mashable – How About Adding Some Color To Your Media Summit?

By Benet J. Wilson, chair, National Association of Black Journalists’ Digital Journalism Task Force and independent multimedia journalist

I am a big fan of Mashable.  I have it in a high spot on my Google Reader, and I also have the app on my iPhone.  I appreciate how they keep me up to date on all things social and digital media.  But I have a bone to pick.

Mashable is holding its annual Media Summit in New York City on Nov. 4.  The event has become one of the hot conference tickets in the social/new media realm.  But there’s a problem.  When you look at the list of speakers, there’s no people of color on the agenda — not one.  And I have a problem with that, since this is an issue that has come up again and again in the past few years.

Did you not read my blog post on the lack of diversity at last December’s News Foo invitation-only event at Arizona State University spurred by a post by NABJ member and ASU professor Retha Hill on the event? Did you not check out a PBS MediaShift Twitter chat in January asking if people of color are missing at new media conferences?

Mashable, how could you miss this spreadsheet created by Star-Tribune multimedia journalist (and Asian American Journalist Association member) Emma Carew and curated by other journalists of color (including me) listing journalists of color that are doing amazing things in the new media space and want to talk about it?  And here’s my blog post explaining the project.

And if that weren’t enough, check out this great panel discussion on the diversity in new media held at last month’s Online News Association annual convention.  The panel was moderated by Retha Hill and ANY of her speakers — including Joel Dreyfus, managing editor of TheRoot.com AND a founder of NABJ — could more than hold their own at your Media Summit, Mashable.

And Mashable, why didn’t you look in-house and tap the talents of Jessica Fay Carter, who has blogged for you on…wait for it…new media/social media diversity issues.  She is the CEO of Heta Corporation, an advisory firm that helps companies use social technologies to engage women and multicultural groups—as consumers and employees.  She is also the founder of Black Social Media Professionals.

As an online publication that has its finger on the pulse of all things new media, I find it really hard to believe that you either couldn’t find people of color or just decided not to include them.  Either way, it’s a bad call.  I’ll help you out and give you 10 names off the top of my head (outside of the ones already mentioned in this blog) that would be assets to your summit.  I hope you take me up on adding them or others.

1. Dr. Michelle Ferrier, LocallyGrownNews.com & professor at Elon University;
2. Bruce Koon, news director at KQED;
3. Sam Diaz, a Silicon Valley-based freelance writer, ghost writer and communications consultant;
4. Dagny Salas, web editor for Voice of San Diego;
5. Dori Maynard, president The Maynard Institute;
6. Elise Hu, NPR’s digital coordinator of the StateImpact initiative;
7. Mark Luckie, National Innovations Editor at the Washington Post and author of “The Digital Journalists’ Handbook”
8. Robert Hernandez, professor at USC/Annenberg;
9. Shawn Williams, president, Dallas South News; and
10. Sree Sreenivasan dean of student affairs & professor at Columbia Journalism School, contributing editor, DNAinfo.com and
    co-founder, south asian journalists association.

Top 10 Things I Learned at #ONA11

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

This was my first time attending the Online News Association’s annual conference, held this year in Boston.  And it won’t be my last.  Rosental Alves,
director of the Knight Chair in Journalism & UNESCO Chair in Communication and director of Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin, summed up the conference beautifully in a tweet: “I haven’t heard single word of pessimism about future of journalism at #ONA11. It’s the dawn of a great time!” Refreshing, right?

I learned so much at this conference it’s hard to narrow it down to 10, so let’s get to it!

1. Digital folks are still struggling with newsroom diversity.  ONA co-chair and NABJ member Michelle Johnson put together a stellar ONA keynote, moderated by NABJ’s Retha Hill that discussed where we are and where we need to go.  My post on the session is here, and the video of the event is here.
   
2. The new Facebook isn’t nearly as bad as people think.  Vadim Lavrusik, who oversees Facebook + Journalists, took two sessions to explain all the changes and how they are a good thing. My post on his presentations is here.
3. Amy Webb of Webbmedia has her finger on the pulse when it comes to tech trends.  No surprise, it was standing room only in her session, which had interesting — and frankly scary — technology here and on the horizon. Check out her presentation here.  I also like this summary of her presentation from an attendee, and student (and NABJ member) Ugonna Okpalaoka’s report.
4. Livestreaming is the way to go.  If you couldn’t make this year’s convention, ONA thoughtfully provided livestreaming from all of the major events.  And the Twitter feed from the show just rocked, as demonstrated by this massive Storify of key tweets from Mo Krochmal, who wasn’t there.
5. ONA’s Career Fair & Summit just rocked!  The fair, overseen by NABJ Media Institute head Doug Mitchell, featured employers and some very helpful workshops on getting those jobs.
6. Our people represented at the convention!  ONA has gotten a rap in the past for not being as diverse as it could be.  But this year, there was a good group of journalists of color attending the conference.  it was even better to see so many NABJ members on panels, including Founder Joel Dreyfuss, Retha Hill, LaToya Peterson, Doug Mitchell, Dr. Sybril Bennett, Matt Thompson and me.
7. Having the chance on voting for three “unconference” sessions.  Attendees were encouraged to create and vote on three sessions not officially listed on the program.  I was delighted when the one I chose — We’ve Got A Tumblr: Now What? — was one of three sessions chosen.  My post on what I learned is here.
8. Mini-law School for Journalists = genius!  With all the changes in the newsroom and in the digital space, you almost need to have a law degree to understand what’s legal and what’s not.  This was not only a conference panel, but it was also a day-long, pre-convention session held at Harvard Law School. Check out the Twitter feed here.
9. ONA attendees are incredibly generous.  I attended the panel “Once Upon A Datum: Telling Visual Stories.” Panelist John Keefe, a senior producer at WNYC, and I chatted after the session about our interest in data journalism and we’re making a date to meet in New York to do some hands-on work.
10. The future of journalism is in good hands.  I urge you to check out the work of students at this year’s ONA Student Projects.  They were everywhere, and came up with some interesting stories across all platforms.

Next year’s convention is in my home town of San Francisco.  I hope to see even more journalists of color — especially NABJ members — at next year’s event.  And if you haven’t joined ONA yet, click here; it’s worth every cent of the $75 a year or $150 for three-year fee.

ONA 2011 Saturday Morning Keynote: Race, Gender and Technology: The Third Rail?

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

A panel of digital journalists, led by NABJ member Retha Hill confronted questions of diversity often lost in the new media technology and economy discussion: Who is online? Who is innovating? What”s the environment for entrepreneurs? What”s the history of women and people of color in digital journalism?

Above: Sam Diaz and Retha Hill.

Saturday Morning Keynote: Race, Gender and Technology: The Third Rail? Moderator Retha Hill started off with a quiz on the history of diversity in media. Attendees barely passed. “I guess these are coming back home with me,” Hill said of some of the prizes she brought for correct answers.

“	@ONA11 #diversitykey panel: @bkoon, @sammyd, Joel Dreyfus of @TheRoot247 & @LatoyaPeterson, moderated by @RethaHill. Amazing group!
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

Above: Joel Dreyfuss, TheRoot.com and Bruce Koon, KQEDI, along with several other NABJ memebrs, were sitting in the front row of this Saturday morning keynote panel, whose members were Founder Joel Dreyfuss of TheRoot.com, LaToya Peterson of the Racialicious blog, along with Bruce Koon, news director at KQED and Sam Diaz, a Silicon Valley-based freelance writer, ghost writer and communications consultant.

Above: LaToya Peterson, Sam Diaz and Retha Hill.

joel.dreyfuss | The Root Kweku Adoboli’s runaway losses leads to CEO Oswald Grübel’s departure. It wasn’t racial solidarity but racial vulnerability that made him so important to African Americans. The Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church says the case is in blatant contradiction to American ideals.

About | Latoya Peterson A certified media junkie, Latoya Peterson provides a hip-hop feminist and anti-racist view on pop culture with a special focus on video games, anime, American comics, manga, magazines, film, television, and music.

Sam Diaz Sam has been a professional journalist for more than 20 years, primarily in newspapers but more recently online. He has covered pretty much every facet of the tech industry over the past dozen years as a beat reporter/editor/blogger for the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post and ZDNet.

This has been going on, it seems, forever. But the latest round was spurred in December 2010 after News Foo was held at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.  Panel moderator Retha Hill, director of the new media innovation lab at ASU — who did
attend News Foo — offered more information.  And Hill asked the bigger question — why are new media conferences lacking in minorities?

News Foo Camp: Not fully open, but certainly not secret I tweet a lot from journalism events. I think I can say that few people tweet as much about journalism as I do. I didn’t tweet much from News Foo Camp last weekend. But other campers and I tweeted enough that our tweeps wanted more.

News Foo Campers – NewsFoo10 Twitter account lists of all of the News Foo attendees: jdunck/newsfoo (113 as of Dec 8) mattBernius/foonews (49 as of Dec 8)

So now the panel begins with a pop quiz from Moderator Retha Hill.

“	“We’re talking about the old days, those old days… the 1990s.” @Retha_Hill #ona11 #key #diversitykey
	Maddoxnelson September 24, 2011

“	“We should know this history about what people of color are doing,” says #ONA11 #diversitykey moderator @Rethahill
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

“	We just failed a pop quiz on diverse pioneers in minority digital media. Shame! I should have remembered Asian Ave. #ONA11 #diversitykey
	ttr_the_engager September 24, 2011

“	Minorities respond to @RethaHill: http://ow.ly/6DGuE Founded by @emmacarew: http://ow.ly/6DGuF #diversitykey #ONA11
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

“	Amazing discussion on diversity in newsrooms. Minorities make up only 13% of US newsrooms, wonder what Can. stats are? #ona11 #diversitykey
	LisaWhy September 24, 2011

“	“People tend to hire people who are like them” says Joel Dreyfus of @TheRoot247 #diversitykey #ona11
	lisalisle September 24, 2011

“	Current speaker Joel Dreyfuss of @TheRoot247 is 1 of the original founders of #NABJ. #diversitykey #ona11
	benetwilson September 24, 2011

“	“At some point, it’s not about goodwill. What are the metrics to get us to that point?” says @bkoon. #diversitykey #ONA11
	SuziSteffen September 24, 2011

“	.@sammyd uses example of death of Celia Cruz on why diversity is needed in newsrooms. #ONA11 #diversitykey http://ow.ly/6DGSh
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

“	Good panel about intentionally building diverse team. Need to think about it harder for iMA conf #diversitykey #ona11 #pubmedia
	IntMediaAssn September 24, 2011

“	Looking for diverse people for your conventions/workshops/panels? Go HERE: http://t.co/o3fhrBop #ONA11 #diversitykey
	benetwilson September 24, 2011

“	LOVING #diversitykey #ONA11. Things like this are exactly why I decided to run for board.
	jmsummers September 24, 2011

“	@kimbui Considering how the media cycle works, who “deserves” coverage is a tricky determination. Not a meritocracy. #ONA11 #diversitykey
	racialicious September 24, 2011

“	Online costs being lower means many more voices can be heard, says #NABJ co-founder Joel Dreyfus. #ona11 #diversitykey
	theabug September 24, 2011

“	Vast amount of money going to fund startups goes to white guys, says Joel Dreyfus, at race, gender, tech panel. #ONA11 #diversitykey
	MaryNersessian September 24, 2011

“	Joel Dreyfus speaks truth about how VCs give money out “to people who look like them from the same 3 or 4 schools.” #diversitykey #ONA11
	SuziSteffen September 24, 2011

“	I.e., @kimbui, the IFC Media Project did a piece on why “the media loves missing white girls.” http://t.co/I1BwKMjm #ONA11 #diversitykey
	racialicious September 24, 2011

“	.@LatoyaPeterson says audience for stories on @racialicious means “we have to completely disassemble our assumptions.” #diversitykey #ONA11
	SuziSteffen September 24, 2011

“	.@LatoyaPeterson gives great view on how @racialicious dealt w/London riots. #diversitykey #ONA11 http://ow.ly/6DH6x
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

“	We’re all cracking up thanks to @LatoyaPeterson’s analysis of the BLACK WOMEN WILL NEVER MARRY BLAH BLAH BLAH articles. #diversitykey #ONA11
	SuziSteffen September 24, 2011

“	“What companies are committed to diversity now?” Quiet for a minute, then @LatoyaPeterson says @AJEnglish. #diversitykey #ONA11
	SuziSteffen September 24, 2011

“	@LatoyaPeterson: “Expanding the places for where you would look for talent.” On how to identify more diverse news staff #ONA11 #diversitykey
	jmfbrooks September 24, 2011

“	I’m bothered by forcing diversity. Don’t put a minority on the front page bc of who they are but bc they deserve it #ONA11 #diversitykey
	kimbui September 24, 2011

“	Bruce Koon: we (journalists) need to go out where the communities are to build audience #diversitykey #ONA11
	webcurtpsu September 24, 2011

“	Dori Maynard of Maynard Institute says a lack of emphasis on diversity makes news incomplete. #ona11 #diversitykey
	theabug September 24, 2011

“	.@djmaynard: People of color are rarely portrayed in “nuanced complexity” and “everydayness” #ONA11 #diversitykey
	NABJDigital September 24, 2011

“	.@djmaynard reports on study on minorities on the Web. http://ow.ly/6DH9c Who is Dori’s father? http://ow.ly/6DHb3 #ONA11 #diversitykey
	benetwilson September 24, 2011

“	FYI: @NiemanReports just had a story on Maynard online diversity audit http://t.co/6k6ume6A #ONA11 #diversitykey
	JustinNXT September 24, 2011

“	Dori Maynard: ‘We can”t be the country we want to be if our story is told by only one group of citizens. ‘ YES. #ona11 #diversitykey
	LisaWhy September 24, 2011

“	Proud and lucky to work in the uber diverse @stlbeacon newsroom. #ona11 #diversitykey
	nicolehollway September 24, 2011

The Most Powerful ‘Female’ Players In New Media

By Tracie Powell

Four of the five most powerful women in new media have Google connections, according to an annual report published by Forbes. But not a single one is of color.

No Asians, African Americans or Latinas made the list. Forbes states that: ”In the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley, the number of women at the top has been slow to change.” That goes double when it comes to women of color.

In fairness, Forbes published a separate piece recognizing women who wield power and influence in Africa. Among them, Ory Okolloh of Kenya, made that list. Okolloh is one of the 20 youngest, most powerful African women under age 45. A Harvard-trained lawyer, activist and blogger, Okolloh founded Ushahidi, a revolutionary crowd sourcing utility that enables citizen journalists and eyewitnesses all over the world to report incidences of violence through the web, mobile Email, SMS and Twitter. She is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential women in global technology. Earlier this year Okolloh became Google’s policy manager for Africa.

High tech companies in Silicon Valley have come under fire for the lack of diversity in its employment ranks. More than two dozen protested Google in February, demanding the company hire more women and people of color.

Forbes highlighted five tech-savvy women as the most powerful in the world; four of the five are either current Googlers or formerly work for the giant tech media company.

Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, where she oversees the company’s business operations, including sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications. Before joining Facebook in 2008, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, where she built and managed the online sales channels for advertising and publishing and operations for consumer products worldwide. Forbes named Sandberg this year’s fifth most powerful woman in the world.

The second Googler, Susan Wojcicki, debuted as the 16th most powerful woman in the world. Google’s ad wizard, Wojcicki is responsible for 96 percent of the tech giant’s revenues– $28 billion last year alone.

Google’s first female engineer, Marissa Mayer, also made the cut, debuting as the 42nd most powerful woman on Forbes’ list. Mayer first oversaw search for Google; she is now responsible for the company’s next key growth driver, local products.

Twitter Vice President of International Strategy, Katie Jacobs Stanton, a former Googler and White House staffer, debuted as the 56th most powerful woman in the world. Jacobs Stanton joined Twitter last year and is charged with getting the world to tweet. She now has 70% of all Tweets coming from outside the U.S., and a fifth of world leaders are now on the service, including Russian President Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) and President Obama (@barackobama). Before Twitter, Jacobs Stanton was the product manager of Google Finance; she also worked at the U.S. State Department.

The final tech spot on the exclusive list is occupied by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz, number 37, is no newcomer when it comes to female power on the world stage. The 62-year-0ld has made the Forbe’s list before, so it is no surprise that even now, amid increasing investor scrutiny, Bartz continues to defend her turnaround progress at the Internet giant. “Last year, she doubled operating income, operating margins and earnings per share, but revenues remained flat at $6.3 billion. With an audience of nearly 700 million, Bartz has built Yahoo into a leading digital media company with 12 first-ranked properties in the US and eight globally,” Forbes reports.

Tracie Powell is Vice Chair, Education and Policy, of NABJ’s Digital Journalism Task Force. A version of this post originally appeared at www.tmpunplugged.com

SXSW Panel Picker Is Open For Voting; Please Support People Of Color

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

It’s that time again — time to pick panels for next year’s South by Southwest Interactive.  Based in Austin, Texas, SXSW was originally created as a way for the city to celebrate and showcase musical talent.  The festival expanded to include films and later, interactive.

The interactive part of SXSW has become THE place to come to hear the latest in digital/social/new and multimedia.  A virtual who’s who from influential companies and media organizations are at SXSW, participating on panels, offering exhibits and hosting evening functions.

The conference has struggled in past years to make their panels more diverse.  So to help them out, below are my picks among the 90 journalism-related panels submitted among the nearly 4,000 overall submissions. Last year, I had the time to go through all the submissions, but this year, I just can’t do it.

I’m already seeing Tweets from folks pushing voters to their panels, so I want to help out our folks.  Please take a look at the list, below, and support them with your votes.  Please let me know if I missed anyone. Voting ends Sept. 2.

• What journalism can learn from science, Matt Thompson, NPR.
• Reporters & Evangelists: Politics of Online News, Prajwal Ciryam, Partisans.org 
• You Are Here: Location Based Citizen Journalism,
  Juan Garcia, The University of Texas at Austin and Victor Hernandez, ‐ CNN
• Content and Coding is Not a Commodity: How, Jennifer Lee,  Hacks/Hackers
• Journalism is dead. Long live journalism!, Robert Hernandez, USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism

Carnival of Journalism #3: Improving The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Reynolds Fellows Program

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Yes, it’s that time again – step right up and join the Carnival of Journalism.  For the occasional reader, the carnival is the brainchild of  David Cohn, founder of Spot.Us and a current Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow.  Every month, a group of us is asked to blog about a specific topic.  He gave us two choices this month: after a five-year, $25 million investment, what would be the next step for the Knight Foundation to further its mission to drive innovation in journalism; or the Reynolds Fellowship is just 4 years old.  How would you shape the fellowship to drive innovation?

I’m going to tackle question two, because I think programs like the Reynolds Fellowship will be key in helping shape the ongoing innovation — and change — we’re seeing in the practice of journalism.

The institute offers an eight-month fellowship for those looking to develop and study a “big” idea in journalism that will offer solutions for the future of our industry.  Fellows receive an $80,000 stipend and another $10,000  to cover living expenses, moving costs and insurance.  Fellows reside at the institute’s home in Columbia, Mo., from Sept. 1, 2011, through April 30, 2012 to collaborate with “some of the brightest minds in media.”

In a time of tumultuous and exhilarating change in journalism, what would you do with eight months, a generous living stipend and a chance to collaborate with some of the brightest minds in media today

I consider myself someone who tries to keep her finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the fields of training and innovation in our crazy industry, especially as co-chair of the National Association of Black Journalists’s Digital Journalism Task Force.  But I have to admit, I had never even heard of the fellowship until I learned about it in a random tweet late last year on the @NABJDigital Twitter account.

So I’m going to offer a new twist on my ongoing diversity theme.  I would encourage the Reynolds Journalism Institute to make more of an effort to attract more diverse fellows to the program in the widest sense of the word. 

The program has done a good job of including women, but I’ d love to see not only more people of color, but I’d also like to see folks including early career journalists, citizen journalists/news bloggers and entrepreneurs looking to improve journalism.

To this end, I would encourage the institute to tap past fellows and key staff members to leave the friendly confines of Columbia, Mo., and send them to events where there are gatherings of more diverse journalists, including organizations like NABJ, the South Asian Journalists Association, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and even Blog World & New Media Expo.  Use these events to speak about the fellowship and why attendees should consider applying for it.

Many journalism organizations have events year round,  including webinars, one-day workshops and meet-ups that the institute could tap to get the message out about the fellowship.  And many more journalism organizations have blogs, magazines and eletters that the institute could use to tout the benefits of the fellowship and encourage folks to apply.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s website is a font of information on things including upcoming events and training.  I had no idea these resources were there, so staff should do more outreach to offer these resources to journalism schools and organizations as a way to not only get a foot in the door to reach potential fellows, but also to keep the institute’s mission front and center 365 days a year and serve as a training resource for those who don’t apply for the fellowship.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute is currently taking applications for its 2011-2012 class.  I encourage my fellow journalists with an idea that will offer solutions to keep our industry viable to consider applying.  I especially encourage those who normally don’t consider these types of programs to seriously look at what the institute has to offer. 

In aviation, pilots follow check lists covering takeoff, flight, before landing and after landing on each and every flight.  They take it seriously, and never treat it like a rote exercise, because the safety of passengers is at stake.

I urge the Reynolds Journalism Institute to create its own check list specifically to expand the diversity of the Reynolds Fellows program and make its programming more widely available to the journalism community.  The future of our industry depends on the efforts of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and other teaching organizations to prepare us all for rapid change.

Carnival of Journalism #2: Steps To Increase The Number Of News Sources

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Last month, I had the pleasure of joining The Carnival of Journalism.  You can read my Jan. 25 post about it here.  Every month the group tackles a topic on improving and innovating in journalism.  This month’s topic asked us to post about the following question:  what steps can be taken to increase the number of news sources?

We were asked to address the question via the 15 recommendations made by The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of a Community in Democracy.  Heady stuff, huh?  If I decided to write on all the recommendations, we would have been reading (and I would have been writing) for weeks.

 

Multimedia Workshop at NABJ 2010 Conference Photo by Benet J. Wilson

So I decided to focus on recommendation #11: Expand local media initiatives to reflect the full reality of the communities they represent.  As a journalist of color, I have been very focused on ensuring that our industry understands the importance of having newsrooms that reflect the diversity of the communities they live in.  In the old days, media companies could pay lip service to ensuring that they covered all the news in their community, since they were the only game in town.

 

But with the advent of the Internet and all the tools that allow people to gather, report, write and disseminate the news, the power of the traditional media has been diluted somewhat.  We see an explosion of hyperlocal news sites, like Oakland Local, DNAInfo, my home-town Baltimore Brew, West Seattle Blog and CTNewsJunkie as long-established newspapers cut their local coverage as budgets shrink.  The deeper these sites dig, the more likely they are to cover the news that is of interest to a specific community.

But groups are now trying to fill the gap in news that is of specific interest to minority communities.  Some of my favorites are Greater Fulton News, which covers the African-American community in Richmond, Va.; Minneapolis-based Twin Cities Daily Planet, which says it was created to close the digital divide and help citizens empower themselves with media; Dallas South, created to promote positive images of African-Americans in order to combat the negative images portrayed in the popular media; and Oakland, Calif.-based shades magazine, which covers and highlights the concerns, issues and stories of all women of color (my NABJDigital profile of shades is here).

These news websites use a mix of staff writers, bloggers, citizen journalists and community contributions to disseminate the news to their audience.  I met Mary Turck, the editor of the Twin Cities Daily Planet at last year’s New Media Women
Entrepreneurs Summit (NMWE). One of the women at our table asked her how she made news assignments.  Her answer? “The community tells us and they are encouraged to write the story for the website,” she said.  The front page of the website has an appeal for citizen journalists and includes a list of stories that need to be written, giving the power of the media directly to the community that wants — and needs — it.

Back in May 2008, Jan Schaffer, executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism (which also oversees NMWE), gave the 32nd annual Ruhl Lecture at the University of Oregon on the topic Participatory Media: Challenges to the Conventions of Journalism.  Part of her lecture illustrates beautifully not only the question on increasing news sources, but the relevance of the Knight Commission’s 11th recommendation:

“I believe that news organizations need to construct the hubs that will enable ordinary people with passions and expertise to commit acts of news and information. Call them – random (or not so random) – acts of journalism, if you will.  News organizations need to be on a constant lookout for the best of these efforts, trawling the blogosphere, hyperlocal news sites, nonprofits, advocacy groups, journalism schools and neighborhood listservs. Your goal is to give a megaphone to those with responsible momentum, recruit them to be part of your network, impart some core journalism values -– and even help support them with micro-grants.”

We see initiatives like NMWE and the J-Lab’s New Voices grant programs that help fund news initiatives in minority communities.  New Voices gave a grant to Baltimore-based Morgan State University in 2010 to create  the MoJo Lab, where students  serve as mobile digital journalists, using video and audio podcasts, to focus on community issues in Northeast Baltimore.  So here’s hoping — by hook or by crook — that communities continue to become a part of a media that has tended to neglect them in the past.

Pssst-Looking For #MediaDiversity? Click Here!

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Editor’s note: the Digital Journalism Task Force is holding a BlogTalkRadio session Tuesday, Jan. 11 from noon to 1:00 p.m. on this year’s convention.  Our panel, which features convention chair Rod Hicks, programming chair Dr. Sybril Bennett and Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists President Sarah Glover, will discuss what members can expect at this year’s event. Bennett will also offer guidance on what she and the Programming Committee will expect for this year’s workshops and panels.  We’ll also leave time for your questions. I hope you can join us.

One of the great things about the advent of the Internet, including things like e-mail, Twitter and Facebook,  is that you get to “meet”  and keep in touch with people you otherwise would have never been able to connect with.  One of those people is Emma Carew.  Emma is a member of the Asian American Journalists Association, the owner of the wonderful Dreaming of Pots and Pans blog (I now know how to make Kim Chee because of it) and she *just* joined the digital staff at the Minneapolis Star Tribune as a home page producer.

Emma and I chat regularly via Twitter and email about journalism issues.  On Monday, she emailed me asking for help with a “small project.” That project turned out to be the creation of a #MediaDiversity spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet came as a result of a Twitter chat held Dec. 29 by PBS Media Shift to discuss the issue of finding qualified minorities.  And the conversation continued with a Media Shift post yesterday – Are People of Color Missing in New Media? A #MediaDiversity Chat.

“This is intended to be the seed of a public list to be shared throughout journalism conference organizers to solve that problem — at least in finding more diverse journalists (of all colors!) who are doing cool and innovative web journalism things,” writes Carew.

Well, after working with Emma and five others, the list is out, but it’s still a work in progress. A small, core group will work to keep the list up to date and try to get it a bit more organized.  But we need your help.  Please post a link to this blog to your journalism networks.  Have your friends and colleagues  send their best nominations (including yourself) with the appropriate details.  You can forward your submissions to anyone listed on the home page of the document.

Who makes the list? For now, there are no formal criteria.  “The people we’ve nominated and added to the list are all ones we could say, `Yeah, I’d attend a panel he/she was speaking on,’” says Carew.

New Media/Socia Media/Multimedia: Where Is The Diversity?

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

I was scrolling through my Google Reader earlier this month when I read this Dec. 8 post on Steve Buttry’s informative blog on multimedia.  He was writing about News Foo, an invitation-only event that was (as Steve wrote) a “stimulating and thoughtful interaction with creative and innovative journalists, entrepreneurs, digital thinkers and technology pioneers.”  The event was held at the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University.  When I read Buttry’s post, my first question was “I wonder how many journalists of color were in attendance?”  You can see the list of attendees here.

I sent out some Tweets to people I would guess should have been invited.  A handful were, but chose not to attend for whatever reason.  But then this post from Retha Hill, director of the new media innovation lab at ASU – who did attend News Foo – offered more information.  And Hill asked the bigger question – why are new media conferences lacking in minorities?  That, in turn, led to a spirited live Twitter chat yesterday hosted by PBS Media Shift, which featured Doug Mitchell, chairman of NABJ’s Media Institute, among other things.  You can follow the chat at the #mediadiversity hash tag.  My big takeaway was one side saying “we don’t know where you new media journalists of color are” on one side and “here we are, but you ignore us” on the other.

Here at NABJDigital, we have worked hard to spotlight and champion journalists of color who we think are doing some interesting things on the new/social/multimedia side of the business.  Below are the ones we’ve done since starting this blog in October 2009.  If you know of others, PLEASE – let us know.!

• Interview with Brazil’s Juliana Bozan on Women in Tech Entrepreneurship
• NABJDigital Interviews Multimedia Journalist Mark Luckie – Part 1
• NABJ Digital Interviews Multimedia Journalist Mark Luckie, Part 2
• NABJDigital Interviews Black Girl With Long Hair Web Site Founder
• NABJDigital BlogTalkRadio: Journalist/Professor/Evangelist/Skeptic Sree Sreenivasan
• Part 1: NABJDigital Profiles Maurice Cherry, Creator of the Black Weblog Awards
• Part 2: NABJDigital Profiles Maurice Cherry, Owner of 3eighteen Media
• NABJDigital Profiles Marian Anderson of Haute Travels Blog
• Brandon Gillespie – Going After His OWN
• NABJDigital Profiles the Professor Diva Diaries
• NABJ Member Retha Hill Among Winners of Knight News Challenge Grant
• NABJDigital Profiles The FlavorDiva.com Blog
• NABJDigital Profiles Elaine “The Etiquette Lady” Swann
• South By Southwest 2011 Interactive Seeks Diverse Panels
• NABJDigital Profiles Dr. Michelle Ferrier of LocallyGrownNews.com
• What Do Investors Want When Funding Entrepreneurial Projects? Terry Hicks Tells Us
• NABJDigital Profiles shades Magazine’s Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig
• NABJDigital Interviews Renée Horne, FedEx Director of Digital Social Media Engagement

Mediaite List Shows Why Diversity Is Needed

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair,

Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission held a 2-day workshop: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?   One of the speakers was National Association of Black Journalists President Kathy Times, who stressed the importance of having a diverse workforce, no matter what form journalism takes in the future.  “Without diversity, stories and events that are important to the African-American community are less likely to be covered and more often misunderstood. The Obamas’ triumphant FIST bump was one of those moments,” she observed.  You can read her entire speech here.

Unfortunately, Times’ point was made glaringly clear in a Dec. 4 post on the Mediaite Web site entitled “A Retrospective: 28 Media Leaders Who Died This Decade.”  Writer Danny Groner offered up what he called he “the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years.”  There was just one problem — not ONE person of color — any color — was included on the list.  Names that came up in the NABJ Listserv that members felt should have been on the list included Gordon Parks, Ed Bradley, Michael Jackson, John H. Johnson and Richard Pryor, to name a few.

Former NABJ President Bryan Monroe was one of the first to spot the omission, so he sent an email to Mediaite editor Rachel Sklar.  And to her credit, Sklar immediately wrote an apology post, and Groner added the names of Shirley Chisholm, John Johnson, Richard Pryor, Ed Bradley and Michael Jackson.   You can see St. Petersburg Times’ media critic Eric Deggans’ take on it here.

But the point is clear — if a person of color had been on staff, maybe these, along with the names of Hispanic and Asian contributors, may not have been missed.   It’s important that readers, no matter the color, get a true view of all those who contribute to this thing we call the media.