Pack it up, America
Hunter in Daily Kos, “Rolling Stone cover featuring Boston bomber draws anger, controversy”:
I’m not sure that calling someone a “bomber,” a “monster” and a member of “radical Islam” counts as glamorizing them. And American magazines have a history of putting terrible, terrible people on their covers; dictators, crooks and yes–murderers. Guess what: They don’t all look like monsters. They don’t all look like you think they will look. On the other hand, perhaps the wider societal value is in not granting notorious killers a celebrity status, even if unintentional. Is there a secondary effect on other potentially violent individuals?
This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Rolling Stone cover: people are getting far too bent out of shape over this.
Not The Law: The Culture Failed Trayvon Martin
The George Zimmerman verdict shouldn’t really surprise anyone. The case really couldn’t have gone any other way; in a situation like this with few witnesses and a lot of conflicting accounts, it is much easier for the defense to put enough reasonable doubt in the jury’s minds than it was for the prosecution to do […]
Read moreThe New York Times is one of the world’s leading news organizations. But there’s room for improvement – especially when it comes to diversity.
In an analysis of 352 front-page stories from the Times in January and February 2013, we found that Times reporters quoted 3.4 times as many male sources as female sources.
Sources were identified as either male, female or unknown. Unknown were institutions, those only quoted as “spokespersons,” anonymous sources, etc. In total, only 19 percent (or 465 of 2,411) sources were female. The front-page stories were categorized as World, U.S., Politics, Art, Business, DealBook, Education, Health, N.Y./Region, Science, Sports, Style and Technology.
I think it’s interesting to note that even stories with female bylines quote more male sources, though the disparity is far less. Hiring more female reporters would certainly help, but doesn’t completely solve the problem.
Man Experiences Gender Discrimination, Suddenly Realizes It Exists
I’ve seen this interesting Tumblr post floating around the Internet lately. The short version is this: a man named Kim applies for jobs, gets a lot of rejections, and tacks ‘Mr.’ before him name on his resume and suddenly get interviews: My choice to brand the CV with a bold positioning of my name actually […]
Read moreYes, the Republicans have gotten crazier
I Can Haz Journalism: The Listicle (And The GIF) As Storytelling Devices
Can listicles function as a legitimate journalistic form? I felt forced to reconsider the question after this tweet from Joel Cifer: Read the rest of this blog post at IBTimes Fighting Words.
Read moreDon’t Call New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand “Girlie”
Name It, Change It, an organization dedicated to pointing out sexism in the media, recently criticized an NPR report about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. In that report, Gillibrand was described as “petite, blond and perky” with a “soft, girlie voice.” The story was eventually revised to remove those references. Read the rest of this […]
Read moreGuess Who Talks About Abortion On Cable News? (Hint: Not Experts)
Building off a bit of yesterday’s post on the lack of diversity within the newsroom, it appears cable news’ diversity problem extends beyond merely the people in the newsroom, but the people who appear as guests as well. Media Matters reports that, of the 92 guests that discussed Texas’ abortion bill on cable news (the […]
Read moreThe Lack Of Diversity In The Newsroom Is Bad For Society
The American Society of News Editors annual study of newsroom diversity just came out, and The Atlantic’s Riva Gold did a terrific job describing the current state of newsroom diversity and its causes. At a time when non-whites make up roughly 37 percent of the U.S. population, the percentage of minorities in the newsroom has […]
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