Color Correction: How the Racial Reckoning Exposed Systemic Racism in Journalism

Abstract

This paper captures the current critical moment in journalism’s history, in which racialized and Indigenous journalists are forcing an unprecedented “reckoning” of the systemic racism enshrined in the ethical canon and normative structure of the fourth estate. It comes as the police killing of George Floyd has triggered a global Black Lives Matter movement demanding justice for people of color;when the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately ravaged Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities;at a time of profound distrust of mainstream news media;and in an era when news organizations stare down the additional crisis of economic sustainability exacerbated by the pandemic. Racialized journalists have called out their own employers and industry for news content that lacks context, plays to stereotypes, and all too often fails to grasp the lived experiences of non-white people in society. They have pointed out the hypocrisy of journalism’s central ethics—objectivity, balance, public service—that have always privileged white voices over other perspectives. They describe a work environment that fails to take into account their value as journalists, and their insights as First Peoples, or people of color. These are the findings of a content analysis of the op-eds, columns, social media posts, podcasts, and other published media accounts by Indigenous and racialized journalists in the United States and Canada in the six months following George Floyd’s death. This study takes their experiences, concerns, and calls for reform and puts them in the context of previous research on diversity and inclusion in journalism, demonstrating how journalistic practice and ethics are deeply entrenched in white dominance.