In this week’s issue: This week at The Objective, three new stories. Kae Petrin of the Trans Journalists Association shares what he learned when quantifying anti-trans bias. Marium Zahra reports on what youth coverage misses when it doesn’t include perspectives of youth of color. And Andrea Faye Hart argues for the future of people-powered media.
Plus, our media round-up features our upcoming event focused on making a safer media ecosystem for trans people and a boycott meant to improve coverage of Palestine.
—James Salanga
James Salanga
Co-Director
THE OBJECTIVE DIGEST
GENDER & SEXUALITY
What I learned by trying to quantify anti-trans bias and objectivity
Six headlines from media outlets covering Trump’s executive orders on gender in the first 100 days. The outlets (Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, Fox News, New York Times, CNBC, and National Review) had a sample of their coverage audited by the Trans Journalists Association and Berkeley Media Studies Group researchers.
Why aren’t journalists quoting trans people about executive orders that challenge our existence?
“No editor I worked with as a cub reporter would have published a story where a politician accused someone of being an ‘extremist’ or ‘inflicting harm on our nation’s children’ without asking that person for a response,” Kae Petrin writes.
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RACE
Youth want a voice in youth news coverage
Serena Pallan (left) and Layla Gentles (right) by excerpts from stories on media portrayals of youth and trust in the news.
From mainstream media coverage to education journalism outlets and local papers, young people of color especially feel that their voices are ignored in news stories.
“When coverage leaves us out, it makes our voices invisible and reinforces the stereotype that we’re only observers,” high school sophomore Mateo Cisneros said.
LABOR
Journalism as a public good has always been an exception
Examples of people-powered media through the years. From left to right: The Catholic Worker photo via U.S. public domain, How to Publish a High School Underground Newspaper via the New England Free Press, and The Black Panther Party Newspaper via the Washington Area Spark.
“The radical idea — that journalism could be a public good rooted in education and accountability — has always been the exception,” Andrea Faye Hart writes. “If we want media that actually serves the people, radical organizers like Assata Shakur have identified the problem: We need to build it ourselves, from the ground up, as part of our community, labor, and organizing infrastructure.”
Have you ordered your civic media magazine yet?
In a new collaboration between The Objective and News Futures, 14 practitioners share their perspectives on building local, participatory, and durable information systems for the next decade.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
A bit more media
🏳️⚧️ Trans journalists, media-makers, and allies — you’re invited: Register by Nov. 7 for The Objective’s free virtual convening (on Nov. 14) around developing a safer media ecosystem for trans people.
📰 300+ writers boycott NYT Opinions: The signatories, including Sally Rooney, Greta Thunberg, and Mohammed El-Kurd, demand a review of anti-Palestinian bias to produce new editorial standards for Palestine coverage, retraction of “Screams Without Words”, and a published editorial calling for a U.S. arms embargo of Israel.
🏀 The NBA media struggles to cover gambling scandals: “Sports and sports-media world funded by gambling companies is unable to grapple credibly with a story like this,” Patrick Redford writes for Defector.
📜 New York City Council signs resolution against Alden practices: The council signed the “Too Tough to Die” resolution in support of the New York Daily News Union, which is fighting for a fair contract from the media conglomerate.
📋 U.S. allegedly watered down report on Palestinian reporter’s killing: A former U.S. colonel who helped put together the report about Shireen Abu Akleh, whose 2022 killing Israel maintains was an “accident”, accused the Biden administration of softening its findings in favour of Israel.
Have a story you think we should include in this section of next week’s newsletter? Let us know here or by responding to this email.
JOURNALISM IN A GRAF
Quote of the week
“The gleeful enthusiasm with which some right-wing media personalities suggest food should be taken away from their fellow countrymen is truly disturbing — and ultimately in line with the cruelty which defines so much of the MAGA movement.”
Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next week.
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