The Diversity Style Guide

Rachele Kanigel

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119054917
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Periodismo

New diversity style guide helps journalists write with authority and accuracy about a complex, multicultural world

A companion to the online resource of the same name, The Diversity Style Guide raises the consciousness of journalists who strive to be accurate. Based on studies, news reports and style guides, as well as interviews with more than 50 journalists and experts, it offers the best, most up-to-date advice on writing about underrepresented and often misrepresented groups. Addressing such thorny questions as whether the words Black and White should be capitalized when referring to race and which pronouns to use for people who don't identify as male or female, the book helps readers navigate the minefield of names, terms, labels and colloquialisms that come with living in a diverse society.

The Diversity Style Guide comes in two parts. Part One offers enlightening chapters on Why is Diversity So Important; Implicit Bias; Black Americans; Native People; Hispanics and Latinos; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; Arab Americans and Muslim Americans; Immigrants and Immigration; Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation; People with Disabilities; Gender Equality in the News Media; Mental Illness, Substance Abuse and Suicide; and Diversity and Inclusion in a Changing Industry. Part Two includes Diversity and Inclusion Activities and an A-Z Guide with more than 500 terms.

This guide:

• Helps journalists, journalism students, and other media writers better understand the context behind hot-button words so they can report with confidence and sensitivity
• Explores the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that certain words can alienate a source or infuriate a reader
• Provides writers with an understanding that diversity in journalism is about accuracy and truth, not "political correctness."
• Brings together guidance from more than 20 organizations and style guides into a single handy reference book

The Diversity Style Guide is first and foremost a guide for journalists, but it is also an important resource for journalism and writing instructors, as well as other media professionals. In addition, it will appeal to those in other fields looking to make informed choices in their word usage and their personal interactions.

Part I
Covering a Diverse Society

1
Why is Diversity So Important?

Rachele Kanigel

Journalism is sometimes described as a mirror that society holds up to itself. When the public looks in that mirror, it is important that it see faces that reflect the diversity of the community. But it must see more, much more. lt must see that the stories we tell, the experiences we illuminate, the public policies we explore, the communities we describe – the entire body of the very work we do – reflect those same diverse realities.

Raul Ramirez, print and broadcast journalist, news executive, educator
September 5, 1946–November 15, 2013¹

On a fall day in 2015, staff members of The Seattle Times gathered to talk about how the paper was covering the social unrest that was sweeping the country. It was the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, and there had been demonstrations in Seattle and at nearby universities, as well as cities and college campuses around the country, protesting racist incidents, the killings of unarmed Black and Latino men by police officers, and other issues related to race and ethnicity.

Tyrone Beason, a staff writer for the newspaper’s magazine, Pacific NW, almost didn’t attend the meeting. He had been to these sorts of gatherings before and had been frustrated by the big talk and lack of action, so he headed out to lunch. But soon after he left the building, something compelled him back. He returned to the office and found a large crowd of staffers in the “fish bowl,” the glassed‐in area in the middle of the newsroom where the staff often gathered for discussions. “It was packed,” Beason recalled. “That was the first indication that something was different, that other people were feeling the way I was feeling.”²

Beason, who is Black, was disappointed by how the paper had been covering the protests, which had sometimes led to traffic gridlock and freeway closures. “A lot of our coverage reflected the frustration that the protesters had disrupted the daily rhythm of life and did not really explore the issues around the demonstrations,” Beason said. “At times, it seemed our framing of the demonstrations missed the larger point that something momentous was happening, that Black Lives Matter wasn’t a fleeting or merely inconvenient phenomenon.”

Beason stood in the back of the room, surveying the crowd, silently listening to the comments. And then he spoke up. “Part of what bothers me about our coverage here is that the room itself doesn’t reflect the community we live in.”

Like most mainstream newspapers in the United States, The Seattle Times was, and continues to be, a majority‐White news organization. Beason was one of just a handful of African Americans on the staff. According to the American Society of News Editors’ annual newsroom census for that year, 9.5 percent of the staff was Asian American, 3.6 percent was Black, 7.1 percent was Hispanic and 0.6 percent was American Indian. With a total of 20.8 percent people of color, The Seattle Times actually had one of the more diverse newsrooms in the country. In 2015, just 12.8 percent of journalists in the newsrooms surveyed were members of racial or ethnic minorities. Many small to mid‐size newspapers didn’t have a single person of color, according to the ASNE survey.³

Beason noted that the racial and ethnic make‐up of the staff affected everything the paper did, from the headlines and stories it ran to how photos were shot, selected and placed, to the way the home page was assembled.

The discussion in the informal staff meeting that day sparked more conversations. And those dialogues – some in later fish bowl meetings, others between colleagues over coffee or in a quiet corner of the newsroom – led the staff to rethink the way it covered race. “It was a real galvanizing moment for us as a staff,” said Beason, who had started at The Seattle Times as an intern and spent most of his career there.

Staff members began to gather for biweekly meetings to talk about diversity issues and to brainstorm ideas for new ways to cover these issues. “These meetings became like a safe haven for talking about race,” Beason said. “We created this space in the newsroom where we could talk as freely as if we were knocking back cocktails.”

In the beginning of 2016, Beason and a team of 13 others from around the newsroom – videographers and reporters, editors and developers, designers and photographers – started working on an interactive multimedia project to explore issues of race and ethnicity. They invited 18 people from a mix of backgrounds and perspectives to The Seattle Times video studio and asked them to talk about hot‐button words and phrases related to race and diversity: Person of Color, Politically Correct, Institutional Racism, Safe Space, White Privilege, Ally, All Lives Matter, Diversity, White Privilege, White Fragility, Racism. The reporters asked questions, but mostly they just listened while the sources talked. The community members’ responses were emotional, raw, edgy, honest. Sometimes their voices would rise in anger. Sometimes they would tear up, overcome by emotion.

The team spent months editing the 31 hours of interviews into a collection of powerful videos called “Under Our Skin” (Figure 1.1). The project was posted online on June 20, 2016 and the staff moderated a Reddit discussion⁴ about it later that week. Readers were encouraged to add their own comments and hundreds did. Radio and TV news stations invited members of the “Under Our Skin” team to speak about the project and what they’d learned from it. The newspaper presented the videos at community events and schools.

Figure 1.1 “Under Our Skin”

A team from The Seattle Times spent nearly six months producing “Under Our Skin,” a video project in which 18 community members talked candidly about race.

Even more importantly, people in the community started using “Under Our Skin” as a jumping‐off place for their own discussions about race. After watchin...