Max Brunke
maxbrunke77@gmail.com
Our modern society seems to struggle at the understanding of diversity. As a country, we are only 52 years out of the Civil Rights Movement and many of those who may have opposed it could very well be alive today, spreading their influence. Luckily, we live in 2020, a pit-stop towards an accepting world. Still, there are those who flinch at the idea of things like Black TV personalities or interracial relationships - but having those figures act as role-models and inspiration is crucial to developing a new generation.
Women face unlimited backlash in the news industry, with reasons ranging from their attire to ridiculous offending remarks regarding their skill set. Women in sports journalism deal with this all the time, and you hear this from people like Maria Taylor, Jemele Hill, and Samantha Ponder. I have a first hand experience with this, dating back to 2016 when I attended College Gameday on Ohio State's campus. Being near the front of the crowd, ESPN reporter Samantha Ponder was within ear shot and could clearly see us. A group of college students next to us kept making a vulgar hand sign towards Ponder, which emulated intercourse. Eventually, she came over to us and gave the kids an earful for their disrespect, but they were unfazed by the act and made comments such as "You only have your job for your looks". Moments like these have urged me to fight and defend diversity in the newsroom and respecting others for their skills.
Maria Taylor has been in the news recently for misogynistic remarks regarding her NBA awards voting. Once the voting was released, a slew of people attacked Taylor, questioning her decisions in her voting. These attacks turned misogynistic, calling Taylor awful stereotypical things. In a Yahoo article following the incident, a since-deleted tweet was quoted while mentioning the author of the original tweet that fired everyone up, saying, "He was calling out someone with 49 followers saying 'put her in the kitchen,' adding that it was far from the only sexist comment he had in his mentions in the tweet." This proved to me that women will be scrutinized harder for their takes by people who disagree because they don't respect their gender, or don't believe that women could know things about sports. To those men I'd ask, what year do you think it is?
 |
| Photo source: orlandosentinel.com |
According to an article posted by the Women's Media Center last year, the diversity in the newsroom by statistics is promising, but not quite there. The author mentions that only 17.3% of American newspaper actually responded to the annual survey, a record low. However, with the data they collected, the article stated, "The American Society of News Editors' latest tally found that women comprised 41.7 percent and people of color 22.6 percent of the overall workforce in those responding newsrooms."
Having a 60/40 ratio of men to women is close to equaling out, which is a positive way to look at it. However, people of color are widely underrepresented. It's much higher than what it would have been years ago, but the number needs to rise. This is why we need diversity in news coverage. Those who take influence from the news as children will want to see people who represent themselves on the TV, and encourage more to study the industry. In a time where journalism faces so much backlash, we need to encourage the next generation that what we do is accepting and fun.
Fantastic article Max! I am in 100% agreement. Too often it seems that women reporters, ESPECTIALLY in sports, do not get the respect they deserve. Too often when women sports reporters do their job it is met with major misogyny. One of the most notable comments I have observed targeted towards women reportes is "Have you played?" This question is used in a way to attack their credibility. Even more, this question is never asked to male reporters even if it is known that they have not played. The double standard viewers have is very crippling.
ReplyDelete