September 23, 2020
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The Newsrooms We Need Now
As American society grapples with growing demands for racial justice, American newsrooms are struggling with how to appropriately respond. Beyond making newsrooms more diverse, how should journalism meet the challenges of the moment and change newsroom structures and cultures that uphold oppression? In a series of essays, thought leaders reflect and offer prescriptions for what the news industry needs to do.
Lisa Krantz, a 2020 Nieman Fellow, on covering the coronavirus pandemic's impact on her community as a photographer for the San Antonio Express-News:
“I met this family at a prayer vigil they held outside the hospital for Leonor “Nora” Rangel, who was on a ventilator. Wearing a mask, I was allowed into the home of her daughter Vanessa Dyer, her sister, Alex, and their father, Enrique, who had recovered from Covid-19, as they talked to Nora on Facetime. This moment evolved as Andy, another sibling, also on Facetime at his home, told their mother if she was tired it was okay to go. She had been in the hospital for 37 days and on a ventilator for 17. She passed that Sunday with her family by her side on Facetime.”
The Newsrooms We Need Now
As American society grapples with growing demands for racial justice, American newsrooms are struggling with how to appropriately respond. Beyond making newsrooms more diverse, how should journalism meet the challenges of the moment and change newsroom structures and cultures that uphold oppression? In a series of essays, thought leaders reflect and offer prescriptions for what the news industry needs to do.