Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Journalism: IWMF's #ShareHerNews Q&A with Tara Pixley

For this year’s Black History Month #ShareHerNews spotlight series, we invite readers to a conversation with Tara Pixley , Director of Authority Collective and Assistant Professor at Temple University in Los Angeles.?

A distinguished visual journalist and safety trainer at the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), Pixley shares her insights on how identity shapes journalism, the systemic challenges facing BIPOC journalists, and the imperative of diversity and equity in the media industry. She also discusses her work on environmental justice in Los Angeles and offers advice for maintaining mental health in a demanding field. Join us as we explore Pixley's contributions to journalism and her advocacy for a more inclusive media landscape:?

IWMF: As a Next Generation Safety Trainer with the IWMF, you often discuss how identity influences journalism. Can you share how your identities and experiences have guided you to the work you’re currently doing??

TP: I have worked as a visual journalist for 20 years, across many newsrooms and in many media roles — photojournalist, copy editor, writer, and photo editor. Being a Black woman in each of those capacities, I have witnessed firsthand how women, people of color, and women of color – especially – are offered fewer resources, mentorship, opportunities, and far less grace than white male counterparts in learning the profession of journalism. I wholeheartedly believe (and many studies have indicated) that journalism is imperative for a healthy democracy and that diverse perspectives in news production make for higher quality, more impactful journalism. Therefore, every journalist who truly cares about this work has to fight for equity and accessibility for a diversity of people in the news industry. That recognition is what leads everything I do, whether it's making images about environmental injustice as a Pulitzer Center grantee, selecting photos for The New York Times’ live Gaza briefing, training my colleagues in safety practices, or educating the next generation of journalists.

IWMF: Authority Collective works to remove barriers for BIPOC women and nonbinary folks in journalism. Amid a challenging media landscape, do you have advice for BIPOC journalists trying to stick it out in the industry?

TP: The most important advice I can give is to find your community. The work of journalism can be so traumatic and disheartening. It’s hard to keep going when you feel alone or when the people who love you most, like family and friends, can’t really understand the toll that the work you’re doing takes on you, both physically and mentally. So, find those people who share your values within news media production, who respect your labor and skills, and want to see you succeed. They will be your guiding light when it gets dark, your ethical gut check and your collaborators across your career. Also, get a good therapist! Everyone deserves (and needs) a trained professional to talk through the complexities of your professional and personal life. Ideally, journalists should work with therapists who are knowledgeable about vicarious trauma or PTSD (depending on your level of exposure to traumatic events in your work as a journalist). BIPOC women and QTPOC folks should seek therapists who have similar backgrounds or who are well-trained in understanding the different social realities experienced by people of color, immigrants, and other marginalized identities.

IWMF: On the flip side of that, what should media outlets be doing to cultivate, retain and promote BIPOC women and nonbinary journalists?

TP: We do so much talking about diversity in the news industry and the larger professional world, but, without equity, diversity is just a meaningless catchphrase. What really matters for radically shifting any workplace or space for marginalized people is putting resources and attention toward equity in every aspect of news production. If a newsroom is thinking about equitable practices — like equal access to resources, mentorship, training, pay equity, etc. — then you’ll see a shift in retention of diverse people. If news organizations are simply hiring journalists from diverse backgrounds who are then not supported or worse, experience daily microaggressions and inequity, we won’t actually achieve a news media industry that reflects the population we serve.?

The way to do this is to interrogate ALL of our news practices. Historically, Western journalism has been an integral part of normalizing colonial, racist, and misogynist ideals in our society. That trend is unfortunately continuing in current mainstream reporting on the bombardment and annexation of Palestine, so we know this is not a thing of the past. We need news decision makers who are knowledgeable about contemporary ethics and decolonial media practices in positions of power. We need every journalist coming out of J-schools to be trained in critical news media production that includes deep engagement with journalism studies and how to do community-engaged journalism in the public interest. That is what will turn the tide of our industry toward more equity in the newsroom, more public trust in our content, and fiscal sustainability, which we all know journalism needs in order to survive right now.

IWMF: Can you share more about your project “Immersed in Oil,” particularly the ways it shines a light on links between environmental justice and racial justice in LA?

TP: Anywhere we look in the world at issues of climate and environmental justice, you can see a link to race, labor, and class justice. This is largely because race is a centuries-old social construct produced to rationalize the colonization of certain people’s labor, their land, and resources. The same racist ideas about people that allowed for Indigenous genocide, enslavement of African people, and so many other atrocities are the foundation of decisions like what neighborhoods have unfettered toxic oil drilling in Los Angeles or whose water is being polluted across the American West. My “Immersed in Oil” project works to educate Southern Californians on the environmental injustice happening in our backyards. So many people living here for generations tell me they had no idea that the oil wells pumping behind their homes cause cancer, preterm birth, chronic asthma, nosebleeds and headaches (especially in children and the elderly). And the vast majority of people experiencing those dire impacts are Black, Latinx and Indigenous Californians living in the shadow of the world’s largest urban oil field. Similarly, we can see how a lack of tree cover in BIPOC LA neighborhoods results in negative health impacts for the people of color living there. Or proximity to highway traffic and heavy commercial truck traffic in those neighborhoods also creates disparate health impacts for Black and brown people. All of these things are connected because the worst byproducts of commerce and industry are continuously offloaded on the homes and bodies of BIPOC people and the working class. Whatever is negatively affecting the water, air, land, weather or any of our natural resources is always specifically affecting the most marginalized people of our world. Climate justice is racial justice. We have to combat the two as intertwined entities, always.

IWMF: How do you prioritize your wellbeing and mental health, especially when things feel busy and/or when you’re covering potentially traumatic subjects?

TP: I make a point to work very hard and play or relax hard as well. If I have big deadlines coming up or a big project I’m working on for long periods, I set aside time in my calendar after those deadlines or projects to do something that centers me and allows me to connect with my family, friends, or other forms of community. For example, I love music festivals and camping, so I try to sprinkle weekends of those throughout my year in between projects to be able to take that breather and be recharged.?

I think it’s also so important to do work that feeds you. Even though being a journalist, an educator, and a community advocate (via my work with Authority Collective and other photo orgs) can be exhausting, it’s also invigorating. I do what I love and that helps me stay balanced. I return to that often, especially when reporting on difficult subjects. Trying to find that balance between things I feed my energy to and things that feed me is an ongoing struggle but one I think we all have to remain committed to doing.?

To learn more about Tara and her work you can visit her IWMF page: Tara Pixley - IWMF or her personal website: Tara Pixley: Photographer | Filmmaker | Media Scholar | Visual Media & Equity/Inclusion Consultant - TaraPixley.com

* The IWMF is committed to amplifying diverse voices and opinions in journalism. The views expressed by interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the IWMF.