No one asked for this
Media statistic of the week
“A report published Feb. 14 by the International Center for Journalists shows in graphic terms that the internet also created dark alleys of hate, misogyny and violence aimed at female journalists,” writes the editorial board of the Washington Post.?
“ICFJ’s research team partnered with University of Sheffield computer scientists to examine more than 13 million tweets directed at Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub and Al Jazeera Arabic anchor Ghada Oueiss. The results, detailed in the case studies, are disturbing – and emblematic of what women journalists face in their own regions and beyond,” the study reports.
This past week in the media industry
Congrats to the Polk Awards winners
Long Island University (LIU) has announced the winners of the prestigious George Polk Awards in 15 categories for reporting in 2022.
Here are some of the highlights:
The New York Times took home three awards, “two for its coverage of the war in Ukraine and one for an investigation into Hasidic Jewish schools in New York that denied students a basic education,” according to Katie Robertson from the New York Times.
Washington Post reporter Terrence McCoy’s coverage of ecological destruction, violence and terror in the Amazon rainforest also won a Polk Award.?
POLITICO's 2022 reporting on The Supreme Court won the George Polk Award for National Reporting, according to an announcement from Executive Editor Dafna Linzer and Editor-in-Chief Matt Kaminski.
New York Times backlash
“In two separate open letters to [New York] Times leadership, two different groups argued that the Times’ coverage of transgender, non - binary, and gender nonconforming people is biased,” Nieman Lab’s Laura Hazard Owen and Lyz Lenz report.
“The Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources,” reads the open letter organized by the Freelance Solidarity Project here.?
Hazard Own and Lenz report that GLAAD also published an open letter and protested outside Times headquarters, calling out the Times’ “irresponsible, biased coverage of transgender people.” That letter was signed by more than 100 equality and media organizations and individuals including celebrities like Judd Apatow and Margaret Cho.
Lots of statements have been flying back and forth over the past week.?
“Here’s the NYT’s response, via @laurahazardowen In a more perfect world, the Times would be offering to meet with some of the letter-writers and hear them out. The tone of this response conveys nothing of the sort,” tweets Bill Grueskin.?
Now, about a week later, New York Times staffers “privately fired back against NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava, over a letter that she’d written affirming journalists’ right to criticize the paper in order to address workplace conditions, a response that came amid a dispute over the Times’ coverage of transgender issues.” Vanity Fair’s Charlotte Klein shares more details.?
“Your journalistic independence doesn't mean independence from being criticized for being an asshole,” tweets Brian Heater.?
“This is disappointing, especially considering the profile and power of the signatories,” adds Sean Collins.?
领英推荐
Mental health and journalism
In an effort to better support the mental health of the journalists who work there, Hearst has hired an in-house therapist, reports Angela Fu for Poynter.
“The initiative to get a dedicated therapist for Hearst has been years in the making, propelled by internal conversations about mental health in the wake of the pandemic. Those discussions started in January 2021 when Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday sent her editors an article about the struggles health reporters faced in covering the pandemic. They asked her if she had tried calling a phone number that had been set up to help Hearst’s reporters,” Fu writes.
Here’s a poignant quote from education reporter Jill Tucker who was part of the mental health conversations at Hearst: “Not that long ago, journalists sought therapy on a barstool, and that didn’t turn out well for a lot of people. We really wanted the Chronicle to be a healthier environment, for people to acknowledge what this job can do to you, and to have resources available to prevent burnout.”
“This is a good and necessary move. That said, if newspaper cos invested more in hiring enough journalists, and staffing newsrooms properly so everyone wouldn't be overworked and overstretched, this wouldn't be necessary,” tweets Joanne Lipman.?
‘No one asked for this’
Some interesting news in the world of book publishing:
“Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being rewritten to remove language deemed offensive by the publisher Puffin,” reports The Guardian’s Hayden Vernon. “Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author’s text to make sure the books ‘can continue to be enjoyed by all today’ resulting in extensive changes across Dahl’s work.”
Reactions to the news were mixed on Twitter.
Suzanne Nossel, PEN America’s CEO, had some thoughts to share. (Pen America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the U.S. and worldwide.) “At @PENamerica we are alarmed at news of ‘hundreds of changes’ to venerated works by @roald_dahl in a purported effort to scrub the books of that which might offend someone,” she tweets.
“This is an insufferable travesty. Roald Dahl is fantastic centrally because he flouts convention and what’s appropriate,” adds Ben Ryan.?
“Probably every Tennessee Williams production I’ve seen has edited racial slurs out, to absolutely zero comment. But then, he’s not a highly bankable children’s author so not enough incentive there to whip up a daft culture war, eh…?” writes Maxine Frances Roper.?
“The problem with editing the ugliness out of Roald Dahl's books is not about censorship — it has to do with Intellectual Property. Let the work lapse into Public Domain, and let people make their own choices about the language,” tweets Thom Dunn.
“NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS,” Maris Kreizman writes.?
A few more
From the Muck Rack team
The Page Society, Institute of Public Relations (IPR), PR Council, Public Relations Society of America and the Diversity Action Alliance (DAA) are just a few organizations that have created diversity, equity and inclusion programs to encourage diverse young people to join—and progress—in the PR industry.
But are they working?
On Feb. 2, The Museum of Public Relations celebrated Black History Month with a live webinar. A new research study from DAA and IPR was announced, and attendees got a preview of the data. Then, two panels of PR leaders shared insights on what’s working at their companies and the steps forward.
Check out our webinar recap: Celebrating Black PR history—beyond the data.