To expand and amplify POC voices in U.S. newsrooms.
Our Mission
Diversifying Journalism (DiJo) is an initiative to expand and amplify POC voices in U.S. newsrooms, including sources and newsroom staff.
We are developing two crowdsourced databases. One will include experts in a variety of topics, so reporters on deadline can quickly find diverse sources. The other will be a directory of newsroom staff that we plan to share with hiring managers.
Why now?
1. The nature of our jobs as journalists, operating under pressure and tight deadlines, makes it difficult to explore or find new sources in a meaningful way. We want to make that a little bit easier.
2. There’s a lot of work to be done- close to 40% of the U.S. population identifies as a person of color but many newsrooms don’t reflect that reality. According to a 2019 RTDNA survey on diversity in local television newsrooms 26% of employees were people of color and 17% news directors. While on print and online publications 17% of the staff and 13 % of the leadership identified as a person of color, according to a CJR report in 2018.
3. Our aim is to use these databases as a first step in broadening the landscape of journalism.
About Us
We are three journalists who met during their Nieman Fellowship (Class of 2020).
Jasmine Brown, producer for ABC News ‘Nightline,” Ana Campoy, deputy economics editor at Quartz and Sely Colón, president and editor in chief of Frame ONE Strategies and former news executive at Univision News.
