Kellee Terrell, a journalist and founder of “The Body” [www.thebody.com], a very comprehensive HIV/AIDS resource website, is also an active advocate of newsrooms and publications being more reflective of the communities they cover. Terrell, who speaks and hosts panel discussions on HIV/AIDS prevention, education and treatment, spoke to rolling out about how increased inclusion in the upper hierarchy of newsrooms would positively impact the profession as a whole.
What is the impact of not having diversity in the media industry?
Everyone’s stories don’t get told. If you do not live these experiences or are aware of what’s happening in a particular culture, then those stories just don’t get told because they don’t know about them.
It does not mean you have to be black or a person of color [to be able to write stories about a particular demographic]. I write stories about LGBT – the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities – but I’m not an LGBT. People don’t always know what’s going on outside their experiences. But if your job is telling the news, then all you telling is your experiences. So diversity is very important in this industry.
What does it say about the corporations that continue to pump billions into news media organizations that don’t promote diversity in their newsrooms?
It could be a number of things. I don’t know who gives to what. Maybe they don’t know. But, to me, it’s still not a good excuse. And some of them don’t care. It’s about selling a product. There are no morals. In this economy, it’s ‘how do I sell my product.’ So, while they worry about ‘how do I keep my company afloat’, they don’t worry about what’s going on in the newsrooms, and they are like ‘It’s not our problem.’ Their job is to make money. Unfortunately, that’s the reality.
But, companies could give money around initiatives on diversity. They could be like ‘we are going to give [media outlets] this money, but you have to develop a diversity strategy or have a task force or whatever.’ It happens in a lot of other companies.
How has the field of journalism changed in the last 20 years?
I’ve only been a journalist since 2006. I saw the shift in journalism then, all the craziness started happening in the industry. People weren’t buying newspapers and magazines [like they once did]. And journalism has gotten worse because people are like ‘I need you to turn this around today’ and ‘I need you to turn this around right now.’ And because of that quality journalism is dying because by the time you complete it, it’s old news.
The good thing that has happened, however, is that online journalism has enabled more people to be seen. If all you had was print, then it’s harder, because it’s hard to break into print. And that’s the one good thing. I don’t think that my career would have flourished as much as it has had there not been an online component. Online has given me more visibility. And with social media like Facebook and Twitter, stories can live forever. The problem, too, though, is that online has made anyone think they can be a writer. Because websites need to fill content, then they’ll allow anyone to fill content.
— terry shropshire
