tag:www.cjr.org,2011-09-12://14 2013-05-24T01:30:33Z Columbia Journalism Review: The future of media is here tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.37682 2013-05-24T10:50:00Z 2013-05-24T01:30:33Z

A guide to covering other issues that affect the LGBT community

Jennifer Vanasco There's been a diversity of gay news this month covered in the major media, from the rash of NYC hate crimes against gay men, to the story about a Texas lesbian couple forced apart because of a morality clause in one of the partner's divorce papers, to yesterday's Boy Scout vote to allow gay youths membership. But too often, the tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.37583 2013-05-17T10:50:00Z 2013-05-20T07:26:42Z

Recent stories that flesh out important topics

Jennifer Vanasco The media covers social minorities regularly in the daily churn of news. A lot of that coverage just skims the happenings of the day--a court win, an activist group announcement, what a controversial figure said on his Twitter feed. But sometimes, reporters are allowed the time and the space to examine a social minority issue in depth, or from an tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.37535 2013-05-10T10:50:00Z 2013-05-09T20:34:06Z

Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna, and most "real" outlets keep overlooking it

Jennifer Vanasco The parody newspaper The Onion isn't a news organization, of course. But once in awhile, it tells a truth that our news organizations don't. Take, for example, their recent story on Chris Brown. Brown is a double-platinum R&B singer known for his dance moves--and for beating his girlfriend, the singer Rihanna, so badly in 2009 that she went to the tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36868 2013-05-03T10:50:00Z 2013-05-03T11:13:40Z

Cemia Acoff identified as a woman in life and should have been in death, too

Jennifer Vanasco Sometime between the end of March and the end of April, an Ohio transgender woman was brutally murdered--she was stabbed repeatedly and then tied to a concrete block and cast into a pond. She was left with no clothes below the waist, perhaps to shame her. This crime is heartbreaking and vicious. You would think it could not get worse. tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36806 2013-04-26T10:50:00Z 2013-04-25T19:07:17Z

An important bill that would protect gay workers from discrimination gets little media coverage

Jennifer Vanasco A bill that is crucial to the civil rights of the LGBT community was reintroduced in both houses of Congress on Thursday, and you probably didn't hear a thing about it. That's because the bill isn't about marriage. If it were a national marriage bill, the media would have been all over it. Heck, if it were just the first tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36651 2013-04-18T10:50:00Z 2013-04-17T22:04:43Z

It's easy to assume the perpetrator is muslim, but that's a harmful thing to do

Jennifer Vanasco We don't know yet who planted the Boston Marathon bombs. Maybe it was a crazy loner. Maybe it was someone affiliated with a right-wing militia group. Maybe it was Islamic jihadists (The Week has a nice rundown of the current theories). In a knowledge vacuum, though, the public will speculate that acts of terror arise from the group they fear tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36565 2013-04-12T10:50:00Z 2013-04-11T20:08:05Z

Because she isn't currently a candidate, Obama's remarks didn't necessarily hurt Kamala Harris. But if she had been running, a new study says that they would have hurt her

Jennifer Vanasco I wasn't planning to write about the dust-up after Obama called California's Kamala Harris the country's "best-looking attorney general." After all, he apologized almost immediately, it happened a week ago, and I thought we could all agree he shouldn't have done that and then move on. But then I saw this headline: "Kamala Harris' Star Power Buoyed by Obama 'Best-Looking tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36486 2013-04-05T10:50:00Z 2013-04-05T23:55:29Z

Quick takes on social minorities in the recent news cycle

Jennifer Vanasco It seems like every day in the news cycle there is a fascinating tidbit I'd like to cover in Minority Reports. But I only write once a week, so, too often, I have to let those pieces go. I keep a running list of what I'd like to write about but haven't. Here, in no particular order, are my quick tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36399 2013-03-28T15:00:00Z 2013-03-28T15:03:45Z

A chat with MSNBC's Chris Hayes on tapping sources more diverse than the usual pool of white dudes

Ann Friedman http://www.cjr.org Let's face it: The conversation about diversity in journalism is mostly boring hand-wringing. With each new byline count, it's easy to despair that gender and ethnic diversity is mostly a pipe dream--a goal that applies more to HR handbooks than actual newsroom practices. But earlier this month, after MSNBC announced it was giving Chris Hayes his own daily primetime news tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36348 2013-03-22T10:50:00Z 2013-03-21T19:03:44Z

The media can, and must, do better when covering assaults

Jennifer Vanasco It isn't just CNN. Over the past few days, there has been a lot of anger directed at the cable network, after a reporter called the two convicted Steubenville rapists "young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students" and an anchor seemed to be more sympathetic to the young men than the 16-year-old victim. A tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36260 2013-03-15T10:50:00Z 2013-03-14T18:25:28Z

It's time for the media to counteract institutional barriers to women's entry in the field

Jennifer Vanasco In a recent blog post, Lyra McKee tells a story that took place at a feminist-run charity when she was starting off as an investigative reporter (The brackets are McKee's). One day, we were in their office when the subject of my career post-university came up. "I don't think you could be an investigative reporter," one of them said. "You're tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36185 2013-03-08T11:50:00Z 2013-03-07T18:18:01Z

The media should stop treating Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer as though they represent their whole gender

Jennifer Vanasco Why do we in the media try to make some women standard bearers for all women? That's the problem, really, that underlies the backlash -- and the backlash's backlash -- to the leadership of tech executives Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. Sandberg and Mayer are very different women who became targets of media attention in the past month for very tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36103 2013-03-04T11:50:00Z 2013-03-04T23:20:29Z

A vibrant black media and a more inclusive mainstream media should both be available to the public

Lori Tharps At the end of January, I organized and moderated a panel at Temple University's School of Media and Communications called "Separate But Equal? The Role of the Black Media in the 21st Century." The title of the panel was deliberately provocative, because I wanted people to consider whether having media outlets that cater to specific ethnic groups was regressive and tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.36097 2013-02-28T19:50:00Z 2013-03-01T20:05:44Z

If they are, it shouldn't be at the expense of covering anti-gay individuals

Jennifer Vanasco Last week, The Washington Post asked itself an interesting question in a headline: "Is The Post Pro-Gay?" Meaning, does it cover the issue of gay marriage fairly, or is it advocating for marriage equality in the guise of news? The ombudsman, Patrick Pexton (today is his last day at the Post), wrote that during his tenure he's received a "steady tag:www.cjr.org,2013://14.35972 2013-02-22T11:50:01Z 2013-02-22T04:44:15Z

It's an attempt to fix a perceived slight to married gay couples

Jennifer Vanasco The Associated Press did the right thing on Thursday. After a week in which gay reporters, LGBT blogs, gay advocacy organizations, and even AP reporters expressed dismay at a misguided memo that seemed to say the words "husband" and "wife" didn't apply to legally married gay couples, the news organization corrected itself with a beautifully simple addition to its Stylebook.