Women are the future
“The future of media looks like this.”
That is how a tweet from Josiah Ryan, a senior producer for CNN in New York, began when discussing the recent front page cover story on the network from The Hollywood Reporter.
Featuring the network’s chief executive, Jeff Zucker, and other journalists and personalities, including Jake Tapper, Anthony Bourdain, Casey Neistat and W. Kamau Bell, the story focused on the future of the network in the digital age.
The future of media looks like this.
Proud to be part of this team. @CaseyNeistat @Bourdain @jaketapper @wkamaubell and @CNN chief Zucker pic.twitter.com/B7enhLXqYd
— Josiah Daniel Ryan (@JosiahRyan) March 1, 2017
The tweet however, became subject of rampant criticism from others in the industry as well as other Twitter users, notably for the absence of women on the front page, and the message the tweet sent in the replies.
@JosiahRyan: The future of media has no women?
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) March 1, 2017
.@JosiahRyan Really? Not a single woman? Not one? NOT A SINGLE ONE? You can and you must do better than this. @CNN
— Lauren Rankin (@laurenarankin) March 1, 2017
.@JosiahRyan @CaseyNeistat @Bourdain @jaketapper @wkamaubell @CNN Gents, not one of you noticed “We’re all dudes. That doesn’t seem right.”
— Robert Hernandez (@webjournalist) March 1, 2017
@JosiahRyan @CaseyNeistat @Bourdain @jaketapper @wkamaubell @CNN
The future of media is 100% straight men and 4/5 white? Nope.Nopeity Nope.— Celeste Headlee (@CelesteHeadlee) March 1, 2017
@JosiahRyan @CaseyNeistat @Bourdain @jaketapper @wkamaubell @CNN Do you have women colleagues? Not part of the future as you see it?
— Clare O’Connor (@Clare_OC) March 1, 2017
The criticism also came as the tweet was shared.
The future of media apparently has no room for me as a woman. https://t.co/f0bdTbs4xX
— Randi Shaffer (@RandiMShaffer) March 1, 2017
And it’s all male. https://t.co/HZfQtbFZPT
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 1, 2017
No women? https://t.co/vcZvBoNYY8
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) March 1, 2017
Because you know women have no place in newsrooms. *eyeroll* https://t.co/KGoEqhinIY
— P. Kim Bui (@kimbui) March 3, 2017
This week, International Women’s Day is observed – a day to recognize the achievements and contributions women have made around the world, including in journalism. This also coincides with the celebration of Women’s History Month.
There has been a recent increase of women studying journalism, and indeed there are prominent women in digital journalism, including Katie Hawkins-Gaar at the Poynter Institute, Tory Starr and Raney Aronson-Rath at WGBH in Boston, Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, Tamara Keith and Sarah McCammon at NPR, Asma Khalid at WBUR in Boston, Meredith Artley at CNN (and the past president of the Online News Association) and Laura Davis at the University of Southern California, as well as the women whose tweets are quoted in this piece and others who work to keep this industry strong.
This also is the first year that the executive leadership at SPJ has been led by three women – President Lynn Walsh, President-Elect Rebecca Baker and Secretary-Treasurer Alex Tarquinio. Additionally, 14 of the 23 seats on SPJ’s Board of Directors are held by women, while of SPJ’s 9 committees, 4 of them have women listed as chairs or co-chairs. Also, in SPJ’s 5 active communities, 4 of them have women serving as chair or co-chair.
Indeed, SPJ members like Walsh, Baker, Tarquinio, Robyn Davis Sekula, Rachel McClelland, Kathryn Foxhall, Sarah Bauer Jackson, Elle Toussi, Dana Neuts and Dori Zinn, in addition to other SPJ members nationwide and those who work behind the scenes at its headquarters in Indianapolis, play significant roles in the development of the future of media.
All of these women have something in common. Every day, at their outlets, be it a broadcast outlet, a web site or a newspaper, they inform, educate and engage. They help the public make sense of events, and help the world cope better.
The future of media is something that will continued to be discussed, questioned, debated and dissected. Yet, there is something necessary to the future of this industry – women. Their ideas are quintessential to the development of the future. Their contributions allow journalism to be stronger, and they inspire me to help make journalism better.
The debates may continue, but one thing is for certain – women are the future of media, and we must never take them, their ideas or their contributions for granted – ever.
Alex Veeneman, a Chicago based SPJ member, is a member of SPJ’s Ethics Committee and a contributor to the SPJ blog network.
Outside of SPJ, Veeneman is a Managing Editor and contributing writer for Kettle Magazine, an online publication in the UK. You can interact with Veeneman on Twitter here.
The views expressed in this blog post unless otherwise specified are that of the author’s, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SPJ Digital Community, the board and staff of the Society of Professional Journalists, or its members.