Insights from Shana Black, The New Program Manager for Inclusive Journalism at The Associated Press
Posting: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
The Hearthland Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Stardust Foundation are working with Journalism Funding Partners to fund the Inclusive journalism initiative at the Associated Press. The move comes as part of a larger effort by the AP to make its partner newsrooms more reflective of the voices in the communities they serve.
Shana Black was recently appointed as AP’s new program manager for inclusive journalism. She brings a unique perspective to the newsroom and has a passion for creating media spaces where all voices are heard. As program manager, Black is determined to create more equitable newsrooms by diversifying leadership and upholding the AP's core values of inclusivity, opportunity and trust.
Black has spent her career advocating for greater representation in the media, as well as better diversity in news coverage. She founded Black Girl Media, a digital publishing company, whose mission is to educate, inform and amplify underrepresented communities.
We reached out to Shana Black to get some perspective on her new role at the AP and what she has experienced so far:S
Q. You have such an impressive background. Can you talk about your publishing company, Black Girl Media?
Black Girl Media was started in 2018 with the mission to inform, educate and improve access to resources for Black women in Northeast Ohio. Since then, the company has expanded to serving Gen Z audiences and has had the opportunity to be part of many great collaborative projects on topics like misinformation, democracy, climate equity and community engagement.
Q. Have you learned anything since starting Black Girl Media that you will take with you to work for The Associated Press?
I have learned to be able to make connections and understand the needs of all departments in a news organization. I learned the process of working with funders, the needs of sales and product teams as well as the needs on the editorial side. It is my hope to be able to lessen some of the friction that exists when working with multiple stakeholders in order to support all of AP’s work as it pertains to Inclusive Journalism and storytelling.
Q. Please describe your new role at The Associated Press and the initiative behind it.
My role at AP is to manage our current inclusion grants and projects while looking for opportunities to expand the work. This includes working with AP’s Inclusion Champions, and providing DEIB training opportunities to our members, specifically through Maynard’s Fault Lines Training. Additionally, I will be finding resources to fund more coverage around race and equity as well as creating opportunities to strengthen the hiring and leadership pipeline in terms of equity and for people of color.
Q: What can newsrooms do to make sure they’re maintaining inclusivity with their reporting?
Great question, I had to enlist a little help from Amanda Barrett, AP’s VP of News Standards and Inclusion to make sure I included a variety of ways
SB: First they can make sure they are referencing and following the new inclusion section of the AP stylebook. Secondly, ensure that your staff and editorial teams recognize that there is value in all team members lived experiences. A training program like Maynard’s Fault Lines training will help journalists understand how to best cover the full story, who is impacted and confront their own biases. Third, remember that no community is a monolith, meaning that no race, gender, ethnicity or religion acts or operates as one.
AB: Newsrooms have several avenues for maintaining inclusivity within their reporting, but the key is partnerships between leadership and staff. Leaders may state the goal but when the staff buys in, there is a better chance of keeping inclusivity front and center. Many newsrooms are homogeneous and don’t necessarily have the will or sources needed to connect with diverse, often underserved audiences. The first step is to set the table and ensure that the team has a common understanding of inclusive storytelling and what it entails. Training programs like the Maynard Institute’s Fault Lines framework can help define the societal tensions journalists encounter in many stories and help them understand how best to cover the full story of who is affected and why. Journalists must also confront their own biases to ensure they are not affecting their work. At the Associated Press, we derived our own definition of inclusive storytelling, so the staff specifically knows our expectations. Three major keys for us:
For every story, event or idea, step back and ask, “Who is affected by this? Are those voices reflected in our content?”
Don’t treat communities as monoliths: No ethnicity, religion, region, or race acts as one.
Reaction stories need to include reactions from a diverse group of people.
We also created a group of Inclusion Champions on each team and beat to help their colleagues talk through story ideas, devise more equitable framing of stories and build diverse sources. Getting staff buy-in has been a boon to the effort. They produce their own monthly newsletter filled with examples of inclusive journalism from around the world, as well as tips for their colleagues. They also hold roundtables and other discussions on inclusion topics like highlighting stories of ability in Sports.
To codify inclusive storytelling not only for The Associated Press, but also for the journalism world, we added a chapter on Inclusive Storytelling in the AP Stylebook. It describes in detail what inclusive journalism is and how to accomplish it.
Stumbling blocks to the effort can lie in any part of the storytelling process so it is essential to get assigning and production editors in every format on board. Assigning editors can help drive the effort by front-loading reporters when stories are pitched and assigned, and production editors can endure that diverse voices and sources are represented before sending stories out into the world. Finding ways to measure and track progress is difficult but several organizations are tackling the challenge. Some hand-count diverse sources and voices in stories and others track them through their manual entry in their content management systems. At the AP, we are challenged by the massive amount of content we move each day. We use other measures like the nominations for our Best of the Week contests and our Inclusion Newsletter to see progress.
Q. What goals did you set for being The Associated Press’ Program Manager for inclusive Journalism?
When I began at AP, I was tasked with having conversations, as sort of an informal needs assessment. I had conversations with some of our members, BIPOC publishers, college journalism professors and members of the AP staff. From those conversations, four main themes kept resurfacing, the need for more journalists with diverse backgrounds, the need for more local and inclusive reporting, capacity and opportunities for smaller ethnic media and training. My goals for this role are to create solutions for each of these “pillars” in hopes to support the industry
About AP: The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day. Online: www.ap.org
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Media Contact: Rusty Coats, Executive Director | rusty@jfp-local.org | (813) 277-8959
