Articles by: "Martin Reynolds, co-director—The Maynard Institute"

Going beyond diversity, the Maynard 200 program fosters true equity

April 1, 2021 Martin Reynolds, co-director—The Maynard Institute

Many white Americans—and American corporations—were shocked into a recognition of America’s ingrained racism, past and present, by the brutal drama that played out in 2020 on the blacktop of a Minneapolis street and under the knee of a former police officer.

The callous murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black Americans spurred millions to finally take a close, honest look at their communities, schools, and businesses. Eyes turned to newsrooms as we sought to understand why the media’s depiction of these institutions do not reflect the diverse reality of our lives.

History lessons

Echoing uprisings in the streets, we saw similar uprisings within America’s newsrooms. The inequities seen in our communities parallel those long in place in media institutions. And our news coverage and the framing of news stories and issues reflect these biases.

Racial disparities in America are older than the Constitution. They began with America’s original sin of chattel slavery. Tremendous leaps and bounds have been made in the fight to realize the promises in our founding documents for all Americans. Yet those words—that all are created equal—remain aspirational.

The Institute for Journalism Education was born out of this aspiration, of the struggle to ensure all segments of our society are fairly, accurately, and equitably represented. This applies not only to the halls of Congress, but to the pages and screens of our journalistic institutions.

Long before the ubiquity of “DE&I” initiatives and Black Lives Matter marches, Washington Post journalist Robert C. Maynard recognized that white men dominate America’s media organizations. Declaring “We must desegregate this business,” Maynard and eight other journalists founded the institute to train and lift up journalists of color. Robert Maynard’s ineradicable legacy as a true pioneer was solidified when the organization he helped create was posthumously renamed the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Amplifying voices

The Institute’s flagship program, the Maynard 200 Fellowship, is about building a new and lasting legacy for entrepreneurs, leaders, and storytellers of color who will shape the future of journalism in America. What we are seeing across journalism right now is a modern-day Civil Rights Movement for journalists of color.

In response, we must foster substantive power, belonging, and agency within the institutions that tell the stories of our society and our world. Through Maynard 200, the institute aspires to empower journalists of color to lead and grow organizations to have cultures of belonging. These leaders will help ensure that media organizations continue to serve our democracy. To do so, they must accurately represent the minds, souls, histories, and perspectives of all Americans.

Like many organizations, we’ve had to pivot following public health protocols due to the ongoing recovery from the global Covid-19 pandemic. That means that, for the first time, Maynard 200 will hold an all-digital training component to serve more than 40 diverse media professionals as fellows across the country. The program provides them with tools to elevate their own digital voices through panels, dialogues, and events.

Diversity and equity

For decades, Maynard has been the standard-bearer of aspiration and expertise in its primary mission of making newsrooms reflect America. It has led the re-envisioning, and advancing, of what it really means to be “diverse.”

In fact, Maynard has flipped the prevalent DE&I convention upside down, by bringing equity to the forefront. Without equity, diversity is only performative. By focusing on equity, Maynard has forged a longstanding record of training and advancing individuals from a varied diaspora of racial and ethnic communities throughout newsrooms and media organizations across the country.

Maynard conceived the “Fault Lines” framework for facilitating honest discussion about highly charged issues, through an understanding of how people with different perspectives can view something in completely different ways. In other words, the way we perceive the world and experience each other is filtered by our own backgrounds and experiences. Thus, diversity of perspectives produces a strength greater than the sum of each individual alone.

We belong

And, as a result of Maynard’s framework, a new narrative has emerged: the necessity and power of belonging. It is not nearly enough for organizations to check a diversity box with new hires. The perspectives and backgrounds and ideas that each individual brings to the table must be fully absorbed into the culture and decision-making of the organization itself. Inclusion alone is surface-level; inclusion can be as empty as toleration. But when you belong, you can feel it. And the implications can be felt in the work you produce.

For the Maynard Institute, pursuing belongingness is about far more than mere integration. Belonging creates the kind of atmosphere where people of color can feel empowered and entitled to bring their full selves into the newsroom, including their history and their perspectives, rather than feeling pressured to contort themselves to fit existing narratives.

Maynard 200 is the institute’s answer to the breakdown in the pipeline of training and jobs for journalists of color. In the wake of the Great Recession, years of progress were decimated in a matter of months. The ongoing public health crisis vis-a-vis the pandemic, America’s widening racial disparities, and the division and hate provoked by the Trump administration have only increased the urgency and salience of Maynard’s cause.

Writing a new story

Repairing all of this damage requires institutions of journalism to be active participants in the dismantling of structures of systemic racism—rather than the enablers of inequity and oppression.

Media organizations can be part of the solution. From the stories they tell, to the sources they use, to the framing of what is news and who is newsworthy, the media is a powerful component in our nations racial reckoning. We believe that strong diverse leadership is critical for this to occur. And so, with this year’s Maynard 200, we renew our commitment to supporting the growth and equity for future media leaders. And it is our belief that these leaders will make an impact that will resonate across all sectors of American journalism and media.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Perspectives

Diversity is critical to American media. Learn how Maynard Institute and some powerful partners are working on it.

June 27, 2018 Martin Reynolds, co-director—The Maynard Institute

While America and its citizens are more diverse than ever before, the newsrooms representing them are still overwhelmingly white. In today’s political climate, the need to amplify a wide range of perspectives is of critical importance. We at the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, along with Google News Lab, the News Integrity Initiative, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies believe diversity in the newsroom is the future of digital media.

To support this ideal, we’ve launched the Maynard 200, a fellowship program that will train 200 diverse journalists in the next five years, focusing on three tracks: entrepreneurship, leadership, and storytelling. We will recruit participants to fill spots in each track. They will receive training as a whole cohort and get specialized training for their respective area of focus.

Learn more from the American Society of News Editors’ interactive graphic https://googletrends.github.io/asne/

Professional Development

According to the 2017 American Society of News Editors Diversity Survey, the average newsroom workforce at all 661 legacy and digital sites polled was about 16.6 percent minority. For many of the journalists of color working at these outlets, the structures that were in place to support their professional development have been wiped out. Without professional development, this already too-small group is less likely to continue in their journalistic careers.

The Maynard 200 will combat this issue head on, by bringing journalists from varied but complementary backgrounds together to learn and build their networks. We envision Maynard 200 as the beginning of a movement of people of color who will articulate the value of diversity across media.

Digital Dilemma

In the digital space, the situation is even more acute. Clear pathways to and through many new online outlets have never existed or are under resourced. Many of these outlets also suffer perception bias, which is the belief that simply because the outlet is staffed with younger more progressive thinkers, there isn’t a need to be intentional about addressing diversity.

We recognize that many of tomorrow’s journalism entrepreneurs and leaders of color now operate on their own, or as independent contractors, tasked with their own professional development and left to fend for themselves in finding mentors, supportive peers and access to capital. We also know that storytellers of all types seek to contribute to the narrative of their communities. These non-traditional voices don’t hail from top journalism programs. They may work for small independent outlets with little access to training or mentorship.

The Challenges

Impact Architects LLC, together with Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, developed a survey from November 2017 through February 2018 to be administered among journalists. The survey’s main goal was to identify challenges, needs, and desires of journalists to help inform the design and implementation of the Maynard 200 education initiative.

One of the most outstanding findings from this survey was the lack of mentorship and support for journalists. Of the 509 journalists surveyed, less than one quarter (23%) of respondents said they are currently receiving coaching or assistance from a mentor. Additionally, respondents were relatively evenly split as to whether their employer provides training opportunities, with half saying “no” (49%) and half saying “yes” (40%) or “unsure” (11%). More than half said that their employers don’t offer paid leave for participation in training, conferences, and/or workshops.

Diverse Needs

The Maynard Institute is uniquely positioned to serve these professionals and create a movement across the media. By offering training, networking, and professional support for young journalists of color, the Maynard 200 seeks to remind the media of the paramount importance of diversity, and expand their impact not only in the next five years, but for generations to come.

Yes, we see this program as a means to re-establish Maynard as a leader in the eyes of a new generation of media professionals. But it’s much bigger than us.

It’s about creating a movement, a rallying cry for journalists of color at a time when the integrity of journalists and journalism are under constant attack. It’s time for us to take action and support a more diverse media workforce so that the media can better reflect consumers and serve its vital role to inform the public.

About the authors

Evelyn Hsu is co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Prior to joining the Maynard Institute, she was a member of the faculty of the Poynter Institute, and before that, she was an associate director of the American Press Institute. She has worked as a reporter for The Washington Post and for the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a past national president of the Asian American Journalists Association.

Martin G. Reynolds is Co-Executive Director of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education overseeing external affairs and fundraising. He also directs the Reveal Investigative Fellowships. Reynolds is the former editor-in-chief of The Oakland Tribune (CA), and was a lead editor on the Chauncey Bailey Project, formed to investigate the slaying of the former Oakland Post editor. Reynolds is a lead trainer for the Maynard Institute, focusing on cultural competency and community engagement. His journalism career spans two decades, and includes the co-founding of Oakland Voices, a community storytelling program that empowers residents to contribute to the narrative of their lives.