#1 - We know how to build community and trust

There’s a lot of talk and money being thrown into building communities and earning trust from the audience. And I’ve discovered that journalists of colour are inherently very good at this for some reason.

What’s interesting to me is that legacy media needs our community, language skills, perspectives, contacts etc across the entire newsroom, and yet many JOCs say they are still being relegated to specific sections or beats that pigeonhole them. Think Indigenous reporters only reporting on Indigenous issues, Black and Brown reporters only reporting on community affairs and so on.

(Of course, we will naturally have an interest and passion for covering things that affect our community, but we can obviously do more than that. I, for one, have been fortunate enough to have worked in national and international newsrooms my whole career covering all sorts of things).

Sometimes I feel that traditional (Western) newsrooms hire JOCs solely because they can attract a “new” and “emerging” audience, which I suppose is fine if that gets them into the building. But again, that can be limiting if that is their only perceived value.

A cool trend I’m seeing is that some JOCs are leaning into this and doing it their way. They know they have an underserved audience that fully trusts them and they are rewarding that trust by starting their own media outlet, or they are working at places that value everything they bring. That, to me, is integrity.

I’m talking about people like Nadine White at Black Current News, Indigenous Australian journalist Amy McQuire, founder of Zan Times Zahra Nader, and Rommel H. Ojeda, an immigration reporter at Documented.

#2 - People are choosing to stay despite their exhaustion. But for how long?

There is this reverence and love for journalism, but how many of us can truly say we will stick around till we retire? We do everything we can and love an industry that doesn’t really love us back.

My conversation with Dhruti Shah comes to mind. Despite her huge talent, she left the BBC to carve out her own path. But where do mid-career journalists go? Where do journalists of colour go when they want to be ones making decisions?

A Journalism UK piece by Shirish Kulkarni addresses this question, but I’m afraid I don’t have a good solution besides just getting more JOCs into senior positions, which is easier said than done!

#3 - People fear backlash when talking about diversity and race

I’m sad to say that there is a culture of fear when it comes to conversations around diversity and race.

A lot of the people I spoke to or approached for my newsletter were worried that being part of my venture could jeopardise their career in some way - and I’m not even asking people to call out their bosses or former bosses! I just want tips and advice on how to navigate the industry as a person of colour.

But it goes to show how far we’ve regressed since BLM in 2020. Having said that, we’ve had a wave of interesting election results recently, from Brazil to Serbia and the “blue tsunami” in the States, so I’m really curious to see how that impacts diversity initiatives and media freedom going forward.

Here’s hoping conversations on race and diversity will be less censored!

#4 - Loyalty to yourself is key

No-one has your back more than you. Don’t give yourself away to your company or your job. Be a sponge and take what you can from your workplace. I’ve heard so much advice from JOCs along those lines - and I have to agree with them.

You don’t necessarily need to start a media company, newsletter or podcast; it’s ok to be an employee. But I think it’s wise to remember that you’re not family and they will get rid of you if the numbers don’t add up. Just don’t take it personally. Network outside of your own company bubble. It might help to be more visible, but make sure it doesn’t destroy your privacy or mental health.

Also, in an industry that takes so much from us, replenish yourself by engaging in stuff outside of work and journalism. We, as JOCs, are generally reporting on issues that carry a lot of trauma and it’s easy to neglect ourselves. It’s ok to have fun and be frivolous. It doesn’t mean we don’t care about the world around us.

#5 - New systems need to be built

I’m looking forward to the next chapter of journalism. (Will this date well? Who knows!) It’s too easy to lament the fall of journalism in the age of AI, but I really think that what we do is still necessary despite the endless layoffs.

This week, we’ve had two huge public figures face rape and sexual assault allegations. One is going to prison for a decade. The other silenced his young victims for years, but he can’t anymore. Meanwhile, a very influential tech CEO has been brought down because he couldn’t keep his pants up. None of this would have come to light without journalists. Many more stories need to be uncovered by us.

We bring more to the table than we realise. But when the people around the table don’t want us there, or if that table is broken, we need to bring our own. And that’s what a lot of women and JOCs are doing, unapologetically.

It’s clear that the old systems are crumbling. Now, I’m not smart enough or business-savvy enough to know what to do about that, but there are plenty of JOCs out there who do and are already doing something about it. I commend them for giving it a go and for their entrepreneurial spirit which has given me lots of food for thought.

Perhaps Tristan Ahtone, editor-at-large at Grist, said it best: “We need those folks who can come out on the other end and be ready for the changes instead of leaving the changes to the people who screwed it up in the first place.”