Race & Gender Publications
Self-Optimization in the Face of Patriarchy: How Mainstream Women’s Media Facilitates White Feminism
January 5, 2021, 9:10 amKoa Beck, Spring 2019 Joan Shorenstein Fellow
The capitalistic, corporate, individualistic narratives of fourth-wave and white feminism are communicated and reinforced by mainstream women’s media. Koa Beck is the former Editor-in-Chief of Jezebel.com, and was a Joan Shorenstein Fellow in Spring 2019. This paper informed and became part of her new book “White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind.”
Canaries in the Coal Mine: COVID-19 Misinformation and Black Communities
June 24, 2020, 4:05 pmBrandi Collins-Dexter, Shorenstein Center Fellow
Even as Black people are disproportionately dying from the virus due to systemic racism, harmful inaccuracies about COVID-19 are metastasizing in Black online spaces. Using multi-site digital ethnography, Shorenstein Center Fellow Brandi Collins-Dexter tracked and identified the spread of this disinformation, and makes recommendations on how to combat it.
Can Cities Save the Census? A Local Framework for Our Nation’s First Digital Count
April 1, 2019, 9:41 amWith trust in federal government and institutions at historic lows, local governments, including cities and counties, must play a critical role in the 2020 Census. If we don’t get the census right, there is so much we are at risk of getting wrong – the implications of which will last for years.
Estimating the Effect of Asking About Citizenship on the U.S. Census
March 21, 2019, 1:21 pmThe 2020 U.S. Census will, for the first time since 1950, ask about residents’ citizenship status. The effect of doing so on census completion across different racial/ethnic groups is, however, unknown. Leveraging a survey experiment, we are the first to assess the causal effect of this question change.
In the Shadow of Kerner: Fifty Years Later, Newsroom Diversity and Equity Stall
May 22, 2018, 5:45 amBy Farai Chideya, Joan Shorenstein Fellow, Spring 2017, and Program Officer, Ford Foundation
Introduction The staffing of the American news media has never fully reflected the diversity of the nation. For most of the country’s history, Latino and non-white journalists were not welcomed in white-run newsrooms and, through their own news outlets, produced…
Environmental Justice? Unjust Coverage of the Flint Water Crisis
July 11, 2017, 8:30 amBy Derrick Z. Jackson, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (fall 2016), Boston Globe essayist, climate and energy writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists
A new paper by Derrick Z. Jackson, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (fall 2016), Boston Globe essayist, and a climate and energy writer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, examines the failure of national media outlets to respond to the Flint water crisis…
How Women Journalists Are Silenced in a Man’s World: The Double-Edged Sword of Reporting from Muslim Countries
June 19, 2017, 8:15 amYeganeh Rezaian, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (fall 2016) and
Iranian journalist, formerly of Bloomberg News and The National
Photo: Shifa Gardi, a journalist for an Iraqi Kurdish television station, was killed by a roadside bomb while reporting. A new paper by Yeganeh Rezaian, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (fall 2016) and Iranian journalist, shines a light on the difficulties women reporters…
Rape Culture in India: The Role of the English-Language Press
July 20, 2016, 8:30 amBy Joanna Jolly with additional reporting by Uzra Khan
A new paper by Joanna Jolly, Joan Shorenstein Fellow (spring 2016) and former BBC South Asia editor, examines the increased coverage of rape in India’s English-language newspapers following the infamous 2012 gang rape in Delhi, and whether this coverage led to…
Digital Divas: Women, Politics and the Social Network
April 25, 2011, 2:45 pmBy Alexis Gelber
Alexis Gelber Shorenstein Center Goldsmith Fellow, Spring 2011 Formerly, Newsweek magazine Read the full paper (PDF). Excerpt: In the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama emerged as the champion of new media by using social networking tools in innovative ways to…
Women and News: Expanding the News Audience, Increasing Political Participation, and Informing Citizens
November 1, 2007, 12:00 pmThis Shorenstein Center report includes transcripts from a conference sponsored by the Shorenstein Center, featuring keynote speeches from Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post and Ellen Goodman, author and journalist, as well as research on women’s engagement with political…
