In the midst of a nationwide push for racial justice, public media is having a reckoning of its own.
Across the country, journalists and staff are speaking out at public radio stations about failed attempts at diversifying newsrooms and troubling stories of racism in the workplace going back decades and stretching into the present day.
At WNYC, which produces The Takeaway, staff asked leadership to hire a newsroom head who is reflective of New York’s diversity—but the company hired Audrey Cooper, a white woman from California. This has prompted staff to demand action in hiring practices, the retention and promotion of POC journalists in leadership positions, and more.
Public media has historically been a white medium serving largely white audiences, even though it prides itself on being independent, representative, and dramatically different from traditional for-profit media.
But has public media lost its way in that mission? The Takeaway talks to its very own executive producer Lee Hill about that and more. He’s a Black journalist who has been working in public media for 17 years, including several at WNYC.
Then, we discuss the future of public radio, with Doug Mitchell, founder and director of NPR’s Next Generation Radio. The Next Generation Radio program trains and mentors young journalists throughout the country, to get their foot in the door for a public radio career. You can contact Doug at nextgenerationradio@npr.org, or find him on social media @NextGenRadio.
