SPIRALS OF SILENCE: EXAMINING AFROCENTRIC AND EUROCENTRIC HAIRSTYLING FOR BLACK WOMEN IN BROADCAST NEWSROOMS A Professional Project presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by KIARA EALY Dr. Cynthia Frisby, Project Chair DECEMBER 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Cynthia Frisby for being both my friend and project chair during my time at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. You’ve been such shining example of not only what it means to keep going when the going gets tough, but also how to keep a smile on your face while doing so. Thank you to Dr. Stacey Woelfel for guiding me and staying cool, calm and collected. With you guidance, I was able to study both news and documentary and understand the importance of both fields. Finally, thank you Reuben Stern for letting me become the first grad student to attend the MU Journalism Abroad program in New York City. I laughed, I cried, I got lost; I had an opportunity to create cherished memories with the most unforgettable people. Most of all, I was able to create the research project of my dreams, and I thank you for that. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................... ii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................. ................ 1 2. ACTIVITY LOG ...................... ........................................ ................ 3 3. EVALUATION ................................................................. ............... 20 4. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE ................................................................... 22 5. SPIRALS OF SILENCE: EXAMINING AFROCENTRIC AND EUROCENTRIC HAIRSTYLING FOR BLACK WOMEN IN BROADCAST NEWSROOMS ................................................................... 90 REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 126 APPENDIX A. ORIGINAL PROPOSAL .............................................................. 127 B. TRANSCRIPTS ............................................................................. 147 C. TABLES ........................................................................................ 231 iii Introduction While in New York City for my professional project, I filmed a documentary on the hairstyles black reporters and anchors choose and how that choice affects their private and public spheres. As a graduate student in TV reporting in the Missouri School of Journalism, I’ve learned to balance both research and reporting, which was an advantage while I completed a professional project. My experiences as an intern for both Scripps Howard and Oklahoma State University prepared me for what it takes to deliver under pressure and for a mass audience. Additionally, working at KOMU-TV as a production assistant, reporter and anchor taught me how to further think on my feet through stressful situations to produce a quality story and newscast. My academic goals relate to my project in that I was able to tie together the journalism, videography and interviewing skills I learned through my master’s program to showcase my educational experience. As far as career goals, completing my professional project in New York gave me a greater network of people to interview and put me in a position to be a better reporter. The research that led to my professional project focused on the intersection of race, class and gender in American broadcast newsrooms. More specifically, how African-American hair is perceived and altered to fit American beauty standards. As one of few minority women in my communication, marketing and/or journalism classes, I became intrigued by how much of an impact minority women have in newsrooms. Additionally, after several sociology and mass media classes that examined 1 intersectionality, I was further drawn into studying my subject. 2 Activity Log Internship update: Jan. 16, 2017 Monday, Jan. 9, I had orientation and had my ID made. Basically, I learned who a lot of the other interns were and found out who else would be working across the street with me at “60 Minutes.” Tuesday was the first official day. My supervisor, Yvonne Shaw, was out with the flu, so it was more of a learn the basics and introduce yourself type of day. Since CBS still uses tapes to archive most of its material, a lot of our time was spent learning how to get tapes from the archive department. This was also the big week for Obama’s final media interview. The last few days were spent on really helping to pull video and photos for the Obama farewell segment, going to a discussion with CBS President David Rhodes and Gayle King about the state of the network, and going through LexisNexis training. I found the LexisNexis training incredibly helpful in connecting sources and building potential stories. I think one of my biggest takeaways this week was learning how a huge network operates, rather than doing the one-man-band work I was taught at KOMU. Both have their pros and cons, from what I’ve seen so far. What I would like to do for this upcoming week is find my place as an intern. I understand we have to run tapes and assist as much whenever possible, but I would like to pitch the idea of possibly rotating as a shadow between editors, producers, talent and crew for the next few upcoming weeks. It’ll also be an interesting week because of Trump’s inauguration. 3 Internship update: Jan.16-20 My second week at “60 Minutes” was all about getting to know more people and figuring out how to get more involved. Alison Pepper, who hires for a lot of the entry- level positions, talked to us about how it is a place of asking how we could get involved, rather than waiting to get involved. I think I did a good job of introducing myself more and emailing people about assisting on shoots. We were taught how to look at what’s in the set-up phase, post production, etc., so that made it easier to email producers. We also did LexisNexis training, which allowed me to get more involved with researching stories. Others tasks included: mail, answering the phones, doing archive searches and running tapes. I think I could have done a better job of emailing producers sooner to get help out with stories, but it was only week two and people were swamped with the Obama piece during week one. I ran into some difficult people on the phone who wanted to speak directly to producers about story ideas, but that’s part of the job, I guess. I try my best to remain calm, explaining why we don’t connect people to producers and give them the email for story pitches. Although I’ve been doing basic archive searches, we’ll learn how to do the search properly next week. I reminded our supervisor we hadn’t had the training, and she scheduled it as soon as she could. CBS archives nearly all its footage on tapes, so the archive training is so crucial to knowing how to pull footage in a timely manner. In week three, I hope to go out to help on a local shoot. Also, I really want to get involved on a story or two to focus on for the next month or so. “60 Minutes” has so many stories being researched, written, filmed and edited at one time that I understand why it’s our job to find a story and producer we can work for and learn from while we’re there. Also, I really want to attend a screening next week so I can learn how segments are discussed and altered before they air. 4 Internship Update: Jan. 23-27 As you may (or may not know), I don’t work on Mondays, so my reports always start with Tuesday. So on Tuesday, Jan. 24, I went in for CBS archive training. Like I mentioned previously, I had been using the archive to find material before, but I wasn’t quite sure how to find everything I needed or if I was searching effectively. The training definitely helped! Now, I’m able to find things quickly and know how to preview the digital version before I order a physical copy. Wednesday was honestly the first day I began feeling comfortable and confident. After reaching out to a few producers, I was assigned tasks to specific stories, which makes me feel like I’m a part of a team, rather than someone just doing random tasks for anyone who walks by. I would say people know who the new interns are now and they reach out to us whenever they need something. Even though it was only week three, it’s a good feeling to have people recognize you and trust in your ability to get the job done. One of the stories this week required a lot of teamwork and communication from people all over the world, so I learned what that process was like and how the editors make a piece like that happen. Through time differences, language barriers and all sorts of simultaneous editing, the 11-minute segment told a remarkable story. While watching one of the editors, he explained how meticulous the process could be. He asked me what was wrong with an interview segment, which I thought looked fine, and then explained how the blinking of the interviewees didn’t match where he wanted to cut to one of the correspondents. Additionally, we talked about the difference between the pacing and storytelling in hard news vs. a news magazine, like 60 Minutes. This was the week I also made connections for my documentary and sent out some emails. I’m glad I waited a bit and got to know a few people before just jumping into the project immediately. This allowed for better networking, and now, with so many producers around, I get to take in their feedback and have them help me with the editorial process. Now that I have the right equipment in, I should be ready to start scheduling interviews.