University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2009 Black female journalists : experiences of racism, sexism and classism in the newsroom. Amber Genile Duke 1981- University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Duke, Amber Genile 1981-, "Black female journalists : experiences of racism, sexism and classism in the newsroom." (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 377. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/377 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS: EXPERIENCES OF RACISM, SEXISM AND CLASSISM IN THE NEWSROOM By Amber Genile Duke B.S., New York University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Pan-African Studies University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky May 2009 Copyright 2009 by Amber G. Duke All rights reserved BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS: EXPERIENCES OF RACISM, SEXISM AND CLASSISM IN THE NEWSROOM By Amber Genile Duke B.S., New York University 2004 A Thesis Approved on April 1, 2009 By the following Thesis Committee: Thesis Dirl::"clOr 11 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my Grandpoppy Paul W. Eddie January 1925-May 2007 You always joked that my smartness was from you. You were more right than you ever knew. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to give special thanks to my Thesis Director Dr. Theresa Rajack­ Talley. Over the past few years you have challenged and encouraged me, helping me create some of my best work. I would also like to thank Dr. Cate Fosl and Dr. Kaila Story for their assistance with this project. Many thanks to my parents Derrick and Teejan Booker and my grandmother Margaret Eddie for their patience and encouragement through the years. Finally to my best friend and partner in all things, my wonderful Brent. I wouldn't have survived the past few years without your editing skills, tech support, shoulder rubs and cups of hot tea. I'm so lucky to have your love. IV ABSTRACT BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS: EXPERIENCES OF RACISM, SEXISM AND CLASSISM IN THE NEWSROOM Amber G. Duke April 1, 2009 This thesis analyzes the experiences and challenges Black female journalists encounter in the newsroom. Using oral history interviews and writings from Black female journalists about their experiences, the researcher identifies a unique set of barriers these women faced in assignments and career advancement. Black Feminist theoretical perspectives aide in understanding how the interlocking oppressions of racism, sexism and classism impacted Black female journalists on three distinct levels: personal level, group or community level and institutional level. The findings reveal Black Female journalists' personal experiences with discrimination propelled them into careers in the media. While on the job, many ofthem took on the added responsibility of educating their colleagues about Black people in an effort to change and enhance mainstream media coverage of Black issues. The study concludes Black female journalists were able to resist and overcome discrimination in story assignments, job promotion and criticism of their physical appearance, in part, by creating support networks. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DEDICATION ............................................................................... .iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................. .iv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................v CHAPTER I. BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS: EXPERIENCES OF RACISM, SEXISM AND CLASSISM IN THE NEWSROOM: AN INTRODUCTION ............................ 1 II. WHERE ARE THE BLACK WOMEN? LOCATING BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION LITERATURE .......................6 III. FEMINIST AND BLACK FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ............................ 30 IV. METHODOLOGy .........................................................................43 V. BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS: FINDINGS ON THE EXPERIENCES OF BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS IN THE NEWS INDUSTRY ...................................................................................... 55 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ....................................................70 REFERENCES ................ , ............................................................ , ..... 76 CURRICULUM VITAE ........................................................................ 87 Chapter 1 BLACK FEMALE JOURNALISTS: EXPERIENCES OF RACISM, SEXISM AND CLASSISM IN THE NEWSROOM: AN INTRODUCTION Television does more than simply entertain or provide news about major events ofthe day. It confers status on those individuals and groups it selects for placement in the public eye, telling the viewer who and what is important to know about, think about and have feelings about. ~"Window Dressing on the Set" Report from Us. Commission on Civil Right/ Descriptions of the newsroom made my eyes twinkle as an undergraduate. I was convinced I was going to have the most exciting job anyone could possibly have. I was becoming a journalist. I was going to spend my days in an oppression free space where people of all different races, creeds, backgrounds and interests came together and worked hard towards reporting on the important issues facing the community. Once I landed my first job as a television producer, it only took me a few hours to learn the real newsroom environment was much different than the idea of the newsroom that my professors talked about in my courses. My colleagues were not representative of the racial and ethnic diversity of the community. I was one of only three people of color, and one of only a handful of female employees. My experiences as a Black, female journalist are not unique as thousands of Black women have written, edited and published in newspapers or for television in the United States. These Black women who have recorded American history through their 1 United States. Commission on Civil Rights. Window Dressing on the Set: Women and Minorities in Television. Washington: August 1977, Pg. 1 1 reporting have largely been ignored in the history books and by scholars of American journalism. Mass Media Research Mass media research is a large field of study with almost unlimited types of inquiry into individual media industries which include, but are not limited to: commercial music, film, commercial and noncommercial radio, commercial television, public television, print news, broadcast news, advertising and the emerging areas of electronic communication? As in many other fields of study, early activities in the field were dominated by white men, with women and minorities receiving little attention.3 For some time many scholars and historians did not consider African Americans as having strong participatory roles in the creation and development of American mass media because they were shut out of mainstream media organizations for so long. For example, in 1955, there was not a single Black person in radio or television newsrooms above the caretaker level in a U.S. mainstream news organization.4 Since that time there has been remarkable progress in the employment of African Americans in the media, and in their inclusion in communications research. One study in particular helped lead to a flurry of mass media research on women and minorities. In 1977 and again in 1979, the United States Commission on Civil Rights released a study on women and minorities in television titled, Window Dressing on the Set: Women and Minorities in Television. The groundbreaking report was the 2 Samuels 1996; Butler & Paisley 1972; Gans 1979; Shaw 1990. 3 Dates and Barlow 1993; Wilson and Gutierrez 1985 and 1995; Kern-Foxworth 1994 4 Dates, Jannette L. and William Barlow. Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media. Washington: Howard University Press, 1993, pg. 19. 2 government's first official acknowledgement of barriers women and minorities working in the news and entertainment industries had faced for years: racism, classism, sexism and unfair representation. Two of the major findings of the 1977 study were: minorities and women, particularly minority women, were underrepresented on the news and their portrayals were stereotyped; and minority women were underrepresented on local station work forces and were almost totally excluded from decision making positions.5 Since the Window Dressing Report, a significant body of research on the television industry has been done around portrayals of women and minorities in the media. A good number of these studies critically examine the portrayals and the effects of the performances of Black women on primetime television.6 A substantial amount of research has been collected about print news and the Black press. 7 It is in this area of print journalism that the contributions of Black women to the field and detailed analyses of their work is covered most in the literature.8 Despite progress in these areas of research, studies on Black women's employment in the