Elia Powers Challenges Newsroom Conformity in New Book
Elia Powers discusses necessity for challenging diversity norms in newsroom management (Isaiah Hayes/The Black Explosion)
A University of Maryland book discussion Wednesday challenged many longstanding norms of newsroom professionalism and neutrality, especially as it relates to the importance of representation.
Elia Powers, author of Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality, described the motivation behind his book’s research.
“I think it's important for us as educators and people in newsrooms to be upfront about some of the…[negative experiences] other journalists have had, and also some of the things they might hear once they get into the industry,” Powers said.
Developing a stutter as a teenager, Powers, who identifies as a white man, says he lost his self-confidence as the stutter affected his ability to pronounce his first name, causing him anxiety about introducing himself and interacting with others in social settings.
This anxiety affected his confidence in pursuing broadcast journalism in college, even with his on-campus radio experience and broadcast internship. Powers doubted this path, eventually abandoning his pursuit of broadcast altogether.
“Print journalism was my only realistic route…broadcast journalists sounded nothing like me. They spoke effortlessly and rarely stumbled. I still spoke too fast and enunciated poorly,” he wrote.
Powers explained that his research is not based on his personal experience in the newsroom but on interviews with over 100 different journalists of color of all newsroom experiences.
When speaking to journalists, Powers said he noticed a trend among discussions of their speech and appearance, and the need to conform to standards of neutrality and ambiguity in the newsroom to be accepted professionally.
“Journalists from historically marginalized groups feel extra pressure to conform when they are in any type of workplace, but especially one where you're speaking to an audience,” Powers said.
Powers highlighted systemic issues like the expectations of hair consistency in the newsroom, and how reporters’ professionalism could be questioned when they show their personality or culture through their choice of clothing, hairstyles or even dialect.
“Radio journalists told me that a good radio voice is someone who speaks neutrally, like, ‘I don't know where you're from’...the more neutral your voice is, the wider you can go,” Powers said.
As a result of these findings, Powers suggested a need for more diverse representation among newsroom leaders and management as well. He voiced that newsrooms should consider hiring journalists who “look like the community and not just people that look ideal to the very narrow band of what people look like.”
A 2022 study by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of journalists said their news organization does not have enough racial and ethnic employee diversity. The issue deepens when considering media political bias, as the same study found that 56 percent of journalists in left-leaning news organizations said they had formal diversity training, while in right-leaning newsrooms, 37 percent said the same.
As the data suggests, the workforce in television news and radio is majority white, and Powers describes the effects of this in his book discussion.
Ronald Yaros, associate professor at this university, questioned the performative nature of many broadcast news outlets, citing a deviation from what sounds natural. He went on to quote what he feels mentors and coaches may say to early-career journalists.
“You have to learn how to act naturally. Pretend you're talking to your mom,” Yaros said.
Powers responded, saying that what sounds natural to many audiences has been formed around the idea of “white neutrality.”
“Whiteness is sort of defined as the normal range of behaviors and characteristics. Anything that deviates from that is considered abnormal,” Powers said.
Powers’ research, along with recent data, points to the need of rethinking the norms surrounding neutrality, and what it means for journalists to be impartial. He suggests that educators and hiring managers must embrace the intricacy of identity in journalism, inviting challenges to the “myth of neutrality.”