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Debt Crushes Benefits of Earning a Master’s

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Advanced J-Degrees Don’t Mean Higher Salaries
Hampton J-School Gets New Interim Dean
Blacks Feel Brunt of Police Tips to Landlords
Cops Said to Falsely Label Some as Gang Members
Biles Says IndyStar Made Her Realize Abuse

Which Hispanic Stories Will Be Told This Month?
Defiant Afro-Cuban on Time’s ‘Influential’ List
Taliban Apology to Journalists Rings Hollow
This Arab American Doesn’t Want to Be Called White
Broadcasters Say FCC’s Own Rules Limit Diversity

Short Takes: Sarah Goo and Aja Whitaker-Moore; Donald Trump and white evangelicals; Julio Vaqueiro; Atlanta Journal-Constitution initiative on Black topics; white executives prevail in Hollywood; new BET Studios for Black creatives; HBO Max initiative on Black storytelling; NAB PSAs on importance of fact-based journalism; CPB grants for “Urban Alternative” formats;

Averi Harper and diversity in ABC political coverage; “A People’s History of Black Twitter”; Ishmael Reed; new Ida B. Wells statue; Los Angeles pioneer status in residential segregation; Carmen Fields; Gillian B. White; “The Activist” reality show; “Tips for Reporters Seeking to Reveal the Scale of Inequality”; Lynsey Chutel; beating in Congo; jailing in Myranmar.

Homepage photo: Graduates at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., which offers a master’s program in mass communication. (Credit: MIssissippi Clarion-Ledger)

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Advanced J-Degrees Don’t Mean Higher Salaries

“News reporting has lost thousands of jobs over the past decade, with a further slide predicted (paywall),” Melissa Korn and Anthony DeBarros reported Sept. 10 for The Wall Street Journal. “Yet, journalism schools continue to churn out heavily indebted master’s degree graduates hoping to find a footing in the cratering industry.

“Many students leave even the most prestigious private graduate programs, such as those at Northwestern University, Columbia University and the University of Southern California, with earnings too low to let them make progress paying off their loans, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Education Department figures released this year.

“At Northwestern, students who recently earned a master’s degree in journalism and took out federal loans borrowed a median $54,900 — more than three times as much as their undergraduate counterparts did. That is the biggest gap of any university with available data. Worse still, the master’s degree holders make less money. Early-career earnings for those with master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern are about $1,500 lower than for its undergraduate students, data show. . . .”

Korn and DeBarros also wrote, “Charles Whitaker, who has been Medill’s dean since 2019, declined to say how much the school awards each year in scholarships for master’s students, but called the pool limited and said fundraising for the aid is challenging. Northwestern is among the wealthiest universities in the U.S., with an $11.1 billion endowment; the school doesn’t break out how much of that is available for the journalism program to tap.

“ ‘Graduate student debt is the thing that keeps me up at night,’ Mr. Whitaker said. He attributed some of the earnings differential to the fact that undergraduates often complete their degrees with multiple internships and years of experience on student publications.

“At the graduate level, Mr. Whitaker said, ‘We take bright French majors and try to turn them into journalists in 12 months.’

“The number of journalism master’s degrees awarded annually in the past few years by Medill has been between 120 and 140, down from about 185 a decade ago.

“Mr. Whitaker said that employers are partly to blame for journalism graduates’ poor financial outcomes, and that he tells news-industry leaders, ‘I cannot in good conscience encourage students to go into this kind of debt if you cannot pay better.’

“Michael Days (pictured), a former editor of the Philadelphia Daily News and past president of the News Leaders Association, said employers can’t do much more.

“ ‘Smaller papers just don’t have the ability to pay really high salaries,’ he said, adding that it is a moment of existential crisis in the field. ‘The industry’s still trying to figure out what it is going to be in the digital world, how it is going to go beyond survival’. . . .”

Mary A. Bock (pictured), adviser to the overall master’s program at the University of Texas at Austin, School of Journalism and Media, considered an Hispanic-serving institution, contends the master’s is worth it.

She messaged Journal-isms, “I do believe that our professional MA provides world-class preparation for journalists and that as a public institution we are able to do so far more economically than other universities. Our students go on to careers with national and local news institutions whether they write, shoot video, or work as photojournalists.”

Hampton J-School Gets New Interim Dean

Julia Wilson (pictured), founder of a global communications and public relations firm who joined Hampton University as an adjunct professor only this year, has been named interim dean of the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications — and she says she’s acting as if the “interim” isn’t in the title.

The previous dean, B. Da’vida Plummer (pictured, below) left to join “the leadership team of a global non-profit” based in New York, Plummer told Journal-isms, adding that the firm would make an official announcement.

Wilson’s appointment follows the appointment of deans Jackie Jones at Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism and Communication in June, and that of Mira Lowe at FAMU’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication last month, all historically Black institutions.

The Sept. 1 news release about Wilson said, “In addition to managing a 40-member network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the HBCU-China Network student study abroad program, Wilson oversaw the English-Mandarin translation of Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey’s book, ‘Principles of Leadership: The Harvey Leadership Model,’ and launched the book at the 2018 Beijing International Book Fair.“

She also promoted Dorothy Butler Gilliam’s 2019 memoir, “Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist’s Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America.“

The HBCU-China Network is a consortium of 42 historically black colleges and universities formed in 2014.

Wilson said Friday that she plans to build upon her experience with the China program, which included Hampton students, to bring more of an international focus to the journalism program. She also said, “I want our students to compete with the major schools” teaching journalism — not just HBCUs — so that “they can compete with anybody in the world. That’s my vision,” she said.

Wilson taught remotely on international affairs last semester but appeared only two days in person this semester before being tapped as interim dean, she said.

Hampton students are back on campus. All students must be vaccinated and there is mandatory masking on campus, she said. “Protocols also include weekly COVID tests for athletes,” the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk reported last month.

Plummer served 9½ years at Hampton, holding the positions of associate professor, director of the William R. Harvey Leadership Institute, assistant vice president for marketing/media and, for five years, dean.

Asked what she considered her biggest accomplishments, Plummer messaged, “Transforming the broadcast journalism area of study into a recognized top producer of content creators. The top brands look to SHSJC for high caliber line producers and entry-level MMJs [multi-media journalists]. As I prepared to leave, it was gratifying to note the renovations and upgrades to the facility including a brand new virtual reality lab, new computers, cameras and remote equipment.

“BUT— the biggest moment was that last humbling embrace from students who openly expressed that I had made a difference,” referring to a surprise student tribute to her Aug. 31, captured on video. (see below)

(Video credit: Butch Maier/Sumbadhat Productions)

The Scripps school opened in 2002 in a $5.7 million building funded by the corporate foundation of the E.W. Scripps Co. It has about 350 students.

A sign at Meridian Apartments on N. 50th Street in Tampa advertises its participation in Tampa’s Crime-Free Multi Housing Program. It was one of about 100 apartment complexes enrolled in the Tampa Police Department program. (Credit: Christopher O’Donnell/Tampa Bay Times)

Blacks Feel Brunt of Police Tips to Landlords

Tampa, Fla., Mayor Jane Castor announced Saturday that the city will reform its Crime-Free housing program, Christopher O’Donnell reported for the Tampa Bay Times. “The move comes four days after a Tampa Bay Times investigation revealed how officers encouraged landlords to evict tenants based on arrests, including some where charges were later dropped. The investigation was published online Wednesday at Tampabay.com.”

O’Donnell, Ian Hodgson and Nathaniel Lash reported then that,” since 2013, “the Tampa Police Department has taken a hands-on role at more than 100 apartment communities, sending notices to landlords when their tenants are arrested or stopped by officers and encouraging their eviction.” 

“The program, known as Crime-Free Multi Housing, was marketed to landlords as a way to keep violent crime and drug and gang activity off their properties.

“Police pledged to create a database of ‘documented violent offenders, gang members or career criminals involved in your community.’ It alerted landlords to tenants arrested for armed robbery and drug dealing.

“But the program also swept up more than 100 people who were arrested for misdemeanors — and dozens more whose charges were later dropped, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

“Tenants were reported to their landlord for matters as small as shoplifting; two were reported for driving with a suspended license. Entire families lost their homes after the arrest of a child or a relative who didn’t live with them.

“And roughly 90 percent of the 1,100 people flagged by the program were Black, police records show. That’s despite Black residents making up only 54 percent of all arrests in Tampa over the past eight years. . . .”

“Black renters bore the brunt of the program’s impact. Almost 86 percent of those flagged in the database and 91 percent of those named in letters to landlords were Black, records show.

“The racial disparity is no accident. Tampa has 267 apartment complexes of 15 or more units, but only about 100 complexes were enrolled in the program at its peak. Three-quarters of those were in neighborhoods where U.S. Census block data shows the majority of residents are Black and Hispanic, the Times found. . . .”

O’Donnell reported Saturday, “Under the announced changes, the city will inform landlords only about ‘certain serious drug and violent felonies.’ A police captain must sign off on notices sent, and landlords will be notified only about arrests that happen on their properties. . . .”

One Los Angeles police officer filed a civil lawsuit saying an unspoken quota system put pressure on Metro officers to identify gang members regularly.

Cops Said to Falsely Label Some as Gang Members

“At least four more Los Angeles police officers are suspected by prosecutors of putting false gang information on field interview cards, according to an internal record from the L.A. County district attorney’s office,” Kevin Rector reported Wednesday for the Los Angeles Times.

“The claims bring the total number of Metropolitan Division officers suspected of inputting false information on such cards to 10. The six others were criminally charged in the case last year; each has pleaded not guilty. . . .”

Rector also wrote that one officer “filed a civil lawsuit last year alleging she was targeted amid the broader gang-labeling scandal — and taken off the streets — because commanders feared she would blow the whistle on an unspoken quota system that put pressure on Metro officers to identify gang members regularly. . . .”

Rector added, “The document from [District Attorney George] Gascón’s office, obtained by The Times through a public records request, was drafted to explain prosecutors’ decisions not to file charges against 19 other officers whose actions had also come under review as part of the broader investigation.

“It provided the latest accounting of a sprawling investigation that was sparked in 2019 after a Van Nuys mother challenged the gang classification of her son. LAPD supervisors found inconsistencies between the officer’s account and body-camera video of the stop, and a broader probe was launched. . . .”


Olympic gymnast Simone Biles ripped the FBI and the Justice Department in Senate testimony Wednesday for how FBI agents mishandled abuse allegations brought against Larry Nassar and then made false statements in the fallout from the botched investigation. (Credit: CNN via YouTube)

Biles Says IndyStar Made Her Realize Abuse

“As Simone Biles delivered stirring testimony before a Senate committee about her abuse at the hands of the doctor Larry Nassar, she blamed a system that failed to protect her and later kept her in the dark, even as she competed at the summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,” Elahe Izadi reported Friday for The Washington Post.

“In fact, the Olympian said, ‘I didn’t understand the magnitude of what all was happening until the Indianapolis Star published its article in the fall of 2016 entitled “Former USA Gymnastics doctor accused of abuse.” ‘

“That article — in which former gymnast Rachael Denhollander publicly accused Nassar of abuse — was part of an investigative series from the Indianapolis newspaper called ‘Out of Balance.’

“The project, which brought accountability where there had been none, all began with the Star acting swiftly on a tip. . . .”

Veteran journalist Maria Hinojosa, president of the Futuro Group, producer of public radio’s “Latino USA,” is featured on a poster for Hispanic Heritage Month. (Credit: New York State United Teachers)

Which Hispanic Stories Will Be Told This Month?

In the effort to make Hispanic Heritage Month more palatable or commercially viable, are stories of oppression, prejudice and injustice whitewashed or ignored?

That’s one of the questions raised by Vanessa Romo of NPR in a story Friday about the monthlong commemoration, which began Sept. 15.

” ‘Too often the focus is on the musical contributions or dancing or other happy artforms,’ Mario T. Garcia, professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, tells NPR.

” ‘But we also need programming that reflects historical problems … because you can’t assume that Latinos already know about the lynchings in South Texas in the 1910s,’ the Zoot Suit Riots, the segregation of Mexican kids in schools, or the Chicano-led high school walkouts of the 1960s that permanently changed higher education enrollment for Latino students.

“In his experience, Garcia notes, the U.S. public education system does such a poor job of teaching the history of Latinx people in this country, that often Hispanic Heritage Month is the only opportunity for any students to learn about it. ‘It is a real shame,’ he says.

“But approached in the right way, he adds, even these stories can be ultimately seen as happy. ‘Because the historic struggles of Chicanos, Mexican-Americans, other Latinos are happy stories … because only through those struggles have we been able to achieve more social justice in this country, more education.’ “

Cuban performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, named by Time magazine as one of the year’s iconic figures, is pictured in April staging his protest art at his Havana home while under government surveillance. (Courtesy via Miami Herald)

Defiant Afro-Cuban on Time’s ‘Influential’ List

“1619 Project” journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, Fox News talk-show host Tucker Carlson and imprisoned Afro-Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara all made Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of 2021, released Wednesday.

But it is Alcántara who caught the attention of Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago, herself a childhood Cuban refugee.

“At a critical moment for Cuba’s brave freedom fighters, the magazine has delivered to the movement what others on the American left like the founders of the Black Lives Matter organization have shamefully denied them — respect and support,” Santiago wrote.

“He may not even know it.

“He sits in a Cuban prison, jailed for the umpteenth time during the unprecedented massive, peaceful protests across the island on July 11.

“His long list of ‘crimes’ during the past years of resistance:

“Opposing Decree 349, which says the government has to approve art content. Making art critical of the Cuban regime, despite the law. Wrapping himself in the flag and declaring that it belongs to us all. Inspiring other artists, who along with him, founded the San Isidro movement and ended up becoming the voice of a people who couldn’t speak — until they shed their fear and did so loudly two months ago. . . .

“Say his name and that of other Cuban artists, writers and musicians arrested and imprisoned after President-not-elected Miguel Díaz-Canel and his goons unleashed ferocious repression on Cuba’s people for daring to clamor for ‘¡Libertad!’

“Say the name of Afro-Cubans like Maykel Castillo Pérez, whose artistic name is Maykel Osorbo, one of the rappers who contributed to what has become the movement’s anthem and YouTube sensation, ‘Patria y Vida.’ He, too, is in prison.

“And so are rapper Didier Almagro; Ernesto Pacheco López, a musician, photographer and YouTuber; Hamlet Lavastida, an artist who had returned from residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Germany, when he was arrested; and rappers Lázaro Rodríguez Betancourt (Pupito En Sy), and Randy Arteaga Rivera. . . .

“If anyone ought to be supporting the Cubans fighting for social change, it’s BLM and its powerful army of millions of voices in the United States and abroad.”

Photos circulating online show Taqi Daryabi and Nematullah Naqdi, journalists from Etilaatroz newspaper, with welts and bruises after their arrest in the Afghan capital, Kabul. (Credit: BBC)

Taliban Apology to Journalists Rings Hollow

“When the senior Taliban official, dressed in black, entered the struggling newsroom, some journalists froze, their faces etched in fear,” Sudarsan Raghavan reported Friday for The Washington Post.

“He walked to a sofa and sat across from the paper’s top editor, who on this day was considering shutting it down. To the mullah’s left were two reporters who were viciously beaten up by Taliban fighters a week ago for covering a women’s rights protest.

“As their conversation unfolded in front of Washington Post journalists Wednesday, it became clear the Taliban, too, was worried. The burly, black-turbaned official turned to Nemat Naqdi, one of the assaulted journalists, and expressed what was previously unthinkable from a movement known for its brutality.

“ ‘We are sorry,’ said Sarujullhaq Omari, a member of the Taliban’s newly created media committee. ‘We will investigate what happened.’

“It was the latest sign of the Taliban’s attempt to convince Afghans and the world, especially Western donors, that it is a moderate, gentler incarnation of itself that enshrines basic freedoms. But none of the journalists of Etilaatroz, one of the few critical voices remaining in Afghanistan, believed the contrition was sincere. Top editors noted that the conciliatory visit, while surprising, came a week after the attacks and only after images of the reporters’ bruised bodies went viral.

“Even as he apologized, saying he felt sorrow when he saw the photos, Omari suggested that the journalists were to blame. The paper, he added, needed to be more responsible.

“ ‘These were illegally organized protests,’ Omari said. ‘You should be more cautious. These things can happen during such a situation when we are just setting up.’ . . . .”

This Arab American Doesn’t Want to Be Called White

“When I first moved to the United States as an adult, I had to start filling out forms that asked about my race,” Abdallah Fayyad (pictured), an opinion writer and editorial board member at The Boston Globe, wrote Friday.

“But I didn’t really know what my race was in the American context. All I knew, having grown up in Jerusalem, was that I’m Palestinian and Arab, and that didn’t seem to fall under any of America’s five official racial categories: American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, white, Black, and Asian American.

“ ‘White,’ to me, meant European, and I had only ever seen or heard of Arabs referred to as ‘brown people,’ be it on American TV or in conversation. So it was to my surprise to learn that the US Census Bureau expects Arabs to check ‘white,’ which it defines as ‘a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.’

“That’s an absurd definition of whiteness, especially considering the fact that there is no world in which some Arabs are actually considered white in social settings. But it turns out that the reason the census considers Americans of Middle Eastern or North African descent to be white dates back to the early 20th century, when a wave of non-European immigrants came to American shores. At the time, the United States required people to be either Black or white in order to apply for citizenship, so many non-European and non-Black immigrants — including people from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Asia — sought naturalization by identifying as white.”

Fayyad also wrote, “The problem is that while some Arabs may indeed identify as white, many of them do not. That’s in part because people from the Middle East and North Africa are diverse and span many complexions, and in part because Arab Americans have been distinctly targeted, surveilled, and othered, especially after 9/11. For many Arab Americans — particularly those who are Muslim — being labeled white by law simply doesn’t reflect the reality of how they’ve experienced America.

“Not counting Arabs as a separate category, be it ethnic or racial, ultimately harms Arab Americans throughout the country. . . .”

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) discusses over-the-top (OTT) platforms at its 2019 “Access to Opportunity” conference. OTT media service is offered directly to viewers via the Internet, bypassing cable, broadcast and satellite television platforms.

Broadcasters Say FCC’s Own Rules Limit Diversity

“The National Association of Broadcasters said Federal Communications Commission policies are a big reason there isn’t more diversity in broadcast ownership,” John Eggerton reported Friday for nexttv.com.

FCC member Geoffrey Starks reported last week, “Although the numbers show some slight improvements in majority ownership of full power commercial broadcast television stations by African Americans (up from 12 in 2017 to 18 stations in 2019), the percentage of ownership still rounds to an anemic 1%. PDF]. Moreover, that number significantly worsened for Asian American owners (from 9 full power TV stations in 2017 to four stations in 2019).”

Eggerton continued, “The broadcasting trade group shared that view in comments on the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review of broadcast and other ownership rules (the review has been delayed due to the legal back-and-forth over that issue).

“The NAB told the commission that the FCC’s restrictions on multiple and small-market ownership are absurd and work against its goal of a more diverse media. It argues that the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession have put an exclamation point on the need to reform the system.

“The main reason for low levels of minority and female ownership is a lack of access to capital, the NAB said, which structural ownership rules don’t address. But even if that capital were available, the FCC’s rules are a disincentive to new investment, the trade group argued. . . .

“The NAB also said the FCC’s ownership restrictions . . . prevent broadcasters in smaller markets from ‘leverag[ing] the strong economies of scale in local news production’ . . . ‘imperil[ing] the ability of news providers to reach online audiences with their local content and to derive ad revenue from that content.’ . . . ”

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) [PDF] said last week they opposed changes in the FCC’s broadcast ownership rules.

Short Takes

Axios made the announcement on Friday.




Brazilian freelance photographer Tuca Vieira’s 2004 image of the sharp divide between the Paraisópolis favela and opulent apartments in São Paulo’s Morumbi suburb, taken from a helicopter. (Credit: Courtesy of Tuca Vieira, via Global Investigative Network)

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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