Nicole Shinn, the Co-President of the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition and Vice President of the National Association of Black Journalists shares her perspective on how the journalism industry can become more diverse.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
When you hear the word “diversity,” what comes to your mind? Do you think about activism? About race and gender? Age? Religion, even? Or does it kind of give you this sinking feeling in your stomach? Does it make you think about the ways the world isn't as diverse as it looks to be? Does it make you want to get up from your couch, make a sign and join a movement? As a Middle-Eastern myself, there’s definitely been moments and encounters in my life where I’ve felt unwanted.
I remember when I picked my major of broadcast journalism I thought to myself, there really aren’t a lot of women who look like me that anchor on T.V. That look meant having black hair, darkish skin, with a hint of an ethnic accent. It’s because of this common feeling that I have Nicole Shinn joining me today.
Nicole, you’ve been a huge advocate for diversity in journalism and ASU as a whole. As the Co-President of the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition and the Vice President of the National Association for Black journalists, I fully believe that your answers are going to provide a very important perspective on diversity.
What are some of the ways that you are spreading diversity today that might’ve looked different from what you guys were doing back in 2019?
NICOLE SHINN:
I think that the message is generally still the same. With NABJ the message is to create professional opportunities for Black journalists within ASU and connect to the spheres of influence we have outside of ASU, like with the Arizona Association of Black Journalists.
MSJC looks different because it didn’t exist last year. We created it this summer, but we still have a similar message to NABJ; just to create opportunity for students of color, to make sure that somebody is speaking up in their place and that we’re all getting treated equally.
The main difference would just be how that is being communicated. It used to be at events or in-person at club meetings and now it happens over Zoom or on our social media platforms.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
What do you think are some of the big diversity issues that are happening today that need to be addressed by clubs like you guys?
NICOLE SHINN:
I think that specifically for the journalism industry some of the biggest issues are just representation. Representation in newsrooms is a huge problem that I’ve been hearing about since I was a freshman—just that there are not very many people who are of color in news stations and that can kind of skew how communities of color are being covered, and you see that a lot especially with indigenous communities.
You see them being covered only as, "Oh look at these poor indigenous people they’re struggling so much, instead of: "Look at the cool things that these indigenous people are doing." And the same thing happens to Black people and Latinx people. You find that only the negative aspects of our communities are being covered instead of a broad range of who we are and that would change if there were people who were representative of those communities in newsrooms.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
I totally relate to that because I am Middle-Eastern and one of my biggest goals was when I am studying journalism I wanted to be the person who would actually show the other side, so I am really glad that you touched on that subject.
How have the clubs responded to the changes that are happening around the world today in society? You talked about that you are doing some stuff over Zoom and that you are trying to inform people over social media, how has that looked like for you guys? What are some of the ways?
NICOLE SHINN:
For NABJ, the biggest things that we’re doing is that we’re trying to have more conversations. This summer a huge push was the Black Lives Matter Movement resurged, but it’s been in existence since 2016 I believe, and the reason that it keeps fading out is people are not continuing to have the conversations about police brutality and racial injustice in America. And those things bleed over into journalism because journalism only exists because people have a need to know or a desire to know things.
Some of the things that they’re desiring to know is they’re trying to understand, okay well there’s a system of racism in this country, but how do I understand more about it?
NABJ is hosting a lot of discussions just to kind of let student journalists broaden their horizons. And then MSJC, we’re trying to do that but on a smaller scale with speaking to the students of color within Cronkite which you saw at our Town Hall, just to get your perspective on things and what we can do to help you. Because we’re so new, we don’t want to just jump into things without the students letting us know this is where we feel like we are not being supported.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
Since you mentioned that MSJC just started basically this last summer, what is the difference with that club and with NABJ and with the National Association with Hispanic Journalists club? What is the difference between MSJC and those clubs and what are you guys going to be doing going forward?
NICOLE SHINN:
So the main difference between MSJC and NAHJ, for example, is that NAHJ is a club that can have members, whereas MSJC is a coalition; kind of like how the Black African Coalition operates within ASU, all the Black or African student orgs fall underneath it. MSJC wants to operate like that within Cronkite, so all the multicultural orgs- we are trying to connect with the LGBTQIA+ org that's in Cronkite. They've just have been kind of hard to reach. We want to be there as a coalition and an overarching branch for the disenfranchised and marginalized groups that exist within the Cronkite School, just to kind of have a central hub.
One of the biggest things we did this summer was the petition that we started and the statement that we drafted to Michael Crow demanding that Sonya Duhé be removed from her position as Dean. We saw that being able to come together like that as a leader from each of these multicultural orgs was a louder voice and it was a louder presence.
There was something that was kind of like MSJC a few years ago at Cronkite, and then it kind of just dispersed into the multicultural orgs. I think it’s important to have each of these different organizations, but it’s also very important to have a central hub when we need to come together for things like that.
It even happened with this whole situation with Blaze Radio. We all had to come together again to draft a statement, speak to administration and leadership about making sure that you’re keeping your students of color at interest and that you are not allowing them to be in a space that is discriminatory and unsafe.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
I’m personally just glad that MSJC exists because I thought it was interesting how it’s just the central hub and I like that you touched about that.
Do you personally think that the world is moving toward a more inclusive outlook or do you think that it’s becoming less inclusive as the years go by?
NICOLE SHINN:
I think that that’s kind of a hard question to answer because if you take a look in the Civil Rights era and prior to that, racism was more blatant. Now it’s kind of moving into you have to understand these systems and these kinds of passive things that we’re experiencing. I guess I would say generally, people generally are becoming more inclusive, but the systems that we are facing are not as inclusive as they could be, because we wouldn’t have to keep fighting this stuff if it was becoming more inclusive and accepting.
I also think that a lot of the inclusivity that we are seeing sometimes is performative. This summer with Black Lives Matter, you saw a bunch of organizations that were coming out and stating: Black Lives Matter and we stand with you guys when it’s like where was that energy four years ago when Trayvon Martin was shot and this whole thing started? You guys didn’t care then and you are caring now because you don’t want to lose your black audience. Yes, people seem more smiley and inclusive and friendly on the outside, but are they genuinely looking to see change in America.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI
I love the way you put that perspective.
Putting 2020 in perspective, this kind of goes back to the last question that I asked, why do you think that this fight for diversity is happening now more than ever, compared to some of the previous years?
NICOLE SHINN:
I think that it’s happening now more than ever because of COVID-19, honestly. There’s this thing that I read about with the Hunger Games and Suzane Collins was trying to explain that when you take away people’s distractions, then they are kind of forced to deal with what’s happening in front of them. When in the Hunger Games and Panem, the district was forced to pay attention to everything that was happening around them, they were like, "Oh my gosh we should probably do something about it."
So COVID has forced us to stay in our homes, we can’t go hang out with our friends, we can’t be in classes or be drowning in clubs. We are forced to sit down, watch the news, digest what’s happening and what has been happening in this country for hundreds of years. People are having to look at that, and they are like, "Wow, maybe we should make some changes about this," because it’s so blatantly obvious that not doing anything about it seems very wrong.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
Totally agree because I personally was thinking about this the other day. I was like, "Wow there’s so much news out there that I used to ignore," even though my major is journalism. Now that I do have the time to look at it, I totally agree with what you said.
For my last question, what are some of the ways that you think that students, not just students in the diversity clubs, even students who aren’t part of those clubs, what are some of the ways that you think they should spread diversity in their community?
NICOLE SHINN:
I think that one of the biggest ways is keeping an open mind and being able to accept that you can’t understand some of the situations that people are coming from but you can learn from that. Also, understanding that diversity is not always particularly meaning to someone’s racial identification, but it's also their sexual orientation or their religious affiliations.
You shouldn’t see those things as differences that are negative to somebody. It’s just like an added layer to who they are as a person. So me being Black is not "Oh, Nicole Shinn," and "Oh yeah, she’s also black." It’s just that I am a Black person and that is part of the great person that I am; so keeping an open mind in that way.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
I love that. Thank you so much because that also helps me since I am also Middle-Eastern, usually, people are like "Oh, she is the Middle-Eastern one," but no it’s just part of who I am. I really like that you talked about that.
Well, that wraps up all my questions. Thank you so much Nicole for answering them and giving me your perspective. I really appreciate it.
NICOLE SHINN:
No problem. Thank you for reaching out to me.
AUTRIYA MANESHNI:
After hearing Nicole’s answers, now what do you think when you hear the word “diversity”? If you can’t find an answer, let me leave you with this quote by Martin Luther King Jr. The quote says: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
For the State Press, I am Autriya Maneshni.
Reach the reporter at amaneshn@asu.edu or follow @autriya_manesh on Twitter.
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