African American Women in the Newsroom: Encoding Resistance

Previous studies have examined the experiences of either women or minority journalists to determine whether newsroom diversity makes a difference in news content, concluding that the gender and race of newsworkers does not substantially alter the news. However, they have not looked at the work practices and experiences of African American women journalists to determine whether their newswork challenges or reinforces dominant journalistic constructions concerning race and gender. Drawing on the cultural studies model of encoding/decoding, as well as the concept of intersectionality and standpoint theory, this study asks whether the social location of journalists as African Americans and women affects their work practices in ways that increase racial and gender diversity in the news, challenge stereotypes, and otherwise resist normative news constructions of race and gender. Interviews were conducted with 10 African American female TV and newspaper journalists in a major metropolitan area with a majority Bl...