\u201cThat percentage of people who have spoken or have been interviewed by a journalist goes down the less white they are, the less educated they are, the less money they make and the younger they are,\u201d Walsh said in reference to the survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tim Wolff, vice president of TV and digital publishing innovation at Futuri Media, explained even something like location affects the editorial decision perspective. Editors’ news decisions were affected by where where they lived, he pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe tend to follow the same groups, and so the stories that affect us. If we see, maybe, 10 cars broken into in a community where we live, we cover it. If 10 cars are broken into in the next county, we don\u2019t even know about it, right?\u201d Wolff said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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According to Apryl Pilolli, director of technology at Knight x LMA BloomLab, if people have one perspective, they tend to lean towards that perspective above all else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you come from one education level \u2014 one sector of the community \u2014 you only see things through your lens,\u201d Pilolli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lab, launched in 2019<\/a> and funded by the Knight Foundation for $3.2 million, aims to support underrepresented media, particularly Black locally owned and operated media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since its inception, the Lab was able to drive digital revenue, audience growth and engagement for several Black publishers, Pilloli said.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe work with these media companies to help them transform digitally,\u201d Pilolli said. \u201cThey have a really strong voice, but they\u2019re telling stories that no one else is telling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To Pilolli, it is important to have diverse voices. Being with the publishers opened her eyes to stories she never would have seen previously. Pilolli is autistic, but was not diagnosed until she was 40 years old. It was the TV show “The Good Doctor” that made her feel seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really when you start to see the world more reflective of you that you can better understand \u2014 you don\u2019t feel like you need to hide who you are,\u201d Pilolli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LMA has several different initiatives, including News Is Out, a collaborative of LGBTQ+ publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The initiative conducted a survey that was answered by more than 1,100 LGBTQ+ readers, and the results showed that 50% of the survey respondents did not feel represented. Only 30% of the respondents felt partially represented in the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walsh emphasized trust as the main factor determining a community\u2019s relationship with news outlets and organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have to be willing to think about journalism differently and work to think about our communities and involve them in the process,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n