A blog on the intersection between media, content and diversity by Kellye Whitney
So, everyone’s favorite couple – almost everyone – Meghan and Harry shocked the world this week when they announced plans to step back from senior roles in royal life, presumably to have a life, but also to work toward financial self-sufficiency. Sounds good, right? Who doesn’t want to be financially self-sufficient? But their decision has, … Continue reading Meghan and Harry Can’t Win for Losing
It has been a historic year for black women in pageantry. We’ve seen black women take major crowns before but never in this volume, and never so many in one year. There are five Black women currently holding major pageant titles: Miss Teen USA, Kaliegh Garris, Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi, Miss America, Nia Franklin, Miss … Continue reading There’s Something They’re Not Telling You About All These Black Beauty Queens
I usually shy away from blogging about politics – it’s too inflammatory, even for me LOL – but hear me out here because I’m not advocating for Democrat or Republican. Nor am I pushing for a particular candidate in the upcoming presidential election. My gripe this fine Friday is with Facebook’s decision to not fact … Continue reading Facebook Is Being Irresponsible with Its Stance on Political Advertising
With all this talk of whistleblowing and impeachment flowing around, I suppose it was only fitting that a story about questionable journalism ethics and poor social media skills caught my eye. CNN ran a piece today about Aaron Calvin, a Des Moines Register reporter who lost his job after writing a profile on someone with a … Continue reading Once a Racist, Always a Racist?
So, I ran across a news item in The Guardian this week discussing how the BBC, the world’s oldest national broadcaster, apologized for not warning the Duke of Sussex before publishing a racist image. Now, the image the Duke – you may know him as Prince Harry, husband to Megan Markle, the British royal family’s first … Continue reading BBC, Prince Harry Accepts Your Apology – Because He’s British
You may have heard that Instagram is experimenting with its functionality. In July the popular social media platform began eliminating likes from posts in seven countries – the U.S. was not one of them – “claiming the feature will help to reduce its associated impacts on mental health and societal pressure.” The experiment hasn’t been running for long, but … Continue reading To Like or Not to Like, the Eternal Social Media Question
It’s been a rough week or so for freedoms of all kinds. Top of mind is the list of states that have decided they have the right to police women’s bodies. As of this writing, eight states have passed bills to place extreme limitations on abortions. Shout out to Illinois where I live for doing exactly the … Continue reading Was the Law Always This Judgmental?
Today is World Press Freedom Day. According to Gallup, the world in general is more likely to see the media as having a lot of freedom than it did a few years ago. “Across 133 countries surveyed last year – one of the deadliest on record for journalists – a median of 64% of adults agreed … Continue reading Is Freedom of the Press a Good Thing?
Several things happened this week that have me thinking our perspective on the power of the media is skewed. It’s real, no doubt, but we’re missing something really basic. That might sound strange coming from a member of the media. But I like to think of myself as a different kind of journalist in that, … Continue reading Meghan Markle, the Media and Our Vanishing Rights to Privacy, Decency and Giving Birth Without Photo Shoots
