COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 28/04/2020
Letrell Deshan Crittenden and Andrea Wenzel – TOW CENTER
Huddled around a small, makeshift table in the local library, a group of African American women lamented problems affecting their community. Various challenges were making it difficult for black students to get a solid education in their school district. Kids lacked organized activities, which the women believed was fueling an opiate use epidemic. And people didn’t have enough information about how to get Medicare benefits.
These issues, however, were rarely discussed by local media. The women struggled to remember when they had been interviewed by journalists. One, a business owner, had never been the subject of a profile, despite its long tenure in the community. These women felt local media had little concern about what was happening within the African American community. They felt invisible. “Nobody knows what we’re thinking, because no one is asking us. No one cares how we feel,” one said.