Catalina Camia, deputy news director at Bloomberg Law, told rising journalists of color participating in the National Press Foundation’s Widening the Pipeline Fellowship that authenticity matters.
“The truth is you can’t be honest with your audience unless you are honest about your authenticity,” she said. “Authenticity could include your race, your ethnicity, your gender identity, your ability, your physical ability, but it’s also about your faith, your heritage, your style, the way you conduct yourself, and so much more.”
Don’t check your authenticity at the door, she said. Don’t leave behind what you learned at Asian American Journalists Association or National Association of Black Journalists conferences while you pursue your stories, she said. And Camia knows the importance of affinity groups.
When she was at The Dallas Morning News early in her career, Camia helped found and lead the Texas Chapter of the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA).
“…We met in my apartment in Dallas, which was half this room size because there were so few of us,” she said.
Camia became President of AAJA in January 1999, where she served for two years and made a lasting impact.
“While I was president of AAJA a long time ago, I was very happy to have secured the seed money for a program that still exists today called JCamp, which is the high school journalist program that AAJA runs in advance of every national convention,” she said.
Here’s her advice:
Leadership isn’t a title, she said. It doesn’t have to be management.
“Just because I was fortunate once to have my name at the top of the masthead, being editor-in-chief and vice president of a news organization didn’t make me a leader,” she said. “But you all can and are leaders from wherever you sit and from whatever job you hold in this business.”
You weren’t hired as a journalist in your organization to represent everyone who looks like you, Camia said. But it’s also okay to tell those stories if you want to.
Again, don’t check your authenticity at the door. “Be your genuine self, especially when it’s hard to do so.”
Diversity in newsrooms and in the news that gets covered can only be achieved if we make room at the table for everyone, Camia said. “…, no matter their background, their race, their color, their ethnicity, their style, their gender. That is how we all be authentic and pave a sustainable path future for this business.”
Access the full transcript here.
The Widening the Pipeline Fellowship is sponsored by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation and Lenovo. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
