Discovering the impact of voice

By Alex Riggins

Before I came to Missouri for the start of my time with the Sports Journalism Institute, co-founder and co-director Sandy Rosenbush told me in an email that since Day One, the program has been about “getting women and minority students ready to contribute their voices to our industry, and in turn helping the industry through the diversity of their thoughts and ideas.”

It required the visit of a sociologist to our class for me to better understand the meaning of her statement.

On Thursday, we had the privilege of hearing from Scott Brooks, an associate professor of sociology at University of Missouri. Brooks studies the sociology of sports, with a special emphasis on race and ethnicity in sports. He is the author of a book titled ‘Black Men Can’t Shoot.’

The book in part addresses the issue of black athletes and the way they are perceived as compared to their white counterparts. During his visit to our class, he spoke about similar issues regarding sports journalism, and the way that minority journalists are perceived compared to the white males that currently dominate the industry.   

But more importantly, he talked about the need for minority journalists to not just be in the newsroom, but to actually add our voices to the newsroom. He told us about the conventions of sports media, and that instead of running from them or avoiding them, we as minorities need to expose them, highlight them and ask questions so that we can add our voice and change the perceptions and change the conventions.  

What he told the class was almost word for word what Rosenbush had told me in that email. He added this point – if minorities are just contributing to the conventions, then what’s the point of having minorities in the newsroom?

What we can bring is a different viewpoint. Sports writing is a form of cultural writing, and Brooks said that marginalized people often make for the best cultural writers because of their unique perspective from the outside looking in.

There is so much more that can be said on the topic, such as the need for people like Leon Carter and Greg Lee, who are not just contributing their voices but are making decisions in the industry.

I’m grateful to Scott Brooks for speaking to our class and finally helping me realize what it was that Sandy has been telling me since before SJI began. This program is not just about adding minorities to the newsroom; this program is about adding minority voices to the newsroom.   

I go forward now with a new purpose and a clear objective: to add my unique voice to the sports journalism industry