It shouldn't come as a surprise to hear that the journalism industry is heavily dominated by white middle-to-upper class males. This dominance spreads from the White House to television stations to newspapers and more. It is precisely this rift that is causing more and more news stories to become tainted through a point of view that is probably less than ideal for you (unless you are a white middle class male).
The New York Times has been accused of writing news stories from an affluent standpoint on more than one occasion, and more readers should become aware of this language. One example of this comes from a New York Times article titled, "When the Landlord is a Friend". This article casually mentions families and young people buying houses in NYC for $500,000 to $1.1 million. The listed rent is $800 to $2,400 per month, depending on if you have a bedroom or a bedroom and private bath. Along with hefty prices, mention of Michael Trebek, son of Alex Trebek, begins cluing readers that something is slightly off. What's "off" is the article's outdated language that favors the wealthy white class.
Fair.org highlights some of these privileges in their article responding to New York Times' Real Estate Stories. For example, Fair states that Real Estate sections are "a significant source of revenue for a news business increasingly desperate for it". It is no surprise that the New York Times, among other well-known newspapers, is struggling for revenue. Newspaper models used to include 25% news and 75% ads, but now that the model has reversed itself (75% news and 25% ads), the paper is struggling. It's fair to say that the digital age of journalism has caused multiple problems for newspapers; The loss of revenue from ads is merely one of the biggest.
Fair highlights another important issue that commonly plagues the New York Times - its use of charged or loaded language. Fair states, "Racially loaded terms like 'pioneer' and 'exploration' help reinforce the notion that long-existing communities of color are untamed frontiers needing to be settle". The very use of this loaded language generally stems from the authors' upbringing; however, using the above terms to denote young white people moving into historically black neighborhoods is appalling. I think there should be a move towards monitoring the language used when covertly discussing subjects like gentrification and race. This monitoring could take the form of pushing for equal men and women in journalism jobs. Or the push could be towards diversifying the workplace in terms of class and affluence. I see the latter suggestion becoming potentially problematic, but this problem is irrelevant until a movement actually forms.
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