#34: How to Invite Less Represented Voices (LRVs) into Media Posts About Podcast Editing
A very special issue
This is a very different kind of issue of the Podcast Editing Plus newsletter.
JANUARY 2022:
Earlier this year there was a podcast study that was getting attention in many areas of the podcasting space BUT it had little representation of women and other lesser heard voices. Very, very little.
I kicked up a storm on Twitter and emailed the organizations that were sited as supporting the study. Some conversations were had but nothing really happened. What I kept hearing again and again in the conversations I had were men in the space saying that they just didn’t know of many women in the space doing x, y and z.. I’m still clunky with non-binary representation, so I was stressing women mainly in my complaint since there were zero women quoted in the study people highlights.
YESTERDAY:
A fellow podcast editor mentioned a podcast industry magazine that had very little lesser heard voices representation in their article. They highlighted 3 men.
I madly respect two of the men quoted and have had an email conversation with the 3rd man since then. They are wonderful human beings! My anger has NOTHING to do with them. My anger has everything to do with those in decision making roles at the magazine. Why was such a skewed piece allowed to get published? From this article it appears that there are only men in the podcast editing space.
This was the magazine’s reply today:
While this is true, few people read an online magazine from cover to cover. And this post was shared individually. Which gives off the impression that there are only men in the podcast editing space.
I know so many non-men (I stumble on the words to describe all of us that were left out of this and many other like publications. “non-men” defines us with respect to men and makes it sound like we dislike men. Not the case.
Women and non-binary folks makes it sound like we are just focusing on gender when there are other less represented voices that have nothing to do with gender that are also rarely highlighted. I am at a loss for words on this. Is LRV (lesser represented voices) really the best term to use here? Again, I don’t want to downplay men in general or these men specifically. There are plenty of men who do really good things in the podcast editing space. BUT they aren’t the only ones. And that’s where my anger flows from. When and where do the rest of us get quoted? Don’t send me one link to one article please. I’m talking about frequency and balance. And it’s NOT a balanced quoting, highlighting, etc kind of experience.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
Once , twice and I can’t wait for another time coming soon when this happens again. So my optimistic brain thinks that if we made a clear roadmap, a checklist of sorts, of how busy media folks can find you all quickly and easily then maybe, JUST MAYBE they will contact YOU and quote YOU and ask YOU to participate more in these kinds of things.
THE ASK
I can’t and frankly do NOT want to do this alone. This is not an solo task. I’ve started a Google sheet with repeatable ways to search for LRV podcast editors. I would love it if you contributed. Here’s a snapshot of the first few search actions that I added to the sheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KeWYjPpbk6qjTd8QqhsQYkG5lWrzCJ-Yv7HwIcobLcs/edit#gid=0
WHAT’S NEXT
Once we have more ideas, I’d like to create a clean and easy to read PDF of these ideas and send it out to various media places that write about podcast editing. The more people that know about this, the more diverse articles can be, right?
This is where I’ll need the most help. I need people to help me find and share the reference PDF that these ideas will turn into. Contact me to get involved.
And thank you to everyone who offers to, fingers crossed, move the ball forward with this.
Poddingly yours,
Steph
www.stephfuccio.com