Unseen Yet Heard: Invisible Power and Gendered Racism Among Black Women Television News Managers in the U.S

The 1968 Kerner Commission Report strongly urged newsrooms to increase the number of blacks in supervisory positions. This government mandate, along with grassroots activism, ushered in new opportunities for African American women to work as journalism managers at white-owned and -operated news outlets. Through oral narratives, this dissertation examines the experiences of forty pioneer black women who managed television newsrooms in the U.S. The analysis tackles three questions: How does their race and gender impact their experiences as managers? How do those experiences manifest themselves in the women? And how do their experiences with race and gender influence newsroom practices. This examination takes an intersectional approach to their multiple identities.;The study group influenced coverage in several ways. Many required that their staff members portray African Americans in a more balanced way when referencing the race of crime suspects. Others ordered assignment editors to treat females of color who went missing with the same deference and dignity that they treated missing white females. Ironically, the fairness they sought for African Americans in news coverage, they also sought for themselves in the workplace. They routinely experienced subtle forms of racism and genderism, despite their supervisory roles. Because of their race and gender, these news gatekeepers were both hypervisible and simultaneously in visible at times. To be effective, they sometimes spoke up to address unfair treatment or coverage. Other times they used strategic silence, even secrecy, to make small, yet significant changes to newsroom practices and procedures.;As managers they directly influenced content, budgets and personnel in a way that realigned some stories to more accurately reflect the heterogeneity of black life. They attempted to diminish some stereotypes of African Americans by adjusting the picture as to how they saw themselves and how others saw them. This foundational study allows this first cohort of black women television news managers to emerge from the scholarship shadows.