CatchLight is honored to welcome media trailblazer Stacy-Marie Ishmael to its board of directors.
Recently named one of Fortune’s 40 under 40, Ishmael, originally from Trinidad and Tobago, was most recently the Editorial Director of the Texas Tribune. Previously, she was a senior Editor at Apple and at BuzzFeed News was in charge of launching their award-winning news app. At the Financial Times, she was the newspaper’s first vice president of communities.
Ishmael brings a wealth of experience in media and deep strategic thinking around audience engagement, sustainable business models and the future of media.
We sat down with her to discuss what attracted her to the CatchLight board, the media industry and the real need for building mechanisms to avoid burnout.
Why CatchLight? What about our mission aligns with where you think the industry should be going? I’m not someone who starts from a visual place; instinctively I think in words. But I’m also a person who’s always been surrounded by art and artists. When I first came up in journalism we still had large photo desks and photo editors who forced you to think differently about the story you’re trying to tell. Images are so important in getting attention in a crowded world. CatchLight’s dual mission of increasing visual literacy and supporting marginalized communities addresses issues plaguing the industry.
Talk a little about visual representation and what that means to you. I’m very tired of stereotyping. Newsrooms are capable of these incredibly gorgeous sophisticated spreads on anything but then you see totally stereotypical coverage of the Caribbean or Africa — all palm trees or starving children. The representation of different groups for popular consumption is skewed. White people get killed by cops too, but you never see white people being killed by cops. Instead you repeatedly see what amounts to snuff films of Black people being killed. We need photography that challenges norms and expectations. We need to show more Black joy. That’s important. Only certain classes of people get the privilege of that nuanced conversation … of nuanced imagery. Some people get to have full stories. Some people are asked to be grateful while being flattened.
Why do the word people get to make the decisions? And I say this as a word person: Why aren’t more visual people making decisions?
What’s the state of visual representation in the industry and how can CatchLight help? The question we’re facing is what is the measurement for change in media and who is that change, or lack of it, affecting. What we need is more of an effort from media organizations to solicit images from within the community. Photography, as a medium, has a large financial barrier to entry. Media organizations, and nonprofits like CatchLight, need to focus on issues like getting more equipment into the hands of the people who might never have thought of themselves as photographers; on issues of sharing the vision of people who don’t see the world the way we see it; on asking “Who gets to be a beginner?” “Who gets to be a student?” “Who gets to be a photographer?”
How do you see organizations like CatchLight fitting into the future of journalism? Newsrooms are typically run by folks who love words. Why do the word people get to make the decisions? And I say this as a word person: Why aren’t more visual people making decisions? I think part of the reason why is because there is no shared vocabulary. There isn’t widespread advocacy in newsrooms for training to understand why different kinds of visuals are important, or for how data viz and illustrations elevate perspectives that are often missing. CatchLight is leading the industry in showing how to put visuals in the middle of the news conversation. To the question of access, CatchLight can help create a newsroom ecosystem where more types of folks are taking creative risks that are not also financial risks.
CatchLight is leading the industry in showing how to put visuals in the middle of the news conversation.
You recently made some news leaving The Texas Tribune citing burnout. How can industry leaders and organizations like CatchLight help alleviate the very real burnout in journalism? I’m terrible at taking breaks. Journalism, especially right now, is a super intense job. Many newsroom leaders are facing profound decision fatigue made worse by precarious economic conditions. Freelancers are struggling, staffers are struggling. Folk need the ability to take time away without worrying that they won’t get any assignments when they come back. And we need to admit that as an industry we have largely failed at acknowledging and handling trauma, whether in terms of helping people assigned to this work or how we interview or photograph people experiencing intense tragedy.
What’s next for you? I have no idea! I’m working on figuring that out. Let’s talk soon.