As part of our goal to look at what’s happening in the journalism sphere from a more equitable lens, we invited journalism student and working reporter at community outlet Boyle Heights Beat, Carmen Gonzalez, to reflect on what the wave of media layoffs looks like from her perch in Los Angeles, and what she’s thinking as she gets ready to enter the industry.

Take it away Carmen:

As I approach my last semester in college, I often think about my time as culture editor at Santa Monica College’s school newspaper, The Corsair. Our newsroom was as diverse as it gets, from students in their 50s to recent high school grads, of all ethnicities and backgrounds. We all worked together to inform our campus and community at large. 

Once in a while our advisor would bring in guest speakers, mostly local L.A. journalists, to share insight on different topics, from first amendment rights to social media best practices. Many of them encouraged us to keep in touch and forge ahead. 

So I did. After class I would follow them on X (formerly known as Twitter), and keep up with their work. I saw reporters publishing new investigative series, reporting with more empathy, and being innovative with the ways they informed people. 

It was amazing to see newsrooms becoming more and more like my Corsair newsroom, where diversity was key to the reporting. I was so excited to continue working and potentially become peers to all these amazing reporters.  

In my mind, by the time I would become a working journalist, the reporters I looked up to would be editors or hold some sort of power in a newsroom. My pitches about cultural events or traditions would not be turned away because some older white person thinks there isn’t an ‘audience’ for it. 

Fun fact, those are exactly the words I heard from a public radio station when I pitched them a podcast I had been working on. It was a coming of age podcast about a queer undocumented teen, a.k.a me, and my quest to interview those misrepresented in the media, a.k.a most latines. Centered in Los Angeles, I would be interviewing a population that makes up 49% of the population but is deeply underrepresented in the media.

To me it was a great idea, I would start covering more latines and they would be introduced to the station. Higher-ups thought it was ‘too niche’. What that told me was that there isn’t an audience for my life and experiences. 

I had recently turned 18 and like any other creative, I had put love and care into the project. It made me question if I was even allowed to be mad and hurt by the comments. I then started justifying their response, I told myself, “maybe they’re right. I’m probably the only one who would care to listen to someone like me.” I thought they wanted to promote new voices and yet, they said there wasn’t an audience for my voice.

It was experienced journalists from that station and around me that understood the importance of a young reporter’s curiosity, they all encouraged me to keep trying to tell those stories.

Now looking back at my time at Corsair, I feel like I was a bit too optimistic about the future. I always knew that journalism did not pay much nor was it stable, but the recent massive layoffs including at NBC News, Time magazine, Business Insider and most importantly The Los Angeles Times, the outlet I’ve grown up relying on. They cut more than 100 employees, many of whom were younger media makers of color. These layoffs impacted not just the workers and readers but also college students, like me, hoping to one day work at their hometown newspaper.

I’ve been a journalism student at two different higher ed institutions at this point, and yes I’ve picked up relevant skills to the industry I want to work in, but there’s a lot missing, too. In classes we do not cover how to deal with what feels like the inevitably of being laid off, how to deal with an older white editor who says you’re not objective, how to keep an eye on your mental health in such a volatile industry, or how to live on a small salary in an expensive city like Los Angeles.

My instructors are either academics who were never really journalism practitioners, or they come from an industry that doesn’t exist anymore. One where the career path doesn’t involve considering what else you can do with the skills I’ve been building.  

I’m beginning to realize as an aspiring journalist you have to fend for yourself and learn these hard lessons as they come or be lucky and find experienced reporters willing to help you out. But as young journalists continue to be let go, it chips away at my role models and who I hoped would be future peers, and I miss out on the knowledge they have on how to navigate the industry, beyond, don’t expect much.

The L.A. Times layoffs are telling me one thing; the industry doesn’t value young, diverse talent like me. The newspaper leadership even agreed that young journalists of color were “disproportionately more vulnerable.” That sort of honesty is important, but it’s not much consolation for me. Outlets claim to want to be innovative and equitable, but when push comes to shove, the journalism world they want to champion is inconvenient.

I’ll be honest, I’m a bit jaded. I know there’s great people still pushing for change and I hope that soon enough, newsrooms across the country realize that reporters do much more than just meet their deadlines. They inspire younger generations. It is necessary that reporters are paid well, celebrated, and protected. 

I first began reporting as a junior in high school, I decided to make it my career while at Santa Monica College, and now a year out from graduating, I know I will not be entering the industry I hoped for but will be joining the fight for a better one.