This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Just a moment ago I received an email from the PR Newswire asking if I wanted to be included on the African American Press Release.
I was pleasantly surprised and glad for the invite. Last week I was blogging away about the lack of diversity among science news reporters and lack of science-related coverage aimed at diverse audiences, particularly African-American audiences (here, here, here, and here)
This invite was quite timely. Yes universe, I accept this as affirmation of my crusade.
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Dear Journalist / BloggerWe would like to include you on PR Newswire's African American press list to receive press releases via e-mail (with no attachments). Please let us know if you would like to be on our list and if so please select the news categories that you are interested in receiving.
We can include your colleagues on our list as well, please let us know the beats they cover.
Arts & Culture
Automotive
Business & Finance
Education
Entertainment & Music
Family & Living
Fashion & Beauty
Food & Beverage
General
Government & Politics
Health & Fitness
Human Interest (Religion)
Internet & Technology
Sports & Recreation
Travel & Tourism
Notice anything missing? I did. This list confirmed my observations of how much science has been overlooked by press aimed at African-American audiences, perhaps among African American journalists, too. There is no Science beat listed. Gives me the sads. But I am not deterred. So I responded the invite.
Thank you very much for this invite to the African American Press List.I would love to receive notices, however I see that the area I cover is missing from your list - SCIENCE.
I am currently lobbying (hard) to get science (including environment, health, and medicine) to become a regular feature of the African-American news cycle.
If I can be of any assistance in getting this topic listed, then please let me know.
In the meantime, I would like to select the following categories because of the obvious overlap with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM):
Education
Health & Fitness
Internet and Technology
If anyone else would like to join men and participate in the PR Newswire African American Press List, then you can check them out on Twitter @PRAfricanAm. They also operate Multiculural Markets (@PRNMltCult) and Hispanic Press (@PRNHispanic) Lists.