National Association of Black Journalists

The following is an analysis of the National Association of Black Journalists website. www.nabj.org

The National Association of Black Journalists was founded in Washington, D.C. by 44 men and women in 1975. The organization has 3,300 members, students and professionals. There are regional chapters throughout the United States that people can join. The organization is the largest organization for black journalists worldwide. According to its site, the organization of students, journalists and media-related professionals "provides quality programs and services to and advocates on behalf of black journalists worldwide." NABJ's mission is to strengthen ties among black journalists, sensitize all media to the importance of fairness and equality in the newsroom, expand job opportunities and training for black journalists, foster examples of successful black journalists that will encourage other black journalists, and to provide training services to the general public. NABJ is now headquartered at the University of Maryland-College Park.

NABJ holds annual conventions and career fairs in the summer time, giving members, as well as other black journalists who are not members, a chance to find a job in the journalism industry. The organization also gives out honors and awards to black journalists, and also gives away $10,000 in scholarship money. NABJ also offers internships in the different areas of journalism. What I know from personal experience is that the organization is a great networking opportunity for black student journalists trying to find jobs or internships.

The site contains a lot of useful information for those students looking for jobs, skill improvement, work shops and more, as well as information on upcoming conventions and job fairs. The site also offers news that is relevant to black journalists, such as discrimination in the workplace and racial slurs in media in a section called Headlines. The majority of the content is on the left side of the site, which includes a members only section, a background section, a section called "Our Folks" that describes some of the members of the organization and what they are doing in the field of journalism and awards, a newsroom section that offers press releases and other information on the organization, an awards section, a resources section, and a student section that provides scholarship, internship and project information. However, some of the content is not up to date, which is odd for a journalism website, which should be timely and accurate. The layout of the content on the website is user-friendly, meaning that the information is easily accessible and visitors don't have to search around for information.

NABJ's website is helpful for black journalists, students and professionals, because it provides great resources for them, such as other journalism organizations to be involved in, contacts for other journalists, other website links like the Pew Center and Poynter Institute, other African American journalism websites and stories and job and internship opportunities. Students can find this site especially helpful when trying to find an organization to participate in, as well as for scholarship opportunities and job search opportunities. Those who are not African American can find this website helpful by reading the stories about how blacks are represented in the media and treated in the workplace for a better understanding of the struggles black journalists face in the profession.

The organization helps to continue the push for equal opportunities and better representation of black people in the media. What I've seen different in this site is the positive or success stories of how black people fight against the struggle of fair representation. An innovative part would be the seminars and workshops the organizations hold on a regular basis to help teach firsthand how to avoid and correct unfairness for the black community in the media. According to its site, it is also helping to increase the number of black people in management positions and encouraging black journalists to become entrepreneurs in the journalism profession, such as begin their own journalism business. The "Media Monitoring" section under the resources tab helps explain the relevance of diversity, or the lack of it, in the profession.

I would rate this site a 4 out of 5. The site is simple, easy to navigate, contains very relevant, informational stories that drive the importance of diversity and race issues in the media, and provides countless resources for student journalists and professionals to become better journalists, as well as give them the tools to teach or show other journalists how to cover, report and even approach diverse issues. Although the site is the more traditional, mainly print stories and hardly any video except for the slideshow on the home page, the site offers opportunities for black journalists to excel in the journalism profession.