Note on importance of using ‘right’ language:
Language reflects how we think, so it’s paramount to integrate language in your daily life that helps to reorient you towards equity and anti-racism so your thinking is also re-oriented. Words are how we communicate our values to each other and how we experience the world, thus right-thinking also means rejecting any and every form of discrimination. We hope this glossary helps you better understand the importance of your everyday language, of using your words with care and consideration, and how using language thoughtfully encourages critical, reflective thinking.
[Updated 12/17/20]
ABUSE
Abuse is the cruel and/or violent mistreatment of an individual, often based on their actual or perceived membership in marginalized groups. Abuse can be emotional, psychological, physical, and/or sexual.
ACCESS
Access is a means or way of approaching, obtaining, or communicating resources, knowledge, and power. Opportunity does not equal access, so we must define and create structured access for all workers. Access to tools, information, and communication are all necessary to succeeding as a lens-based worker.
BIPOC
Black, Indigenous, People of Color is an umbrella term that prioritizes the shared experience of oppression and systemic racism historically faced by Black and Indigenous peoples in North America. It’s also important to note that BIPOC is not a substitute for Black, Indigenous, or other communities when it is more appropriate to address one racial group specifically.
COGNITIVE (OR IMPLICIT) BIAS VS. PREJUDICE
Bias is a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an individual, a group, or a belief so when we talk about bias, we are actually talking about how our thinking is working or not working. Right language leads to right thinking, but if you primarily use oppressive language, you are bound to orient towards oppressive thinking. We create our realities based on our perceptions, which are shaped by our language, and these perceptions shape our actions. Bias, also known as implicit social cognition, is primarily subconscious and must be reshaped by adding steps to decision-making processes that thoughtfully consider and address oppression. Prejudice refers to a negative attitude and feeling towards an individual based solely on the individual’s membership in a particular social group. Prejudice is different from racism because prejudice does not require access to societal and systemic power to enact.
COPYRIGHT
The exclusive legal right to publish, sell, or otherwise distribute photographs or other creative works. Under U.S. copyright law, copyright automatically belongs to the creator of the work — unless it is transferred by written contract (often with a “work for hire” or copyright assignment/transfer clause).
DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination is the mistreatment of an individual or a group based on their actual or perceived membership in marginalized groups. This includes but is not limited to instances of systemic racism, ageism, sexism, colorism, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or other forms of bigotry.
EMOTIONAL LABOR
The process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job or expectations of a relationship. More specifically, it is the expectation of certain people to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers, superiors, colleagues, friends, and loved ones.
EQUITY VS. PARITY
Equity means fairness and justice and focuses on fair treatment, access, and opportunity for all people. Equity in practice means identifying and eliminating the barriers that have prevented the full participation of BIPOC, women, and queer and trans folks in the industry. Parity means ensuring workers in our industry are compensated equally to one another, regardless of gender or race. Parity in practice means identifying and eliminating the obstacles that reinforce the gender and race wage gap, for example adjusting newspaper assignment rates to reflect a living wage. Equal pay for equal work, simple!
FIXER
Fixers are local experts most often hired by western journalists for their expertise in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Fixers are frequently local journalists who provide a range of services like translating, finding sources and arranging interviews, providing security consultation, and generally functioning as local experts. They are not typically credited in published work that was supported by their labor.
GASLIGHTING
An intimidation tactic used to make another person question their experiences. Someone may manipulate a situation by discrediting, minimizing, denying, or reframing information, causing the victim(s) to second-guess their own reality.
GATEKEEPER
A gatekeeper is any person or thing that controls access to power, resources, or career opportunities like assignments, employment, and editing and publishing decisions. Gatekeeping in the lens-based industry specifically looks like deciding what images and stories make it to the public on the basis of which stories are deemed important or significant, as well as determining which lens-based workers are most suited to take those assignments.
HARASSMENT
Harassing behaviors are intended to trouble, annoy, and/or cause significant emotional and mental distress to an individual. Harassment includes behaviors such as microaggressions, cyberbullying and third party harassment (for example, finding a friend or other co-worker to send coercive or derogatory messages on one’s behalf). Harassment can be sexual, physical, emotional, and/or psychological.
HARM REDUCTION
A strategic framework to minimize negative impacts on people, even while understanding the likelihood of risk. Widely discussed in the context of drug use and recovery plans, it can be applied in any context that centers forms of justice where restoration takes priority over punishment or judgement. It is a purposefully inclusive term; used here as a way to be forthright about risks we take while working and acting in every way possible to minimize harm to people being photographed, colleagues in the field, and ourselves/communities.
HAZARD PAY
Hazard pay is additional payment for work under dangerous and/or potentially life-threatening conditions. Providing hazard pay is an acknowledgment that a worker is putting themself in harm’s way for the purpose of completing a job for a hiring party. While hazard pay is typically extended to jobs in conflict areas, natural disasters, or other potentially dangerous workplaces, in the age of COVID-19 all of our work now is potentially hazardous and could result in loss of life.
IDENTITY
The individual characteristics by which a person is recognized. Identity is actually psychological, however, as we use it now, an identity often means a social category, defined by membership rules, characteristic attributes, expected behaviors, or socially distinguishing features that a person takes special pride in or views as unchangeable but socially consequential.
cf. "What Is Identity (As We Now Use the Word)?
INCLUSION
Our industry is exclusive and as such, certain groups have been historically excluded from opportunities due to their marginalized identity. In order to orient the industry away from exclusivity, we must intentionally include workers from marginalized identities in all facets of the industry, from freelancers to staffers to directors to editors-in-chief. Wherever there exists a ceiling that prohibits the career trajectory and full participation of workers who are marginalized, there also exists the need to extend a sense of belonging and full access to opportunities by practicing inclusion.
INDEPENDENT WORKER
A tax and legal classification (also referred to as freelance/freelancer, independent contractor, contractor, self-employed worker, or sole priorietor). Independent workers engage in labor for multiple hiring parties and have fewer protections under U.S. labor law than staff/employees.
INDUSTRY
Refers to news organizations, publications, companies, and other hiring parties that produce and distribute visual journalism and editorial media.
INEQUITY
The practice of being unfair and unjust as an individual engages with an organization or system. Examples of inequity are the racial and gender wage gaps. Even in doing the same work, marginalized people are often paid significantly less than their white, male counterparts. That is inequity in action.
KILL FEE
A fee paid to a freelance worker for images made on assignment but not published by the hiring body, usually in lieu of the originally agreed-upon assignment or project fee.
LENS-BASED WORKER
A blanket term encompassing (but not limited to) independent and staff photographers, videographers, editors, interns, photo assistants, and photo producers working for news organizations, publications, companies, and other hiring bodies within the visual journalism and editorial media industries, or “the industry.”
MALE GAZE
Referencing the feminist theory of how women are perceived and their identity is perpetuated through the male perspective in media and modern culture. Specifically putting women in stereotypical roles of being sexual objects from a male perspective. See also Western Gaze: the visualizing of people and communities in the Global South in a colonial or imperialistic way.
MARGINALIZED
Referring to underrepresented groups in media and visual storytelling, including people of color, queer and trans people, women, and immigrants. By orienting away from the reductive, power-based language (and thus, thinking) of ‘majority’ vs ‘minority,’ we can begin the humanizing process necessary to eliminate bias practices. You are dealing with marginalized persons, not a faceless number in a vanishing ‘minority.’
MATERNAL WALL BIAS OR FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES DISCRIMINATION
Maternal wall bias refers to stereotypes, gender expectations, and various forms of discrimination experienced by employed mothers and mothers seeking employment. Examples include discrimination due to past, present, or future pregnancies or one or more maternity leaves as well as opting for part-time or flexible work schedules. Maternal wall discrimination is not limited to childcare responsibilities. Both men and women with caregiving responsibilities, such as taking care of a sick parent or spouse, may also result in maternal wall discrimination also known as Family Responsibilities Discrimination.
MICROAGGRESSION
Small, subtle, and very easy to ignore or overlook pernicious acts of discrimination that include but are not limited to: excluding workers, unwarranted and unnecessary criticism on the ability of workers, negative body language and nonverbal exchanges (eye rolling, glaring, frowning), fabricating errors, moving goalposts, purposefully limiting access to necessary resources to complete work, cutting workers out of necessary communication loops, using silent treatment, weaponizing HR (escalating complaints that could be easily solved or present no real problems), vague insults, nitpicking, micromanaging, and casual dismissals that serve to slight, psychologically harm, and diminish a person due to their membership in a marginalized group. Microaggressions can be intentional (conscious) or unintentional (subconscious).
MISCONDUCT
Intentionally unethical or harmful behavior (often self-serving and premeditated) in the workplace and adjacent spaces. Misconduct is the by-product of an organization that has not clearly defined protocols for defining and maintaining ethical expectations. Both harassment and abuse are examples of misconduct.
PERSON/PEOPLE OF COLOR (POC)
Referring to underrepresented groups who have been systematically dehumanized, disenfranchised, and/or excluded from media and visual storytelling, including queer and trans people of color, women of color, and immigrants of color. POC is a solidarity term, tying a shared experience of non-white peoples who have historically experienced oppression and systemic racism in the United States. Communities of color encompass Black/African American, Latinx, Asian-American/Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and other non-white peoples.
PERSON WITH DISABILITIES
A person socially positioned as ability non-normative. People with disabilities and disabled people are subject to ableism — rigid social structures, attitudes, and beliefs that remove access to and/or participation in experiences. For example, a building that does not offer ramp access disables individuals that use some types of mobility assistive devices.
People with disabilities are a marginalized and vulnerable population. In media, representations of people with disabilities are often authored by those without, leading to a superficial portrayal of those experiences. Lens-based workers with disabilities are frequently overlooked in hiring decisions due to incorrect assumptions about their capacities.
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE)
Personal protective equipment includes specialized clothing and gear like masks, goggles, gloves, hazmat suits, ballistic vests, body armor, etc. meant to reduce the wearer’s exposure to hazards such as chemicals, biohazards, projectiles, shrapnel, or ammunition that could cause infection, injury, or death. PPE is meant to help protect the safety and health of the wearer.
SHADOW BAN
Also known as being ‘blacklisted’ or ‘blackballed,’ shadow banning is one form of reprisal taken against freelance workers who are deemed politically risky or overly critical of the industry, typically coordinated through word-of-mouth. Shadow bans can often look like a hiring body informing other hiring bodies about an individual they will not hire again. Shadow bans are covert enough to not be immediately recognized as retaliation.
SUBLICENSING
A clause commonly included in editorial and commercial contracts regarding the potential distribution of images to a third party. Sublicensing clauses often deprive the lens-based worker of potential income or devalue their work. Many photo-based apps also have Terms of Service that grant the company sublicensing rights to work uploaded to their platforms.
TONE POLICING
A way to detract from conversations, especially those around oppression or privilege, by critiquing the emotions driving the conversation. Asking someone to “calm down” or manage their feelings is a silencing tactic used by people in positions of privilege to control discussions and prevent others from communicating their experiences.
TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE
Considers the pervasive nature of trauma and promotes environments where healing and recovery are considered so as not to re-traumatize affected workers. There are five guiding principles followed in trauma informed practices including: safety, right to choose, collaboration, trustworthiness, and finally, empowerment.
cf. "What Is Trauma-Informed Care?"
WHISPER NETWORK
The unstructured, asystematic, and often very discreet ways in which marginalized workers share information about professional and personal abuse as a means of warning and protecting colleagues. Whisper networks often take shape via word of mouth, private forums, or online documents like the Shitty Media Men list.
WHITE PRIVILEGE
A set of social, political, and economic advantages afforded to white people over nonwhite people. White privilege shields white people from being discriminated against on the basis of their race. White privilege for those working in visual media might look like: the ability to concentrate on craft without being distracted or burdened by racism or discrimination; the assumption of competence when being considered for jobs or on assignment; the validation of seeing yourself reflected in role models and the power structures of your industry; generational wealth or safety nets to support education and career ambitions; access to relationships for networking; and not needing to shift cultural identity in order to be respected professionally. White privilege is power which can be used to either benefit the individual’s self-interests or to dismantle white supremacy and promote equitable access to opportunities for all. White privilege also benefits lighter skinned people of color who can pass or present as white.
WHITE SUPREMACY
A condition of Eurocentric dominance where white people hold economic, social, and political power at the exclusion of nonwhite people. A white supremacist system is one in which white people are overrepresented in positions of power and influence. White supremacy is upheld not only by self-proclaimed white supremacists, people who believe that white people are superior to other races and believe that white people should hold power over other races. White supremacy is also upheld by white and nonwhite people who ideologically reject white supremacy but do not act to dismantle it. White supremacy in the media looks like an industry in which positions of power and influence to control the cultural narrative are held disproportionately by white people, from corporate ownership, management, and staff to freelance lens-based workers. White supremacy distorts the cultural narrative of a multicultural society by centering whiteness as the default or preferable state of existence. White supremacy is closely related to settler colonialism, a process by which a dominant group seeks to erase and replace the identities and cultures of existing and adjacent populations.
WORK FOR HIRE
“Work for Hire” is a legal construct in U.S. copyright law. A work created by an employee in the scope of their employment is considered a “work made for hire” or a “work for hire” and the company is considered the author of the work and the owner of the copyright. Conversely, the copyright to work created by an independent contractor is owned by that independent contractor. However, some contracts ask the independent contractor to give up their copyright by either transferring the copyright or by including a “work for hire” clause which makes the client the author and the copyright holder. If a work is “made for hire,” the employer—not the worker—is considered the legal author. In some countries, this is known as corporate authorship.
WORKING CLASS
Social class status in the United States is dictated by the intersections of race, immigration status, profession, and accrued wealth. Also known as “socio-economic status,” class is often based on judgements made in relation to how much wealth an individual or household currently possesses and their access (or lack thereof) to generational wealth (income that stays within a family over generations). Class status often distinguishes how you are treated, what opportunities are available to you, and how much you can achieve in a capitalist system.
Socio-economic classes in the United States typically fall into three categories: upper class (19% of the population); the middle class (52%); and those below the poverty line (29%)*. The American concept of the “working class” falls somewhere between the lower end of the middle class and those experiencing poverty. Studies indicate that the poorest Americans incorrectly believe themselves to be in the socioeconomic class above their statistical class standing. Also, working class historically symbolizes hard-working white people with middle class aspirations and values as a contrast to the stereotype of impoverished Americans being primarily Black and brown people. This, combined with the tendency to misunderstand our own economic status, shows how the term and concept of “working class” is both a mythology and an important political tool helping to prevent class solidarity, especially with middle and poverty classes across races.
The use of “working class” as a euphemism for poor whites who aren’t “elite” robs middle and poverty class white people of their autonomy. This group is often evoked for political gain by conservative whites in the upper class, while that group simultaneously produces structures and policies counter to the interests and needs of the so-called working class. The self-identification of “working class,” however, can be reclaimed to express class solidarity and shared struggle between workers who do not easily fit into the expectations of the ruling racial class.