'Me and my camera:' Navigating the news industry as a journalist of color

Tolleah Price made her way down the first floor steps into the basement dining area of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on a blustery cold Wednesday afternoon in early February. The wife and mother of two chatted about the unforeseen shutdown of her soon-to-be former employer, Al Jazeera America (AJAM) on her way into the semi-deserted cafeteria.

Wearing an olive green utility jacket with black leather sleeves over black cropped pants and a pink blouse, Price walked over to the dessert and drink area, grabbing a slice of strawberry shortcake and a clear plastic cup of strawberry lemonade. She sat down at an empty square table with two blue chairs and cut into the small slice of stale cake. Around her, employees of the museum were hastily preparing to set up for an event.

On Al Jazeera America’s sudden closing

Price is a producer for America Tonight, a long-form documentary journalism program, which tapes out of the Newseum and broadcasts weekdays at 9:30 p.m. on AJAM. Employees of the cable news channel were blindsided on January 13 when the company officially announced it was closing its television and digital operations due to low ratings.

“None of us saw that coming, but we kind of understood when they said it was a bad business model,” said Price. “The cable companies pretty much owned us . . . they’d say, ‘Well, you can’t post your whole story online or on your website.’ No content company can survive like that.”

She describes her time at AJAM as being “one of the best journalism jobs” she has had thus far in her career.

“We really did journalism. It really was about the content. It was really about storytelling. It was really about, and it sounds cliché — but that journalists’ mantra ‘giving a voice to the voiceless and going after the powerful,’ and we stuck by that and we did that here.”

Price says they are planning on phasing employees out starting at the end of February. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera Media Network has plans to expand its global digital operations into the U.S. market following AJAM’s closure on April 30.

Humble beginnings in local news and the importance of building connections

“S-A-G-I-N-A-W, Michigan,” Price jokingly spelled out her hometown as tables and chairs were loudly being collected around her. She says she was first drawn to journalism because of her father’s influence, describing her dad as an avid news lover.

“We just religiously watched local news and then evening network news,” said Price. “He always thought it was very important to be informed about what was going on in the world.”

After attending Oakland University in metropolitan Detroit, Price quickly moved up in her career as a broadcast news producer, going from a small town local news station in Flint, Michigan, to a Top 10 station in D.C., in less than a decade.“

I really felt like I started to become a journalist once I got to D.C.,” Price said. All of the job opportunities she received, with the exception of one, came from networking and making connections.

Jim McFarlin, an award-winning journalist and one of Price’s former mentors, says that starting in a smaller market is the best way to gain hands-on education in the field and a good way to start your career as a young journalist.

“In a perfect world, everybody goes to work at their first job at The Washington Post, but the reality is that doesn’t happen,” McFarlin said by phone. “You’ve got to kind of work your way up sometimes. You’ve got to go low to get high.”

As an undergraduate student, Price reached out to the creator of Detroit's "Flix 'n' Pix" television series, Greg Russell, where she was introduced to McFarlin during his time as a movie critic for the show, and started what she describes as an “unofficial internship,” helping them produce different segments.

“You really need to know people. You really need to network with them and let people know that they can advocate on behalf of you,” Price said.

On life as a journalist of color in broadcast news

After leaving the noisy dining area, Price headed upstairs to the rented office space where the America Tonight team works out of on one of the upper museum floors. She sat down in a gray folding chair at an empty brown table in a hallway right outside of the employee-access only elevator. Behind her hung a large, blue America Tonight banner and a wall sculpture of a randomly placed multicolored fish.

Although Price quickly moved up in her career, she has faced some adversity as an African-American journalist in the news business.

“Sometimes you’ll find that you’re one of the only, if not the only,” said Price. “Sometimes it’s isolating, if you let it become that.”

Richard Prince, a columnist for The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, has had similar experiences in his career as a journalist of color.

“Overall, when you don’t have people who understand your point of view or share the same priorities as you do and think of the same things you do as being news, there can be a problem,” Prince said. “You get frustrated because things that you think are news, others don’t think of as news and vice versa.”

Despite the difficulties Price has faced, she says that being able to relate to her subjects in terms of race and background did have their advantages during her time as a backpack journalist for CBS News.

“A lot of times it was just me and my camera. I’d show up at people’s homes to interview them and, you know, you need to able to make that connection with them and be relatable with them for them to be able to open up and talk to you,” said Price.

Price believes that AJAM promoted newsroom diversity in race, gender, socio-economic backgrounds and religion, saying, “everyone was welcome at the table.”

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As her time begins to wind down at AJAM, Price says she’s in no rush to start looking for a new opportunity and is unsure if she wants to return to a traditional news job as of yet.

She does hope to stay at home with her newborn son and his older brother despite her husband’s request for her to start searching for a new job soon.

“I can spend time with my new baby,” Price said enthusiastically.