What the Media Talks About When It Talks About Trans People, with Kae Petrin, President of Trans Journalists Association

More than four in ten Americans personally know someone who is transgender, which means the majority of the country still relies entirely on the news for their introduction. But what exactly are those headlines teaching them? On this episode of The Queer Pridecast, we sit down with data journalist and media educator Kae Petrin to look in the mirror. As a co-founder of the Trans Journalists Association, Kae helped build the Trans News Initiative. This groundbreaking tool analyzed over 190,000 news articles spanning five years to uncover the hidden patterns, biases, and glaring blind spots in how the media covers trans communities. We break down the data to understand why the press is failing to tell the full story.Episode Chapters: 00:28 - Meet Kae Petrin and the Trans News Initiative 02:30 - Pop culture vs. Policy: Why the media focuses on "culture war" blowups06:44 - How journalists are using this data to fight for better stories in the newsroom 11:32 - Connecting the dots on the global network of anti-queer legislation 16:07 - The fatal flaw of "both sides" reporting in healthcare and science 20:50 - The 24/7 news cycle, layoffs, and the collapse of the newsroom apprenticeship model 25:26 - What's next? Expanding the initiative globally and to other news beats Follow The Queer Pridecast on social media: Instagram: www.instagram.com/thequeerpridecast Tiktok: tiktok.com/@thequeerpridecast