Per the American Press Institute, journalism “is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information. Personal taste and opinion do not-and should not-determine whether something is or is not journalism. In my view, readers should see TSR’s authors as journalists. Witty and sometimes outlandish captions drive up engagement but-taking engagement, reach, and relevance into consideration-can consumers regard TSR as legitimate journalism? TSR and accounts like it get to post stories one after the other, with their owners being the researcher, editor, and distributor. Some of the news it has shared with its audience in recent weeks includes NBA player, Kyrie Irving being barred from practices and games due to refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and rapper Tyga’s recent release from jail on a $50,000 bond after a felony domestic violence arrest. Posts on The Shade Room break news of notable celebrities to their audience, leaving the comment section open for discussions and the “hot-takes” of its followers. Since its inception, TSR has launched a teen-focused page and branched out its focus to include politics and human-interest stories relevant to Black culture. Despite only having 21 employees as of 2021, the page has just under 25 million followers and over 110,000 posts. TSR is an image-based, celebrity news offering with predominant ties to the African American community. The Shade Room, often shortened to TSR, is an Instagram-based media company founded in 2014 by Angelica Nwandu which has become the blueprint for the blurred lines of journalism in the age of social media. Now, it is Instagram pages with hundreds, thousands, and millions of followers. Before the rise of social media, entertainment news had “gossip rags” that cluttered the checkout aisles at supermarkets. The question of what constitutes “news” remains a debate often focused on whether to include or exclude entertainment coverage. In the journalism industry, entertainment news and celebrity gossip constantly fight for respect and legitimacy. “As long as you’re being true to your community, everybody will love it,” she said.Īnd judging by The Shade Room’s massive audience, she’s right.Social media platforms over the past decade changed the landscape of how news is consumed. Today, The Shade Room is popular with visitors from around the world from Nigeria to Mexico, and the U.S. Instead of limiting her audience, focusing on Black culture helped to expand Nwandu’s business. If you ever think you’ve got to stay from Black culture to be hot, you’re tripping.” Black people and Black culture is pop culture. “I’m going to keep doing this and I don’t care if it restricts me to just Black news, Black culture, and everything Black. “I was like, ‘Get out of my face,’” Nwandu recalled. But she refused, holding onto her mission to tell Black stories. “When I started The Shade Room, it was meant to be for us, by us–for Black people, by Black people–and it was meant to take control of the narrative that we have about ourselves,” she explained.ĭespite it’s meteoric rise, many tried to get Nwandu to focus on all celebrities, not just Black ones. Two months later, unemployed and refusing to go back to accounting, she founded The Shade Room. Nwandu collaborated with actress Jordana Spiro on a script that borrowed heavily from her own life in foster care and was accepted into the prestigious Sundance Screenwriters Lab program in January 2014. “If you have a desire that you cannot shake, that’s not just your desire, that’s God’s desire for you,” she explained on ESSENCE’s “Yes Girl!” podcast. Still, her passion for words just wouldn’t die. A poet, who was thrown into the foster care system after her father murdered her mother, Nwandu wanted to write, but wasn’t sure she could turn it into a lucrative career. However, the whole thing almost didn’t happen.Īfter obtaining an accounting degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angles in 2012, Nwandu quickly realized crunching numbers for a living wasn’t how she wanted to spend her life. Today, The Shade Room boasts nearly 12 million “roommates,” or fans, across all of its social platforms and Nwandu has earned props from both the business and media worlds. In the first two weeks, the Los Angeles native racked up 10,000 followers on Instagram and the explosive growth hasn’t stopped since. In 2014, Nwandu founded The Shade Room, an entertainment platform focusing on Black celebrities. When she graduated from college, Angie Nwandu didn’t set out to be one of the biggest voices in new media, but that’s exactly what happened.
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