When issues surrounding race and sport really blow up, it’s because of TikTok videos, Twitter threads, and Instagram posts.
The Daily Dot has been there to catch these viral moments. We’ve covered the fury over Sha’Carri Richardson’s Olympic ban. We’ve reported on how the Black Lives Matter movement made its way to professional soccer fields. We’ve chased stories of bad actors in sports arenas caught being racist online—the serious side of “Karen” videos.
Since October 2021, we’ve been developing our editorial project, Presser, which dives into the crosshairs of race, social media, and sports. And in February 2022, with continued support from the campaign’s launch partner and continued sponsor ESPN+, we celebrated Black History Month and revamped our efforts covering Black pro-athletes, amateurs, creators, and activists changing the world of sports.
Ramón Ramirez, Editorial Director of the Daily Dot, has always wanted to develop a Daily Dot sports section rooted in internet culture that is relevant, noisy and unapologetically online.
“Over time, we hope Presser becomes a standalone media property,” Ramirez said, “Presser is a common term for a press conference, and we liked the double meaning of moving the cultural conversation forward, urgently, by pushing peoples’ buttons.”
The Daily Dot joined forces with ESPN after learning about its campaign called Black History Always. The campaign aims to highlight Black achievements not only during Black History Month, but year round. As such, the project represents a particular interest for Daily Dot’s unique audience, which is 27% Black – significantly higher than the national average of the population that is Black, 14%.
“The Daily Dot being there to expose issues on race, good and bad, is why we have this audience,” Group Publisher David Flynn said, “By not speaking to this audience directly about issues that are important to them, we’re missing something.”
Despite the Daily Dot’s efforts to report regularly on the intersection of race and internet culture, our Editorial Director is planning to recruit a more diverse editorial team.
“We have a poor record of having Black editors and full-time staffers at the Daily Dot. Only 2 of our 17 editorial staffers are Black,” Ramirez said, “However, we have an outstanding track record of working with rising reporting voices and have a tremendous alum shortlist of Black reporters who have gone on to bigger newsrooms.”
At the Daily Dot, our mission is to explore how the internet touches every aspect of our lives. We’re excited to continue our work with Presser, and hope it turns out to be a long-standing piece of our coverage of race, sports, and web culture.
