Jenée Desmond-Harris
How journalists are shaping the way Americans understand contemporary white nationalism
It quickly became undeniable that the alt-right was no longer a small-time fringe group that lived on Twitter and 4chan — it had evolved into a formidable movement with political clout in the White House, all while openly spouting messages of white supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny, and other extreme ideas. News organizations know their decisions about how to describe a modern group with an age-old racist message will shape how Americans understood it.