Thursday, October 1, 2015

Diversity in the Newsroom = Diversity in Coverage

Krystal Thorp
kt085814@ohio.edu

Did you know that of almost 33,000 people employed by a daily newspaper company, less than 13% are minorities?  This is even a relatively high number compared to the 3.95% employed back in 1978.  The American Society of News Editors has conducted a yearly consensus to demonstrate the rise and/or fall of minorities in the newspaper workforce. 

Projections based on responses to annual employment census
(numbers rounded)

Total
Work Force
Minorities In
Work Force
% Minorities In
Work Force
1978
43,000
1,700
3.95
1979
45,000
1,900
4.22
1980
47,000
2,300
4.89
1981
45,500
2,400
5.27
1982
49,000
2,700
5.51
1983
50,000
2,800
5.60
1984
50,400
2,900
5.75
1985
53,800
3,100
5.76
1986
54,000
3,400
6.30
1987
54,700
3,600
6.56
1988
55,300
3,900
7.02
1989
56,200
4,200
7.54
1990
56,900
4,500
7.86
1991
55,700
4,900
8.72
1992
54,500
5,100
9.39
1993
53,600
5,500
10.25
1994
53,700
5,600
10.49
1995
53,800
5,900
10.91
1996
55,000
6,100
11.02
1997
54,000
6,100
11.35
1998
54,700
6,300
11.46
1999
55,100
6,400
11.55
2000
56,200
6,700
11.85
2001
56,400
6,600
11.64
2002
54,400
6,600
12.07
2003
54,700
6,900
12.53
2004
54,200
7,000
12.95
2005
54,100
7,300
13.42
2006
53,600
7,400
13.73
2007
55,000
7,400
13.43
2008
52,600
7,100
13.52
2009
46,700
6,300
13.41
2010
41,500
5,500
13.26
2011
41,600
5,300
12.79
2012
40,600
5,000
12.32
2013
38,000
4,700
12.37
2014
36,700
4,900
13.34
2015
32,900
4,200
12.76

From the image above, you will notice that there was a steady increase from 1978 through 2000.  However, after that time the numbers began to fluctuate.  But why does this matter?  How does having minorities in the newsroom affect me?  Well my friend, you are in fact impacted in a huge way by the diversity that your local newsroom may or may not have.

By having a diverse culture, the newsroom is being brought into a new realm that reaches a wider array of audiences.  More culture brings more opinions, which in turn brings in my stories that others had not even considered.  Kevin Merida of The Washington Post said it best “…we’re in the business of explaining people to each other.  How can we do that if we don’t have enough variety in our newsroom?” 

A Latino news anchor will not report on the same issues as an African American news anchor.  The same can be said for every represented culture in America.    Had your local news reporter been a person of color, your entire evenings broadcast last night might have gone a little differently.  Diversity brings more stories, more opinions, and greater wisdom. 

For more staggering statistics check out these Media Matters For America articles by Matt Gertz, Rob Savillo and Oliver Willis.   

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Krystal, I like what you've said about diversity bringing more options for stories and opinions. When a greater variety of people are involved more people's stories will be told, which will help all of us understand each other better. Sheldon Good

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  4. Krystal, I’m a little perplexed and not just the numbers in this blog, but by all of the numbers regarding diversity for every subject matter. Whenever I hear diversity numbers of any given survey, to me anyway, I think there is always a key piece of information that is not included. I believe this is perhaps to sensationalize the numbers a bit or to exaggerate them to meet someone’s agenda.
    The very first sentence reads; “Did you know that almost 33,000 people employed by a daily newspaper company, less than 13% are minorities”? So that means that 4,290 people employed at this newspaper are designated as minorities. To me, that just sounds like an injustice is being perpetrated at this newspaper company. How can this be?
    Again, I feel like I’m not getting the whole story, the whole truth, and the right context in any of these diversity studies. The one piece of information I would like to see in this or any other of its kind is how many minorities applied for these jobs. To simply say that only 4,290 people out of 33,000 are minorities in this case is a skewed number in my opinion. Show me the percentages of who applied. Were there a larger number of minorities applying for these jobs? If that is the case then we have problems. Is the percentage of minorities working here relative to the percentage of minority applicants?
    Seek truth and report it, right?
    Provide context, right?
    Take care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing, or summarizing a story, right?

    T.L. Schilling
    ts568115@ohio.edu

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