Diversity within the Newsroom

Tiffany Bey
tb908912@ohio.edu

Diversity in the newsroom is on the rise, and I absolutely love it! Being an African-American woman and dreaming to be a reporter someday makes me feel even more optimistic seeing more and more people that look just like me on my television screen! Reporters such as Robin Roberts, Juju Chang, Soledad O'brien, Oprah, Gayle King and many more have paved the way for many minorities that hope to be in the news industry.

Courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors

But then the question leads to, are the minorities just behind the scenes? Are they in the newsroom, but not on the television screen? Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. A newsroom is made up of many roles and the only role we mainly see on our television screens are the anchors, so with that being said, maybe there are more minorities in the newsroom than we think. Data still shows that we have a lot more work to do!

Although I've been noticing more and more diversity within the newsrooms, according to "American Society of Newspaper Editors" 90% of the newsroom employees are white. That means only 10% are minorities. This is an issue because America is made up of many racial backgrounds and just having white people in the newsroom is a false representation of America. In the text that we read titled "The Elements of Journalism" it says "getting more minorities in the newsroom is a target, but not the goal", and I totally disagree with that statement. I think the goal should indeed be to recruit more minorities into the newsrooms because diversity is something that brands a company. 

Viewers at home, want to be able to see people on television that look similar to them. That includes, Asians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and etc. For example, If I'm at home watching the news and I only see white people on my screen, I'm going to think hmm are my people not good enough for the job? I want to be able to connect and trust what the anchor is telling me, but I can't do that if I'm questioning the fact that I don't see a minority in sight. Also, I think it says a lot about the company. Again, going back to the concept of "branding". If a news station only has white employees, it makes me feel that they're not open to diversity, which makes me disconnected to the news station.

Courtesy of Free Press

Gender is also an issue. The pie chart above shows that only 38% females work in the newsroom. That's less than half! For years, diversity has been an issue in the United States of America, but I'm hopeful that there will be more progress in this area. Its strange to me because I feel that I see more female anchors than male anchors, so the data actually surprised me! Females have always been given "the short hand of the stick", but I still believe that I've seen more females reporters than males.
I'm looking forward to seeing more minorities in the news industry, and I'm definitely looking forward to be apart of that change!