Report Diversity

Cassidy Selep
cs743115@ohio.edu

I was not surprised to read about the lack of equality within newsrooms and public relation firms. The American Society of News Editors conducted the 2014 Newsroom Census that found that "only 15 percent of daily newspapers surveyed in 2013 had a person of color in one of their top three newsroom leadership positions" (Stewart).

The article by Nieman Reports' Alicia W. Stewart provides examples of news organizations that have taken steps throughout the years to report on communities of color. I was pleased to see The Chicago Tribune's "Exploring Race" forum on the list. As a community member of the Chicagoland area, I was happy to see that the city was making efforts to cover communities of color; however, news organizations like The Chicago Tribune have to do more than only report.

Former columnist for The Chicago Tribune Dawn Turner explained that although communities of color are being covered more, the media has skewed the perception of these communities. I can agree with Turner that it is impossible to turn on the news channel and not be given the story of a shooting in a minority community.

Over the summer, I was more of an avid news watcher than I am during the school year. Around 9 a.m., I would turn on Chicago's Very Own WGN News and watch for about an hour. During that hour, I would see news on pop culture, sports and shootings in the area. There has only been one instance of reporting on communities of color in a positive light that I distinctly remember.

Around Town reporter for WGN Ana Belaval was shooting her segment in the Pilsen neighborhood, a majority Hispanic neighborhood. There were no set plans for her segment, so she randomly flipped a penny to determine what her segment would feature. She ended up at one of the offices for The Resurrection Project.

The Resurrection Project is an organization that helps community members with tasks such as affordable housing, immigration services and education programs. Services like this are vital to communities like Pilsen that are not only a minority community but are also under the stress of gentrification.

Photo courtesy of The Resurrection Project

I was inspired by this organization, and I could not wait to see what questions Belaval was going to ask. Not only was the segment short, half of it was taken up by Belaval explaining that she wanted to go to one of the panaderías nearby. I was disappointed in the segment and in Belaval.

Although reporters do not want to be pigeon-holed into reporting only on race and ethnicity, someone has to do it. While the rest of the newsroom waits in fear, the media needs reporters that are not afraid-- that are not uncomfortable-- with reporting on communities of color. Whether that reporter is a minority or a majority, race and ethnicity need to be covered in the media.