Diversity in the Newsroom

Max Semenczuk

ms498517@ohio.edu

Diversity of races, religions, gender and anything else should be celebrated and embraced in our workspace and newsrooms across the country and world. It is important for people of differing backgrounds to have a platform for them to speak out on current topics and to give input that would otherwise not be possible. For a newsroom, having a diverse staff is imperative, as the readers themselves come from varying backgrounds. 

Not only is diversity of staff important, but as is the diversity of ideas. It is too easy to fall victim of playing it safe in the newsroom, and to not try new endeavors of multimedia storytelling, investigative journalism, or potentially costly endeavors such as live reporting or to invest in nice equipment. Being prepared to take risks in order for proper high quality story telling is an important task of being able to compete in the modern media landscape, and this alongside having a diverse staff, will lead to a successful environment. Without having a diverse staff willing to take risks and to be expressive in their storytelling, earnest and thoughtful journalism would be hard to achieve. A diverse cast of people will inherently have more to say, as there would be a wider pool of experiences and backgrounds to influence world view. And the opposite effect happens as well, when only one group of people have the floor -- crucial details are missed.

Picture source: Free Press

 

As journalists, we must embrace this behavior. The behavior regarding storytelling from all backgrounds. Oftentimes media distrust comes from people feeling alienated or ostracized because of a media outlet's insistence on one specific viewpoint. It would be less jarring for a consumer to follow an organization that values both journalistic integrity and giving people of all backgrounds a voice.  

The goal of journalists should not be to deter or to split groups of people. The goal is to effectively tell stories and to convey the news in a non-biased format.

Journalism, like nearly every industry in the United States, is suffering a race issue. Similarly, there are gender issues, religious issues and LGBT+ issues seen in newsrooms across the nation. Issues lie mainly within a lack of actual representation in the media being consumed by Americans. Many Americans feel that when they turn on the television, read the paper, or listen to the radio, they aren't seeing or hearing someone similar to themselves or their loved ones. Such issues as this creates a disconnect between the media and the population, further causing a distrust in media, as has been so fervently seen in the past 5-10 years.

To combat media distrust and to further promote diversity, the approach should obviously lie within hiring people from all backgrounds. And while easier said than done, a primary issue of diversifying the newsroom is that people only believe it needs to be done at the top, oftentimes disregarding smaller-scale news organizations and outlets. All levels of media, from your local news station to CNN, need to effectively report the news, and to do so, these organizations need to include the voices of people from all backgrounds.