Diversity In The Newsroom

Ryan Burg

rb620917@ohio.edu

 

Ever since journalism started, there has always been an issue with diversity in the newsroom. However today, with our efforts to diminish the lack of diversity within journalism, the situation has gotten better, but it's still not enough. 

There is no doubt that white males lead the newsrooms for the majority of journalism, but many knew there had to be a change. Journalism is what brings the news to the people, and not everyone is a white male. News is to inform everyone, no matter what race, gender, or religion you are.

To further my point, according to the Columbia Journalism Review "racial and ethnic minorities comprise almost 40 percent of the US population, yet they make up less than 17 percent of newsroom staff at print and online publications, and only 13 percent of newspaper leadership".

The problem with this is there could be issues concerning a certain community that a member in the newsroom could recommend to the newspaper to look further into, to broader their audience's content, and bring a voice to that community. If they don't have a seat at the table, the problem could be unrecognized that it's happening, or another news platform can pick it up. 

Not only that, but having 13 percent representing newspaper leadership is also a shame. Leadership in a newsroom can really make a difference to what their message is and what news they'll cover 

Picture source: Responsesource

With little to no diversity in the newsroom, it could also have a poor message towards your platform. You're a newsroom, you bring journalism to the people, and the people want to know you are looking at all kinds of cultures through your work, especially theirs. There can be problems that you don't even realize that aren't being addressed to you, and possibly other newsrooms too. So if there is something you're not covering, and another company is because of their diversified newsroom, you can lose some audience members.

Having a diverse newsroom can also pique interests for other readers. If there was an article talking about issues happening in a community that they didn't know much about or that they care for, they could be more educated about the culture and how they can be more involved in fighting injustices in their communities. 

According to the American Press Institute, "API believes that the news outlets that thrive now and in the future will be those that can understand and serve the whole of their communities."

With the amount of diversity there is in the world right now, the journalism world needs to catch up. There is news out there that needs to be heard. We can't report about discrimination when it's happening in our own newsrooms. We, as journalists, need to realize that there is more to journalism than writing about the news around us, we need to fully understand it and make those voices heard.