Diversity for the right reasons

Malaya Tindongan mt839718@ohio.edu When I was a kid, I didn't know I wanted to go into media or become a journalist. I did, however, watch the NBC Nightly news with my mother. I saw Brian Williams on the screen almost every day; however, it was not always him. I would see Lestor Holt reporting the news every once instead and asking my mother why it was not the usual guy. Later I would ask myself why the person of color was the substitute anchor. However, in 2015, Lester Holt became the first African American person to solo anchor a weekday nightly newscast. As a young person of color, I did not see many people who looked like me on the screen but seeing Lester Holt every night was a huge change.

Source: NBC News. The diversity in the United States is not reflected in the media or the news and public relations workforce. If our newsrooms are not diverse, we can not expect our news to be diverse. The experience and skills that different groups can bring to the table should be welcomed. Media can not accurately report on different communities without having diverse representation themselves. Inclusion in journalism can also lead to more trust from sources with different backgrounds to hear their voices. People of color need to be represented in the industry to meet inclusion standards and challenge the way we report our news. According to the Pew Research Center, ethnic and racial minorities make up 40% of the population in the U.S., but half of the newsroom staff are white men. In a research study by Marian Meyers and Lynne Gayle, they interviewed 10 Black female journalists with varying years of experience. Meyers and Gayle wanted to find out if the women actively tried to improve diversity and if their presence as Black women changed coverage or the culture of newsrooms. They found that the journalists corrected colleagues in stereotypical or negative portrayals of Black sources and tried to strengthen the presence of Black images and voices. The journalists also actively fight stereotypes in their work, like paraphrasing a grammatically incorrect quote to focus on their words rather than execution. Some journalists also made an effort to represent White voices and stories to show that issues commonly associated with people of color affect all groups. In an Ad Age article, Rochelle Newman-Carrasco brings the perspective of public relations. Newman-Carrasco offers a lot of things to think about when it comes to race in the industry. Inclusion means inclusion in a system with pre-existing structures and rules not written by diverse groups. Change is necessary for a system that did not build to allow for it. Like news, advertising needs content with diversity and content creators with diverse backgrounds and experience.