Without Diversity, There is No Journalism

Isaiah Lyle, il749817@ohio.edu

Before America was even America, it was known as a land of opportunity. For that reason, it has attracted races and ethnicities from all over the globe. This country is all shades of the human rainbow, but the people informing, entertaining, and educating their communities are not. 

The issue of diversity has plagued journalism from the beginning, unfortunately. As discussed in Clark Merrifield's piece summarizing reports on diversity, the Black press was developed in the late 1800s to hear Black voices, with mainstream outlets being White-dominated. 

With a long history of underrepresentation comes misrepresentation, and the media and journalists struggle with that even today. Jelani Cobb and Dawn Turner break down the misrepresentation.

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Cobb finds that the media narrative isn't represented in the newsroom through a story about the Bronx. Instead, the news broadcast built its story around people in a violent community refusing to give up money and how that's crazy. Turner calls on media types to look at how they've long followed a trope to cast stereotypes on individuals of color in news coverage, making it hard to define themselves in society. 

The underrepresentation and misrepresentation breakdown journalism and the press at a fundamental level. 

Take the example given by Cobb if the story focuses on how crazy it is to refuse to give up your money without asking that person why it breaks ethics codes across the profession. In the SPJ Code of Ethics, the first principle is seeking truth and reporting it. In that section, it states, "Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing, or summarizing a story." Yet, there was no context given in the story. There was no other viewpoint but the reporter and how they interpreted the situation. 

The Freedom of the Press was written into the constitution because the founding father believed an independent fourth estate was necessary for democracy. Democracy is built on informed people, and people have to trust the press to deliver unmanipulated facts. 

As Turner points out though our press, our media is manipulated even when unknowingly. 

All of it stems back to the issue of diversity in the newsroom. Having voices representing everyone being covered allows for more context to a story. It can stop misrepresentation because there will be a voice that can speak up.