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One of the biggest demands coming from inside newsrooms around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is for leaders to take ownership of the harm they’ve committed or overseen. They also need to hold themselves accountable for future strategies and behaviors, and their newsrooms teams are asking them to.
Community newspapers are more likely to succeed with readers, advertisers and the community when all residents’ voices are heard. One of the challenges faced by the News + Record was to determine how to cover the county’s increasing Latinx American population, even though a substantial portion of those potential readers didn’t read or write English.
A new study — "Who’s At The PrimeTime Table" — reveals that Black women — especially older Black women — are sorely underrepresented as hosts, contributors and experts during the coveted primetime hours at the three major cable news networks.
Creating diverse newsrooms requires more than recruitment. What’s the culture of the organization? What are the plans for retention? Are diverse journalists leading newsroom discussions? How will their unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives contribute to coverage? Are their opinions valued? The true test of a newsroom’s commitment to diversity is retention.
In 2016, the Tennessean formed a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Task Force, which built a foundation for Black Tennessee Voices’ launch. The D&I group reported on issues related to diversity in staffing and housing and covered other Nashville communities, like the city’s Kurdish population. Black Tennessee Voices now provides a model for newsrooms across the country.
For too many years, reporting on gender, politics and policy and their effect on overlooked segments of society have not been seen “above the fold.” So the 19th, an independent, nonprofit newsroom, was created and is working hard to push these issues forward.
Diversity isn't just about numbers. It’s about real people. It’s ongoing, messy and requires candid and sometimes uncomfortable conversations. Moreover, too often, the formal responsibility of diversifying newsrooms rests solely on the shoulders of Human Resources, when it should instead be a priority for everyone in the news organization, including those with “editor” in their job title.
An intense, 10-day media sales and operations training program is preparing its graduates for immediate advertising and operations sales jobs with major broadcast media companies. And, through its partnership with the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Foundation and the National Association of Broadcasters, it's helping to bring diversity to the media workforce.
News Leaders Association has announced a comprehensive update to the former ASNE Diversity Survey, renamed the Transformative Transparency Project. It will provide the numbers, narratives and knowledge to assist news media stakeholders in undertaking reforms that address the lack of newsroom diversity.
