Over the past 50 years our country has made massive strides across the board in terms of diversity. However, the journalism industry, one of the cornerstones of any democracy, is lagging seriously behind. Despite a 1978 pledge, minorities are still seriously under-represented in the media.
In order to do its job, the media should truly represent the population as a whole. This means that we should not be relying solely on one demographic to give us our news. A newsroom should be a place of diversity with different viewpoints and backstories. According to a Columbia Journalism Review study done in 2017, “When it came to the diversity of the general news staff, the report said 31 percent of The Washington Post’s newsroom is minorities compared to 54 percent of the people who live in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metropolitan statistical area. The New York Times’s newsroom is 78 percent white and 22 percent minorities, while the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area is 53 percent minorities.” This statistic obviously shows that at two of our nation’s most well known and most respected media outlets, diversity is a huge issue.
Given this well documented and very noticeable underrepresentation of minorities in journalism, it is not unfair to think many American citizens can’t relate to the media. In order for a country for America to truly be what it is, people need a good relationship with the press. And while the press as a whole realizes this and knows it has to become more diverse as an industry as a whole, it is not a top priority. The diversity movement has taken a backseat as the industry has gone though changes over the past decade or so. The transition from print to online has obviously been a big move for journalism. And while I do understand people in the business were focused on how they were going to keep their jobs, journalism is not a field you get in to for the money. When you are a member of the press you are working in public service. You are keeping those who hold the power honest and in check. Tim P. Voz finds that journalists exercise important roles in two domains: political life and everyday life. For the domain of political life, we identify 18 roles addressing six essential needs of political life: informational-instructive, analytical-deliberative, criticalmonitorial, advocative-radical, developmental-educative, and collaborative-facilitative. In the domain of everyday life, journalists carry out roles that map onto three areas: consumption, identity, and emotion.”
Journalism is huge part of our country. It has impacts on both our everyday life and the politics in which keep America functioning. In order for journalism to be as trustworthy and reliable as it ought to, there needs to be a change in diversity. It is supposed to be for the people and it order to do that, the industry must be representative of the people first.
Sources
Ho, K. (n.d.). Diversity in newsrooms has been bad for decades and it probably won’t get better: Study. Retrieved from https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/diversity-newsrooms-asne-study.php
Hanitzsch, T., & Vos, T. P. (2016). Journalism beyond democracy: A new look into journalistic roles in political and everyday life. Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 19(2), 146-164. doi:10.1177/1464884916673386