Diversity in the Newsroom

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Recommended: Ethics of journalism case study

Ethics in Journalism: Diversity in newsrooms not a trend in the new millennium

My interest in the lack of diversity in newsrooms across the United States began

while I was enrolled in an ethics course in the journalism department, this semester. I

hadn’t realized until this semester that diversity was integral to good, accurate, and fair

reporting, and that it is also widely lacking in newsrooms. While the subject of diversity

was only discussed over a few class sessions, it became a noticeably important issue for

me, especially as I am an aspiring journalist. As a top editor at the Massachusetts Daily

Collegian, a student-run newspaper at the University of Massachusetts that has almost no

minority representation in the newsroom, I’m realizing that the problem is increasingly

important, yet increasingly ignored. Diversity in the newsroom is an important issue in

corporate-owned newspapers, private-owned newspapers, and at university and college

newspapers. Statistics show that diversity in newsrooms is especially low for the years

proceeding 2006, and, in some cases, is declining. Similarly, while many editors endorse

diversity and believe that a representative newsroom provides fair and accurate reporting,

statistics show that diversity is not an important priority for newsrooms. Though many

newspapers are working towards diversity goals, the minimal progress that is being made

in some places is especially slow, and not enough newspapers are taking part.

The percentage of diversity representation in the newsroom has an effect on

credibility. Without a significant representation of reporters who come from diverse

backgrounds equal to the percentage of minority readers, information and content have a

Page 2

2...

... middle of paper ...

... Nov 2006. (copied in ethics class course

pack).

Heyboer, Kelly. “Losing Ground.” American Journalism Review. 2001 June. p. 43

(copied in ethics class course pack).

“The Lackluster Racial Record of University Student Newspapers.” Journal of Blacks in

Higher Education. No. 2 (Winter 1993), p. 28. JSTOR. 28 Nov 2006. <

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=10773711%28199324%2F199424%290%3A2%3C28%

3ATLRROU%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1>

Hold the Presses! Blacks Now Making Gains on Editorial Boards of Student Newspapers.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 18 (Winter, 1997-1998), pp. 33-34.

JSTOR. 29 Nov 2006. < http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1077-

3711%28199724%2F199824%290%3A18%3C33%3AHTPBNM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-

8>

Tobar, Hector. “Attempting to Bridge the Divide.” Nieman Reports. Fall 2006.

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