When I began studying journalism at the graduate level in the late ‘90s, I realized I had been blind.

As journalists, we don’t think much about the sources we use in stories every day; we just try to cover the news and meet our deadlines. But actually studying the content of newspapers, online news and broadcast news can be eye-opening.

Overall, repeated studies show, women make up 33 percent of news sources in the United States, even though they make up 51 percent of the population. In front-page news, women constitute only one-fourth of the sources.

A well-circulated graphic during the 2012 election season showed that women were not even the majority of sources in coverage of so-called “women’s issues” such as abortion, birth control and women’s rights.

The only type of news in which women sources are equitable to men is in features and lifestyles sections.

Why is this a problem? When women are marginalized, it makes it more difficult for them to gain power in society.  The lack of women sources also affects women journalists and their ability to be taken seriously in covering hard news.

Women continue to make up only about 37 percent of newspaper and online newsroom staffs, according to the American Society of News Editors, and about 40 percent of television newsroom workers, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association.

With cutbacks in newsrooms, change has been slow. These percentages have remained steady since the 1990s.

Awareness is the first step. After that, both male and female journalists can make an effort to include women sources in their stories.

How to find them? Here are some links that will help:

SheSource.org: Affiliated with the Women’s Media Center, it offers female experts on a wide range of topics. They are available to comment or to be booked on broadcast shows.

The Op-Ed project: An educational and practical project designed to increase women’s voices in opinion pieces and other commentary.

Women in Media and News: Works with journalists to increase women’s presence in the news media.

 The Gender Report: Monitors coverage of gender in Internet news.

More efforts and organizations are out there. Please add them—and yourself—to the conversation.
Tracy Everbach, Ph.D., is associate professor of journalism at the University of North Texas. She also is a former newspaper reporter for The Dallas Morning News and Boston Herald.

Photo Courtesy: Jackson DeMos, USC Annenberg School

The train has left the station – and the good ol’ boy network is recreating itself. That was the call to action voiced by a disgruntled audience member at Digital & Diversity, a town hall at UNITY ‘12 on what diversity means in the digital age. Despite new tools, technologies, and business models, newsrooms are nearly as monochrome and male-dominated as a quarter century ago, participants said.

White male entrepreneurs seem to enjoy implicit favor in venture funding and grants, they observed. Worse yet, the high-speed, high-volume news environment is prone to offensive slips like ESPN’s infamous headline, “Chink in the Armor” — a reference to NBA star Jeremy Lin and an uneven stretch of games for his New York Knicks. Merely through inattention to inclusion, old hierarchies and habits have come right back.

The troubled digital space, though, still holds great opportunity for creating more honest, inclusive coverage, some speakers pointed out. Groups who feel shut out from the news can tell their own stories. Identity-specific news outlets and blogs such as Latina Lista, Native News Network and Pam’s House Blend can quickly hold other journalists accountable, improving the quality of the context we all offer. Partnerships across race, gender and sexual orientation bring stronger, more interesting ideas into everyone’s content.

There’s still time to reshape the news, some speakers proposed, by weaving inclusion right into the structure of news gathering and delivery. Audience members identified six key areas for attention:

• Build inclusive coverage into journalism programs from introductory courses on up.
• Ensure that journalism education and internships are available across the demographic spectrum, through grants and fair application processes.
• Press funders and venture capitalists to reinvent applications and decision-making processes so that entrepreneurs from all backgrounds get an equal chance.
• Encourage other types of support for journalists of color, LGBT entrepreneurs and women to own their own news outlets.
• Obtain a commitment by existing news outlets – whether online only or legacy – to an inclusive management and staff, and track their progress.
• Insist on ethical coverage that pays attention to inclusivity and fairness, and ask hard questions about representation and accuracy.

Focus on a broken system, the audience insisted, not piecemeal problem-solving. About 100 attendees raised concerns and proposed solutions at the session, which was opened by Bill Celis, associate director and associate professor at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. I helped guide the conversation with Dori Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Calif., and Evelyn Hsu, the Maynard Institute’s senior director of programs and operations.

Resources:
UNITY/McCormick Foundation Electronic Clearinghouse for News Diversity
ASNE Newsroom Census (See online category)
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Digital Journalism Ethics Resources
The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
Santa Clara University Journalism Program
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Code

Sally Lehrman is a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee. She holds Santa Clara University’s Knight Ridder — San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. Sally is also an author and independent journalist who specializes in covering identity, race relations and gender within the context of medicine and science.

ABC News is starting a fellowship program aimed at preparing up-and-coming journalists for television news.  The news network plans to choose participants from a variety of different  racial, ethnic, socio-economic and geographic backgrounds. Each fellow will work closely with an experienced ABC News mentor.

I have high hopes for this fellowship.  Kudos to ABC News for making an effort to find fellows from diverse backgrounds.

The chosen fellows will be offered:

• Rotation among several ABC News departments and broadcasts.
• Development of editorial, news gathering and production skills.
• Work closely with assigned news mentor at ABC.

ABC News President Ben Sherwood says the network is committed in recruiting, developing, empowering and promoting the industry’s future leaders.  The news network hopes to start this program on July 2, 2012.

What you need to qualify:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Solid writing skills
• Shooting and video editing experience
• Minimum two years experience
• Proficient in Spanish is preferred

Fellows will be employees of ABC News for one year.  For more information: ABC Fellowship.

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy award winning freelance reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She’s a board member with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and SPJ Fort Worth Chapter. She’s also the vice chair of the SPJ Diversity Committee.

Photo Courtesy: Paul Weiskel

Once again we find ourselves caught short. Why did it take news media across the country a couple of weeks to notice that a black teenager had been shot by a vigilante in a gated community? In our sometimes clumsy efforts to catch up (see NBC’s hideous editing error), some accuse the media of hyping the racial element.

That’s absurd, and here’s why. When three-quarters of black people surveyed consider racial bias a factor in the killing and in the non-arrest of the shooter, you’d better believe race is important to this story. It’s no secret that black parents fear for their children, knowing that suspicion routinely follows young males with black skin, wherever they are.  In a study of unconscious racial reactions, experimental psychologists found people of all backgrounds more likely to “see” a weapon in a black person’s hand when it’s actually a harmless object like a can of soda.

Distressingly, our own work is part of the reason why.  Decades ago, communication theorist George Gerbner first described the “Mean World Syndrome.” In his studies, he discovered that people exposed to heavy doses of violence on television developed an overblown sense of danger and fear about the world around them. Despite our best intentions, we’re part of that picture.

In the crime stories so favored by the local news, multiple studies have found that race plays a predictable but inaccurate role. White people disproportionately play the victim. People with darker skin disproportionately flash on the screen as suspects. News audiences have become so conditioned that even when no suspect is shown at all, viewers assume one — and he is black.

In one influential study, Frank Gilliam of UCLA and Shanto Iyengar of Stanford University altered the suspect’s race in crime news clips that they showed to about 2,300 participants. In the test group whose clip included no suspect at all, 44 percent recalled seeing a black perpetrator. Regular news watching also increased audiences’ support for punitive remedies to crime.

Separately, researcher Travis Dixon, now also at UCLA, found that African Americans are consistently overrepresented as perpetrators in local crime news. Not surprisingly, he also found that regular crime news watchers tended to perceive black people as violent.

Photo Courtesy: Paul Weiskel

In this moment, it’s important for the news media to step up to our responsibility to cover and spur conversation about America’s racial climate. Let’s also use this moment to consider hard questions about how we help to create it.

Digging Deeper into a Story

Some things you can do, based on experimental psychology research and other sources:

• Avoid snap judgments in your reporting; that’s when reactive biases are most likely to emerge.
• Form anti-bias strategies, like consciously pursuing stories about young African American men who are heroes or protectors of safety.
• Evaluate crime stories by the level of community impact, and place them in social context of root causes and potential solutions.
• Cross-check victim/perpetrator ratios by race within your own news reports. Do they reflect actual police statistics?
• Check your sources. Are you including perspectives across the fault lines of race, gender and age? Who is the affected community? Is there more than one?

Sally Lehrman is a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee. She holds Santa Clara University’s Knight Ridder — San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. Sally is also an author and independent journalist who specializes in covering identity, race relations and gender within the context of medicine and science.

The issue about diversity is burning up the web right now, because journalists of color are upset with the latest Forbes Under-30 Media List.  Not one person is Latino, African American or Native American.  There are a few Asian Americans.

Forbes unveiled its list stating:

“These are the people who aren’t waiting to reinvent the world. FORBES, leaning on the wisdom of its readers and the greatest minds in business, presents the 30 disrupters under 30, in each of 12 fields, making a difference right now.”

Robert Hernandez made me aware of the issue when he posted on Facebook  “Apparently Forbes does not know any Black or Latino journos under 30….let’s introduce them to some.  Please tweet them some names.”

Hernandez is assistant professor at USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.  He’s also a current board member with the Online News Association and past board member with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Soon after Hernandez put out that call on Twitter; journalists started tweeting suggestions to Forbes.   Alexandra Talty, a spokeswoman with Forbes talked to Richard Prince who blogs about journalists of color for The Maynard Institute.  Talty told  Journal-isms:

“While there are over fifty people of color on our other 30 Under 30 lists, diversity in media remains a national issue, which this list reflects.”

WHO DID THE CHOOSING?

Forbes asked its readers to nominate candidates for the list.  The staff also submitted names. I just can’t believe that when they laid out the photos and bios of the top 30—no one said “wait a minute, what’s missing here?”

I’m wondering who were the judges. Was it a diverse group that included Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans?

DON’T IGNORE THE ISSUE

An effort has to be made to make everyone feel “included.”  That’s the bottomline.  Today no magazine, newspaper, online news site or television station can afford to lose readers and viewers.  Not when we have so much news at our fingertips.

If  journalists of color are upset that Forbes did  not include one African American, Latino or Native American on its media  list; don’t you think they will let others know?

On a broader look, if people of color do not feel included in a story; they will stop buying your newspaper or magazine or they’ll change the television channel. Forbes thought this golden list of people under 30 was going to be a wonderful way to end 2011, but for journalists of color—it was a slap in the face.

DO IT RIGHT

My suggestion to Forbes; DIVERSIFY in all areas.   Your spokeswoman said “diversity in media remains a national issue.”  There you have it!  Do a story on the lack of diversity in the media and start with your magazine.  Take an inside look.

Learn what Forbes is learning today from bad press: Diversity matters!

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy Award winning reporter with 30 years in the business. She’s a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee and a board member with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the SPJ Fort Worth Chapter.

Our diversity committee is made up of people committed in making a difference in the landscape of journalism.Today we’re introducing you to two more members.  They come from different backgrounds and opposite sides of the country.

George Daniels is a faculty member of University of Alabama. He’s also the former chair of the SPJ Journalism Education Committee.

“I joined the SPJ Diversity Committee because diversifying our newsrooms has been a perennial goal of mine as a full-time working journalist and now as a full-time journalism professor. 

In my current position on the journalism faculty at The University, I not only teach two courses that focus on issues of difference or diversity in the media, but I also have made topics/issues of diversity a part of the academic research that I do. 

SPJ cannot be the nation’s largest, most broad-based group of journalists if it does not reflect the breadth of experiences and backgrounds of those who populate our profession.”

Sandy Frost is is online investigative journalist for Newsvine.com in Tacoma, Washington.

“I was asked to serve on the diversity committee because of my work for the Western Washington Pro Chapter. It is my hope to help other journalists understand how words matter, no matter who or what they are covering.

 The concept of diversity extends beyond who we are to include those we love and how we identify. As the proud mother of a transgender son, I hope to bring a certain awareness for equal rights and justice, whether it’s health care, marriage, employment or housing. I also want to contribute to a greater understanding of American Indian issues.

 Recently,  a celebrity mother used the derogatory term ‘Indian giver’ to describe her daughter keeping her expensive wedding ring. Instead of getting angry or demanding an apology, let’s use situations like this as ’teachable moments,’ educate with compassion and move on. “  

GETTING TO KNOW THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Every year there are changes on committees. We’re just making sure that as members you know who we are and what we stand for. Please feel free to contact us if you have an ideas for our blog.  Stay tuned for the next committee member profiles.

Stop by again!

Rebecca Aguilar an Emmy award winning reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She has 30 years of experience, with 28 in television news.  She’s also a board member with the SPJ-Fort Worth Chapter and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

SPJ 2011 Conference

I was asked to sit on the SPJ Diversity Committee at the SPJ convention in New Orleans.  I met many of the members and was inspired by their determination to improve diversity in newsrooms and news coverage.  

Each one of the committee members has the goal of diversity in common, but they all bring different experiences and journalism passions to the table.  Though they are all very busy individuals; I wondered why volunteering to be on this committee was important.  There is much to learn from what they have to say.

WHY SERVE ON THE SPJ DIVERSITY COMMITTEE?

Curtis Lawrence is the chairman of the SPJ Diversity Committee and a professor of journalism at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois:

“Back in the 1980s shortly after I graduated from college, I remember reading how the American Society of Newspaper Editors vowed to make newsrooms reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of their communities by 2000.  A lot has changed since then. For example, ASNE is now the American Society of News Editors, reflecting the national decline of newspapers. And a lot has stayed the same.

Curtis Lawrence

Many of the faces in our newsrooms still do not reflect the communities they serve. That’s why I feel keeping the diversity issue at the forefront of discussions about our changing  media landscape is crucial.Aside from my work with SPJ, I also am involved with encouraging and training young journalist of color in the Chicago area.

I co-founded an organization at Columbia called Columbia Links. We reach out to students in the Chicago Public Schools and train them in the basics of journalism. That’s where it will have to begin if we’re going to continue to change the face of journalism.”

 

Justin Chenette is an assistant morning producer and weekend web producer at WPFO-Fox 23 in Portland, Maine. 

“It is important that stories are told about people from all walks of life, not just the ones that are the easiest to source or the ones most prominent in our society. This ideology is the basis for my continued interest and participation in the SPJ Diversity Committee.

Only through the incorporation of diversity training or diversifying newsrooms, with highly qualified individuals with a dynamic range of backgrounds, can news operations truly report a cross section of the entire community in which they serve.  

Justin Chenette

 Our country is facing some tough issues many of which are very controversial social dilemmas. We have the issue of illegal immigration, gay rights/marriage equality, equal pay amongst the sexes; the list goes on and on. With each issue comes their own set of unique challenges for the journalists that cover them.

 Do you use the phrase illegal immigrant or undocumented worker? Do you use the term gay or homosexual? Opening the dialogue about these topics can spur an awareness of how the media portrays, correctly or incorrectly, millions of people.”

MEET MORE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

We currently have 17 members on our committee.  Find out who they are in upcoming blogs.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy award winning reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She has 30 years of experience, with 28 in television news.  She’s also a board member with the SPJ-Fort Worth Chapter and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

(Begging Leo’s pardon for interrupting his flow as blogger, I hope he and readers don’t mind this postscript from Belize).

I had a great visit at Channel 5/Great Belize Productions on my last Friday in Belize.  As I said in my previous post, I worked there back in 1991-92. It was great to see some old friends and meet new ones!  I had a good chat with the boss, Amalia Mai.  She previously served as publisher at the Belize Times, which shares a building and point of view with the People’s United Party (now the opposition).  She was also a civil servant in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Belize Ambassador to Cuba under the PUP and has served as a lightening rod on various issues. Recently, she found herself at the center of the controversy over  $10 million the government of Venezuela gave Belize.  It appears that Sir Michael Ashcroft — himself a lightening rod — tapped her to head up Channel 5/Great Belize Productions not long after that.

I found Ms. Mai to be courteous and professional.  When I told her about the journalism workshop I am working on with UWI in Belize, she immediately expressed interest in having News 5 reporters attend. I also asked her if she’d be interested in taking part in the opening forum on journalism in Belize and she answered in the affirmative. A Channel 5 employee told me she’s a can-do person who recognizes good ideas when she sees them, and wastes no time in implementation.

Later, I was escorted by my friend William Neal (who has been with Channel 5 on and off since the 1990s) on a tour of the new building on Coney Drive.

I saw the newsroom, the brand new News 5 studio, master control, the Open Your Eyes studio (William is co-host of the popular morning show), and the production facilities.  Impressive!  Granted, it’s not hard to be on the leading edge when you have Ashcroft money behind you.

Just as American broadcast managers often wonder just how much influence cutting edge technology and fancy sets have on viewers, it remains to be seen whether Belizeans who are loyal to Channel 7 will make the switch. I suspect not.  The quality and quantity of the actual journalism remains competitive.  And, as I’ve said elsewhere, viewers seem fairly firm in their preferences.

Speaking of Channel 7, I was impressed by news director Jules Vasquez (whom I sat next to in primary school back in the day) and his in-depth interview with some of the players in what I think of as the Belize “fruit fight.” It’s a complex dispute among citrus growers which I am still not sure I quite understand.  At any rate, Jules is a journalist who does not pull his punches. While his studios and set may not be as pretty and cool as Channel 5′s I suspect the journalism he and his team do will keep viewers coming back for more.

So, that’s all for now.  I am back from my trip and looking forward to the next one!  By the way, below is a snapshot of the original Channel 5/Great Belize Productions facility.

The Missouri School of Journalism seeks a journalist with extensive newsroom experience and a talent for teaching at the university level. The ideal candidate will have at least five years of television newsroom experience. Some newsroom management experience is preferred. Duties include a minimum of 30 hours per week in the KOMU-TV (NBC-affiliate) newsroom supervising the work of student reporters, anchors, newscast producers and videographers. Duties also include classroom teaching and service to the journalism school and the university.

Screening of applicants will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Hiring is expected to be completed in the spring of 2010 with a start date as soon as possible. Applications must include an academic CV or professional resume, video of recent television stories or television newscasts produced by the candidate, the names of three references in the field of television journalism, and a cover letter explaining the candidate’s interest in teaching and in students. This cover letter must also include an analysis of the television news profession’s transition from solely broadcast to broadcast and digital/internet news platforms.

Applications may be sent electronically (preferred) to hardte@missouri.edu, or by mail to Elizabeth Hardt, Staff Assistant to the Dean, Missouri School of Journalism, 120 Neff Hall, Columbia, MO 65211. If sending the application electronically, please send as a Word or PDF attachment with candidate’s last name as title.

The University of Missouri is committed to cultural diversity and it is expected that successful candidate will share this commitment. MU is an Equal Employment Opportunity/ADA institution and encourages applications from women and minority candidates.

On Thursday I had my meeting with Mrs. Jane Bennett and Dr. Sharmaine Saunders at the Belize City branch of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus.

I am happy to report that we will be moving ahead with plans for a week of workshops about journalism in June! My original idea was 3 days or so, but both women think four days of half-day workshops would work best.

They loved my idea of kicking things off on a Monday evening with a symposium or open forum about the journalism status quo in Belize.  This would provide a venue for both media professionals and the general public to ask questions and even vent.

So far, the workshops will include:  Investigative journalism; effective interviewing techniques; interpersonal communication (many journalists are criticized here for a lack of professsionalism in their demeanor with interview subjects, newsmakers, etc.); open records and meetings laws in Belize; media management; and using multimedia.  I plan to draw on local experts as well as volunteers from the US (myself included).

Any SPJ’ers who would be interested in volunteering to lead a workshop on one of the above topics, let me know!  You would have to pay your own freight, but staying with a host family here could probably be arranged.  Keep watching this blog for information on the final dates.  I want to stress that the goal with these workshops is not to impose American values and traditions on Belizean journalism.  Read my entry “Blogging from Belize,” for my philosophy about this undertaking.

Last night I was reminded once again how engaged Belizeans are with their media.  I attended a little get-together of women at the home prominent local attorney Lisa Shoman.  Lisa was Minister of Foreign Affairs under the last administration and also served as ambassador to the United States.  Lisa and her guests talked about several issues:

* The ethics of interviewing children without permission from their parents. This conversation centered around a TV news story in which the reporter interviewed Guatemalan schoolchildren along the border who were crossing over to Belize to attend school illegally.  Related to this issue: a recent story about a custody battle showed the child in question and delved into the private lives of the foster mother and birth mother to a degree that many at the gathering last night found beyond the pale.

* Too much pontificating.  Lisa called talk shows a Belizean “national pasttime!” A dynamic and healthy public conversation about important issues is one thing, but the extent to which journalists use their programs as platforms for their own personalities and biases was objectionable to several of the women at the soiree.

* Lack of professionalism. The women agreed that local journalists can come across as insensitive, rough, crude, and even offensive in interviews with newsmakers and Joe Public.

* Rambling stories.  The guests said on air and in print, stories are repititive and too short on actual information and compelling content.

Even with all its flaws — as I have stated previously — Belizean journalism is vigorous, dynamic and vital.  Journalists here are poorly paid but passionate.  Most are well-intentioned and tireless in their efforts to give voice to the voiceless.

That’s all for now.