ASNE Diversity Figures at Odds With Population Trends
Coverage Helped Speed Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage
Voting Rights Decision “Devastating but Not Definitive”
Obama’s Trip to Africa Called Money Well Spent
Though Rare, African War Photographers Shape Opinions
Slain Victim’s Brother Asks Media, “Where Is the Healing?”
Short Takes
ASNE Diversity Figures at Odds With Population Trends
Journalists of color represent a declining percentage of employees in newspaper and online newsrooms while the percentage of people of color in the general population continues to increase, the American Society of News Editors showed Tuesday in its annual diversity census.
Still, there is no shortage of ideas for improving the diversity of staffing and content. As has become traditional at its annual convention, ASNE offered ideas and attempted to showcase what has worked. Unity: Journalists for Diversity offered suggestions, the National Association of Black Journalists again said it was available and the Asian American Journalists Association pointed to a $100,000 grant it had received to help communities and news organizations build closer ties.
The organization elected diversity advocate Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, to a two-year term on its board, and Mizell Stewart III, chief content officer of the newspaper division of the E.W. Scripps Co., Cincinnati, another black journalist, was elected treasurer, on the ladder to becoming ASNE president at its 2016 meeting.
The latest census figures show that of 38,000 newsroom employees, 12.37 are journalists of color, down from a high of 13.87 percent in the 2006 survey but up from 12.32 last year.
The racial breakdown is 141 American Indians, or 0.4 percent, up from 0.3 percent; 1,165 Asian Americans, or 3.1 percent, up from 2.9 percent; 1,791 blacks, or 4.7 percent, up from 4.6 percent; 1,518 Hispanics, or 4 percent, down from 4.1 percent; 100 multiracial, or 0.3 percent, down from 0.4 percent; and 33,267 whites, or 87.6 percent, down from 87.7 percent.
Since 1978, ASNE has had a goal of matching the percentage of journalists of color in newsrooms to the percentage of people of color in the population. Currently, minorities make up 37.02 percent of the U.S. population; that number will increase to 42.39 percent by 2025, the organization said in a news release, citing the U.S. Census Bureau.
The disappointing figures for journalists of color indicate that many in the news industry still fail to see the connection between diversifying staffs and the business imperative of relating to changing demographics. Two years ago, ASNE emphasized that point as it convened “Leadership in Diversity: New Models for Growing Audience, Talent and Revenue,” two all-day sessions aimed at kickstarting interest in diversity.
The figures also come amid a backdrop of continuing shrinkage of newsroom jobs. Total newsroom employment declined by 6.4 percent in 2012, the survey found. “There are about 38,000 full-time daily newspaper journalists at nearly 1,400 newspapers in the United States. That’s a 2,600-person decrease from last year’s 40,600. . . .”
“The people who were making the noise, many of them have been leaving the newsroom,” Alfredo Carbajal, managing editor of Al Día, an offshoot of Dallas Morning News and co-chair of the ASNE Diversity Committee, told a session on diversity.
However, Carbajal pointed to a day-and-a-half program for increasing newsroom managers of color as one initiative. The Minority Leadership Institute “provides leadership and management training to 16 mid-level editors and business executives from news organizations around the country.” It was conducted at last year’s Unity convention in Las Vegas, again at this year’s ASNE convention in Washington and is to be repeated Aug. 1-2 at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Orlando and Aug. 23-24 at the Excellence in Journalism 2013 conference in Anaheim, Calif. There, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association plan to convene jointly.
“The ASNE Diversity Committee also is creating a partnership with Journalism That Matters, an evolving collaboration of individuals supporting the pioneers who are shaping the emerging news and information ecosystem. The partnership aims to optimize the talents of both organizations to develop new ways for journalists to engage diverse communities and meet evolving news and information needs,” a news release said.
At the convention’s diversity session, Keith Woods, vice president, diversity in news and operations at NPR, described its “Code Switch” project, which is integrating stories about race into the overall NPR programming. “NPR has not been known to play in this sandbox,” Woods said of race, noting also the project’s six-person multicultural staff. “Staffing begets content, but content begets staffing, too,” Woods said. In addition, “Content begets the audience. Content is a retention issue.”
[By happenstance, American Public Media’s “Marketplace” produced a story later in the day on the resurgence of the African American hairstyle known as a hi-top fade, without once mentioning race.] Woods recommended that hiring editors pass along to colleagues the names of promising journalists of color they are unable to hire.
Paul Cheung, national president of the Asian American Journalists Association, volunteered his organization’s assistance. “I would love to help newspapers set up more meetings with communities,” Cheung told the group from the audience. “Use us to connect you with the community and jump-start the conversation.”
AAJA announced last week it had received a $100,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fund six free media access trainings and an education forum on structural racism at the 2013 AAJA National Convention. Chenug said the grant would also be used to train community members in writing op-ed pieces as a way of diversifying newspaper content.
Unity: Journalists for Diversity suggested “three focused areas where news leaders can make strategic investments in 2013 that will have a lasting impact.“
In a statement, it urged ASNE “to seek other opportunities to develop minority leaders in digital news, where hiring remains stronger than elsewhere in newsrooms.”
It added, “Newsroom employment is decreasing, falling 6.4 percent from 2012 to 2013, ASNE reports. Depending solely on new hiring to increase diversity of coverage will not work in this new reality. We urge news editors to lead in diversifying coverage with existing staff, which will win new subscribers. This year, the National Lesbian [&] Gay Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association partnered on the Diversity in the Heartland project, traveling to newsrooms in Alabama and Nebraska to encourage more inclusive coverage of these two minority groups in markets where they aren’t often covered. . . .”
The coalition applauded ASNE’s partnership with Journalism That Matters. Unity said, “We urge this partnership to go a step further and tap the expertise and network of our alliance partners.”
NABJ said in its statement, “In the coming days, NABJ also will reach out to newspapers experiencing significant diversity deficiencies in an effort to assist them with a more effective approach to finding and retaining talented black journalists.“
Not everyone is on board, as Rick Edmonds noted for the Poynter Institute. “For several years ASNE has accepted online-only news organizations as members and invited them to participate in the survey. But response has been spotty, leaving ASNE with too little information to estimate how many of the lost newspaper jobs may have been made up by growth in the digital sector,” Edmonds wrote.
“Also this year, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times and a number of other large papers didn’t compete surveys. And as the industry delivers content on a number of platforms and many large chains consolidate copy editing and design at remote centers, an accurate count of jobs becomes more difficult.
“By my reading, besides the L.A. Times, the list of the missing includes The Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Sun-Sentinel (of Fort Lauderdale) and Newport News Daily Press — five of the eight Tribune Co. papers.
“Historically Gannett has been a very strong supporter of ASNE’s diversity initiative. But besides the absence of USA Today, several other large Gannett metros — The Arizona Republic, Indianapolis Star and Cincinnati Enquirer — didn’t report results. . . .”
“Other prominent papers not reporting include Poynter’s Tampa Bay Times, The Miami Herald, The Times-Picayune, the New York Post and The Richmond Times-Dispatch.”
- Andrew Beaujon, Poynter Institute: Minority employment in newsrooms held steady in 2012
- Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review: The newspaper plunge slows
- Emily Guskin, Pew Research Center: Newspaper newsrooms suffer large staffing decreases
- Rem Rieder, USA Today: One newspaper cuts to survive; another invests to thrive
Coverage Helped Speed Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage
The Supreme Court’s historic rulings on same-sex marriage Wednesday were preceded by news media coverage that “provided a strong sense of momentum” toward legalization, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Stories with more statements supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those with more statements opposing it by a margin of roughly 5-to-1,” Paul Hitlin, Amy Mitchell and Mark Jurkowitz reported for the research center on June 17. “In the coverage studied, the central argument among proponents of same-sex marriage was one of civil rights. Arguments against were more varied, but most often voiced the idea that same-sex marriage would hurt society and the institution of traditional marriage. . . .”
Robert Barnes reported for the Washington Post, “The Supreme Court’s first rulings on same-sex marriage produced historic gains for gay rights Wednesday: full federal recognition of legally married gay couples and an opening for such unions to resume in the nation’s most-populous state.
“The divided court stopped short of a more sweeping ruling that the fundamental right to marry must be extended to gay couples no matter where they live. . . .
- Chris Ariens, TVNewser: Was CNN Too Cautious in Reporting Rulings? Gavin Newsom Thinks So
- Rene Astudillo, asamnews.com: Scotus Ruling on DOMA & Proposition 8 Long Time Coming For Gay Filipino American
- Perry Bacon Jr., the Grio: In landmark rulings, Supreme Court redefines equality
- Andrew Beaujon, Poynter Institute: NBC News supplements Supreme Court coverage with one-glance site
- Columbia Journalism Review: Video: CJR’s panel discussion on coverage of gay marriage (June 15)
- National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association: NLGJA Members Respond to the U.S. Supreme Court Rulings on DOMA and Prop 8
- Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Before ‘Being Gay’ Was a Movement (June 5)
- Noah Rothman, Mediaite: Gay Marriage Rulings Make MSNBC’s Harris-Perry Sad Because They Gut ‘Power Of Federal Government’
- Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, HuffPost BlackVoices: Dear Marriage Equality Advocates: I Can Not Celebrate With You, Today
- Alex Weprin, TVNewser: President Obama Calls Prop 8 Plaintiffs During Live MSNBC Interview
Voting Rights Decision “Devastating but Not Definitive”
“The Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, is devastating, but not definitive,” Melissa Harris-Perry, Tulane University professor of political science and MSNBC host, wrote on the Grio.
“This court has done significant damage to the most important piece of Civil Rights legislation in our modern history, but there is still hope to fight back and restore protective laws that ensure all eligible Americans can access the ballot.
“First, the good news: This does not change who has a right to vote. . . . “
She continued, “Now, some bad news: The history of our nation demonstrates that the constitutional right to vote is not enough to ensure that citizens can exercise this right. . . . “
Harris-Perry’s assessment of significant damage was widely shared by commentators.
- Khalil Abdullah, New America Media: Voting Rights Act: Supreme Court Decision Shifts Focus to Congress
- Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: Alabama state troopers in black robes.
- Wayne Bennett, the Field Negro: “Stephen” strikes again.
- Charles Clymer, HuffPost BlackVoices: I’m a White Kid From Texas, and I Can Tell You: Racism Is Still a Thing
- Wayne Dawkins, Politics in Color: Don’t lament voting rights ruling; embrace the power
- Keli Goff, the Root: Clarence Thomas: Race Traitor?
- Sandra Lilley, NBCLatino: Latino civil rights groups: “Dark day” and “disappointment” following Supreme Court decision
- Richard Mauer, Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News: Supreme Court decision on Voting Rights Act has broad impact in Alaska
- Kevin Powell, Daily Kos: Voting Rights, Affirmative Action, and the Slow Murder of Dr. King’s ‘Dream’
- Crystal Shepeard, care2.com: We Have a Black President, So Voter Discrimination Must Not Exist
- Jim Sleeper, HuffPost Politics: Don’t Panic About the Voting Rights Ruling. Re-strategize.
- Michael Steele, the Grio: Supreme Court ‘gut’ the Voting Rights Act
- Steve Young, Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, S.D.: South Dakota counties with many Indian voters could face less federal scrutiny
Obama’s Trip to Africa Called Money Well Spent
“At the end of this month, President Obama will begin his trip to Africa, visiting South Africa, Senegal (in West Africa) and Tanzania (in East Africa),” Jonathan Berman wrote Monday for Harvard Business Review. “The trip will be expensive, and The Washington Post has highlighted the large cost at a time of budget tightening. However, even the myopia of the US budget process cannot obscure reality in this case — this is money well spent.
“Putting aside security, global health, and other national issues, US commercial interests alone make Africa an important destination for our President. There is a lot at stake.
“Africa ranks second — behind emerging Asia — as the fastest growing region of the world. The IMF forecasts that Sub-Saharan Africa will grow at a rate of 5.4% this year, about 50% faster than Latin America, and infinitely more than Europe, which is currently expected to grow not at all or even contract.
“Also, Africa’s growth is not from a small base. Africa today is a $2 trillion economy, roughly the same as Brazil or India (where few would say a presidential visit is wasted). Of course, Africa is not one country — its many individual nations mean the growth, risks and opportunities vary widely. However, few would deny that West Africa, East Africa and South Africa each hold significant growth opportunities for US companies. It’s wise of the White House to have the President visit all three, drawing guests from the whole region and not just the host countries. . . .”
Though Rare, African War Photographers Shape Opinions
“When conflict photographers gather in hotspots to rekindle camaraderies in dimly-lit hotels to the accompaniment of throbbing generators, few Africans are among them,” Greg Marinovich wrote for South Africa’s Daily Maverick in a piece dated Thursday. “The glaring exception is South Africans. With all the conflicts in Africa, one would expect more than the few war photographers who have emerged.
“Why? If the causes are not compelling enough to warrant the risk and commitment, then surely the lure of hard currency, excitement, booze on expense accounts and sex-and-drugs-and-rock-‘n-roll are reason enough; if one is to believe the rather crass filmic fantasies of the lives of photojournalists.
“Rwandan journalist Shyaka Kanuma writes about Africa’s journalistic environment: ‘In many parts of Africa, those who set out to become journalists with the independent press [had] better be prepared to work with media organisations whose operations are hobbled in various ways… these news organisations operate in an environment in which active hostility from government and others is the norm.’
“Kanuma regards much African press to be state- or business-friendly, propaganda arms for their masters, or, if maintaining independence, then likely to face extreme danger: ‘Many of the continent’s regimes are highly undemocratic; a good number of them are led by people who shot their way to power after ruinous rebel wars. Others ‘inherited’ power and, occasionally, a leader might legitimately win an election. What almost all of these leaders have in common is that once they are in power they entrench themselves at the expense of everything else. They rig elections, and they divert the constitution or rewrite it to contain provisions for a lifetime presidency. They deal with political opponents or dissidents by locking them up indefinitely in degrading conditions. They also legislate draconian press laws to muzzle the inquisitive, critical elements of the press.’
“The hurdles for photojournalists or war photographers working in Africa are even greater — the person with the camera is so easily to identify, either to target or to prevent them working.
“Despite this, there are some scenarios across the continent where war photography has played a role in determining how society and history view a conflict, perhaps even how that conflict has played out. More recently, there is a case to be made for the definition of conflict photography to be extended to include documenting a war of ideas playing itself out across the continent. . . .”
- John Allen, allAfrica.com: Africa: Obama’s Coming — So’s the Navy & the Air Force
- Nedra Pickler, Associated Press: Obama promotes gay rights in Africa, praises court (June 27)
- April D. Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks: Photos from presidential trip
- Joel Simon, Committee to Protect Journalists: Obama should urge promotion of free press in Tanzania
Slain Victim’s Brother Asks Media, “Where Is the Healing?”
“It’s a rare day in Chicago we don’t have at least one, usually multiple shootings and deaths,” Chicago superstation WGN-TV reported Monday. “As journalists, our goal is to inform, not frighten. And yet as we tell these stories we wonder, what are people taking away from the news coverage? WGN reporter Gaynor Hall has been looking at how the media covers violence.”
“There are few bigger issues in Chicago right now than violence on the city’s streets. And there is no shortage of complaints on the role the media plays in reporting on that violence. Some viewers ask, why do you cover certain murders and not all? Others tell us they don’t watch the news any more because it’s too depressing. So tonight, we’re turning the cameras’ glare on ourselves, talking to viewers, students, and working journalists about these issues.
” ‘As I watch the news adamantly I mourn. It hurts,’ says Robert Douglas, who lost his brother more than 20 years ago. Anthony was shot and killed at 114th and Prairie in the Roseland neighborhood. ‘To this day, we suffer from that loss.’ Without his role model, Robert went from aspiring basketball star to convicted drug dealer. Now, at 39, he’s a student at Chicago State examining violence and how the media cover it. ‘Gun violence is sexy in Chicago right now. We did look at the news to be informed, right? But now we look at the news to see what community is being riddled with bullets. I understand media, I understand the business part of media.’
“Gaynor asks Robert, ‘What do you understand about the business part?’ Robert answers ‘I understand that if you don’t do that eye popping way of covering news, people won’t tune in.’ Robert thinks news coverage is lacking in accuracy and sensitivity. He says every time he sees a crying mother on T-V, he reburies his brother. ‘All the media gets is the struggle. Where is the healing?’ . . . “
At the American Society of News Editors convention in Washington on Tuesday, former Chicago Tribune journalist Brenda Butler described a high-school news literacy program she heads as executive director of Columbia Links, based at Chicago’s Columbia College. Students wrote essays on the crime and violence plaguing their hometown. The collection, “Don’t Shoot. I Want to Grow Up,” was presented last year to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
More recently, the teens presented their findings on violence as a public health problem at a recent town hall meeting, “Don’t Shoot, I MUST Grow Up,” on the Columbia College Chicago campus. The town hall meeting was moderated by WBEZ South Side Bureau reporter Natalie Moore.
Short Takes
- In Los Angeles, “KNBC investigative reporter Ana Garcia has signed off from the NBC owned station in Los Angeles,” Merrill Knox reported Tuesday for TVSpy. Kevin Roderick wrote for LAObserved, “You may remember that Ana Garcia was moved from anchor to reporter on the investigative consumer beat two years ago. That move inspired some complaints that Latinos were getting the short end of personnel moves at the station. . . .”
- “Crossfire,” previously the longest running political debate program on television, will return to CNN this fall, CNN announced on Wednesday. “Hosting from the right will be Newt Gingrich and S.E. Cupp, with Stephanie Cutter and Van Jones hosting from the left. Jones, former White House adviser on green jobs, has been a CNN political contributor.
- “The Oprah Winfrey Network has a dearth of original programming,” Media Life Magazine reported Wednesday. “And ‘All My Children’ and ‘One Life to Live’ are desperately seeking greater exposure than the revived ABC soaps currently receive as online-only dramas. So a deal struck today for OWN to air episodes of ‘AMC’ and ‘OLTL’ seems to make sense. . . .”
- Gregory H. Lee Jr., executive sports editor at the South Florida SunSentinel and president of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Aye Aye Win, correspondent for the Associated Press in Myanmar, are among the recipients of the Missouri School of Journalism’s 2013 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the school announced on Tuesday. “The award, considered one of journalism’s most prestigious, honors career-long outstanding service to journalism. Among the distinguished journalists, advertising and public relations practitioners, business leaders, institutions and media organizations that have received the medal are Tom Brokaw, Christiane Amanpour, Sir Winston Churchill, Gloria Steinem, Deborah Howell, David Granger and Gordon Parks,” an announcement said.
- Lynette Clemetson was named senior supervising editor at NPR’s “Morning Edition” Wednesday, becoming a top deputy of Tracy Wahl, who was named “Morning Edition’s” next executive producer. Clemetson, formerly at the New York Times and Newsweek, is director of NPR’s StateImpact, a local-national collaboration between NPR and station groups in eight states that reports on state government actions and their impact on citizens and communities. She was also the first managing editor of theRoot.com.
- “A large majority of area sports fans say the Washington Redskins should not change the team name, even though most supporters of the nickname feel the word ‘redskin’ is an inappropriate term for Native Americans, according to a new Washington Post poll, Jon Cohen and Rick Maese reported Tuesday for the Post. They continued, “most Washingtonians — 61 percent — say they like the team’s name, and two-thirds say the team should not change it, according to the poll.”
- “Celebrity chef Paula Deen faced the world on NBC’s Today show this morning to deny she was a bigot, offering an emotional interview about race and racism sparked by admissions in a lawsuit deposition that she had once used the n-word,” Eric Deggans reported for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. “Unfortunately, the segment, handled with delicate but firm precision by anchor Matt Lauer, skirted some of the most important issues in the controversy swirling around Deen, including allegations in the litigation of sexual harassment and racial discrimination at her restaurants. . . .”
- The College of Communications at Penn State has been selected as the 2013 recipient of the AEJMC Equity and Diversity Award, which is presented annually by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Penn State announced on Friday.
- The Center for Public Integrity published a long piece this month suggesting that the positions of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council were influenced by the many telecom companies that contribute to it in some way. MMTC President David Honig, a longtime civil rights lawyer, was adamant that his group does not make decisions based on the positions of its sponsors, Gautham Nagesh reported Wednesday for Roll Call.
- M.S. Prabhakara, a veteran correspondent for the Indian newspaper the Hindu who served as its first correspondent in South Africa, objects to references to the critically ill Nelson Mandela as “South Africa’s first black president” instead of “South Africa’s first democratically elected President.” In a letter to the editor of the BBC, Prabhakara called the latter more accurate and more relevant in political terms,” the New Yorker magazine reported Wednesday. [Remembrances of encounters with Mandela from Charles Robinson, Joe Davidson and Adam Powell III here.]
- “Julio Ricardo Varela, founder of the site Latino Rebels, has accepted a job as a Digital Producer for ‘The Stream’ a social media community with its own daily TV show on Al Jazeera English, which will eventually launch on Al Jazeera America,” Veronica Villafañe reported Tuesday for her Media Moves site. “He starts the new gig next Monday, July 1.”
- “Investigative Reporters and Editors has named the U.S. Border Patrol as the winner of its first annual Golden Padlock Award recognizing a U.S. government agency or individual for unrelenting commitment to undermining the public’s right to know,” IRE announced on Monday. “The country’s largest law-enforcement agency was chosen among dozens of nominations from journalists and the public for refusing to make public the details of use-of-force incidents involving its agents. . . .”
- “Authorities must do everything in their power to ensure the safe release of Honduran television journalist Aníbal Barrow, who was abducted on Monday, and to bring the kidnappers to justice,” the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
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