How far have newsrooms come in diversifying their staffs? Not far enough, journalist and Merrill teacher Anne Farris Rosen said Thursday.
Although the minority population in the U.S. reached about 38 percent in 2013, the minority workforce in the news business continues to trail that. Minority journalists make up only about 22 percent of the local TV news workforce, and only about 13 percent of the daily newspaper workforce, according to a 2015 report from the Pew Research Center.
How does minority representation in the newsroom affect the types of stories covered by the media-- and how they're reported?
Please comment, below, on stories involving race that you have seen in mainstream media outlets in recent weeks and months. How well have they been covered? How could they have been improved? Please be diplomatic, but specific, in your comments, which should be fact-based. Please give links to stories or studies you cite.
Or:
What most intrigued you or worried you about Rosen's talk? Be specific; give examples.
I'm looking for several well-reasoned and well-written paragraphs.
18 comments:
Minorities only made up about 13% of the newsroom in 2015 according to a census carried out by ASNE. Since these groups (Latinos, African Americans, etc.) are so underrepresented in the field of journalism, the news covering the shootings of black individuals (namely Philando Castile and Alton Sterling) by white police officers is most often written by white journalists. If a minority were to write an article covering his/her own group, then the coverage would relay a more sensitive representation of that group. Likewise, a journalist with no ties to the certain minority he/she is writing about will not have as much of a deep understanding of that minority due to cultural differences. Subsequently, the types of stories covered by the media will vary immensely depending on the race of the author. Black on black shootings are typically not covered by the news due to the fear of white journalists appearing racist, but white police officers killing black men is a daily occurrence that is covered by the newspapers.
Additionally, the WAY an article about a minority is written will differ because of the ethnicity of the journalist. For example, in The Washington Post, a white man named T. Rees Shapiro covered the Philando Castile shooting. Instead of focusing on the horrible travesty that left a son fatherless, his headline read, “Minn. police officer who shot Philando Castile was model student, educator says.” In contrast, an NPR article by a black woman (“Two Days, Two Deaths: The Police Shootings Of Alton Sterling And Philando Castile”) focused on the systematic racism against black men in America that left two African Americans dead last week. As one can see, the coverage of the shootings of these men was extremely distinct because of the race of the person writing the article. Because minorities are so few and far between in the newsroom, their voice is often left out of the media, ultimately giving the power of how to cover a story on minorities to the majority (Caucasians).
Lately, the shootings of African American men by white police officers has been covered extensively. The issue with the portrayal of these killings is that the media often depicts the deceased as “thugs” or people who deserved to be shot. “Miami Police Union Chief: Alton Sterling Shooting Was More Than Justified," an article in the Miami New Times, honed in on the Miami Police Union Chief’s belief that the shooting was justified and then called Sterling a child molester. Often, the media chooses to capitalize on one aspect of the deceased’s life without truly emphasizing on the wrongdoing of the police officers involved. For instance, an article in the Star Tribune focused on Philando Castile’s criminal record, never once mentioning the fact that he was killed when we was pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Instead of concentrating on Castile’s past record, the media should be focusing on the reason WHY he was shot and the repercussions for the police officers that killed him. The media needs to realize that Castile and Sterling are people above all and that their stories deserve to be portrayed by the media in a fair and objective manner.
Sources:
http://asne.org/content.asp?contentid=415
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/officer-who-shot-castile-was-model-student-educator-says/2016/07/10/0421e942-46cb-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/07/07/485078670/two-days-two-deaths-the-police-shootings-of-alton-sterling-and-philando-castile
http://www.startribune.com/castile-lived-in-a-cycle-of-traffic-stops-fines/387046341/
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-police-union-chief-alton-sterling-shooting-was-more-than-justified-8602485
What I found most intriguing during Ms. Rosen's talk were her answers related to ethical issues she has faced in her career. Two of my questions were related to the issue of keeping one's integrity while trying to gain viewership: "Did you ever cover the Monica Lewinski scandal?" and "Did you ever have to give up a story you wanted to do for a story that would attract more readers?"
In her answer to the first question, Ms. Rosen described how she originally reported a story about another woman that Gov. Bill Clinton had an affair with while she was working for a publication in Arkansas, but when the Monica Lewinski scandal was unfolding during her time at The Washington Post, she decided not to report on it as she was not interested in sex scandals. Ms. Rosen revealed that this decision cost her from moving up at The Post and how she was then given lower level assignments to report on, but she does not regret it. After hearing this, I thought that choice must have taken a lot of courage not to have taken advantage of the situation for personal gain.
In her answer to the second question, Ms. Rosen said that she has had a story that she wanted to do develop into something more, but that she has not been told to give up a story for the sake of a larger one. The one time she ever had to drop a story was when a subject gave a confession that she could not publish. When asking about this, I was worried about how much freedom a journalist has on the job, as sometimes refusing to do a story can cost a journalist their job.
I especially liked the Ms. Rosen's answers on ethical issues she has faced as a professional woman. I appreciated her story on how she got a part-time job at an all white-male newspaper. She also said that she later fought for equal pay and even one of her female coworkers decided to stop reporting until the women got a pay raise. Given the time, the Equal Pay Act could only be used once an employee found out they were being paid unfairly and did not completely prevent employers from paying unfairly. Knowing this, I was encouraged by the fact that she did not get fired or intimidated for fighting against the injustice. After that someone else asked her whether or not she faced sexual harassment at work, which I thought this was a very important question given Gretchen Carlson's allegations against Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. She said that she had, but from sources rather than editors. I found it encouraging that she had a comfortable workplace in that regard, but was worried about the effects that must have on one's credibility if she had accepted their advances. The distinction between "friendly" and "friends" with can be blurry and I was glad to learn that it is better to stop something before it begins. I found Ms. Rosen's talk about to be very helpful in learning how a woman can make it in the field of journalism.
Being able to speak openly with an experienced journalist was a great opportunity in itself, but the fact that Ms. Rosen is a woman seemed to transform her speech into an even bigger wealth of information for me.
As a young woman myself, even though I am blessed to not have experienced even a fraction of the hardships that minorities around the world experience daily, I am reasonably aware of the disadvantages that come with being considered part of a “minority,” no matter how small that minority is. With this awareness comes hesitance and fright. I have always associated ultimate happiness and fulfillment with the idea of using my passion to do something I’m proud of, and I don’t doubt that most people aim to do the same thing- but what am I supposed to think when struck with the realization that this may not be possible? Even worse is the realization that this may not be possible due to something as trivial as my gender!
I definitely admit that I live a privileged life despite gender-based setbacks. Because of this (and due to the fact that the world is rapidly changing), the idea that I may be at a disadvantage because of my gender can sometimes seem like a myth; a thing of the past. However, Ms. Rosen’s comments about the continued lack of diversity in the newsroom served as a bit of a reality check for me- this woman is incredibly smart and talented, yet she has been the only woman in a newsroom before? This woman is incredibly professional and respectable, yet sources have tried to take advantage of her in exchange for information, a situation that most male journalists probably have not had the displeasure of dealing with?
To anyone, regardless of gender or race, this information would be worrying- particularly to someone who looks at the journalism “world” as his/her possible future home. Thus, it was extremely intriguing and encouraging to hear Ms. Rosen discuss how she tackled the setbacks that she encountered as a female journalist. I loved hearing about how she and her female co-workers approached their boss about the wage gap and how she convinced a man to hire her in a company predominately made up of men. Glimpsing into Ms. Rosen’s past, anecdote by anecdote, a common theme emerged- resilience and bravery. When one of her bosses dismissed her wage gap concerns without much consideration towards change, she and her female co-workers refused to drop the subject, some even refusing to complete their assignments until a change was made. When Ms. Rosen asked the aforementioned man for a journalist position, she refused to leave until she was given a job, and when she was placed writing about business, she took the challenge and worked to prove herself worthy of moving on to other topics that she was more interested in.
Hearing Ms. Rosen talk about these personal victories proved to me that determination and confidence can always be used to confront forms of prejudice or discrimination. It was simultaneously intriguing and worrying to hear that these things really do happen, but it was empowering and interesting to know that they are not unbeatable.
Having Anne Rosen come in and speak to us was a wonderful experience. I think she was outspoken, honest, inspired, and a comfortable person to listen and talk to. The way she was just able to answer every question we asked, while staying on topic was great. Even if she didn't have a definite answer to something, she always tried her best to answer it.
The most intriguing thing to me about Ms. Rosen was how outspoken and opinionated she was. I thought her career and the way she got there was also very interesting. When she spoke of being the first woman working at a newspaper in Little Rock, it really was inspiring. She also gave statistics from the Womens Media Center. One was that women report about 1/3 of U.S news content. Another that surprised me was that women are less likely to report on politics, crime and justice and more likely to report on education, health and lifestyle. She explained this saying the pay and hours are usually worse for politics, crime and justice. Even though Ms. Rosen herself didn't have a specific account of struggle as a women in her career, she explained that is still happens to many women.
Ms. Rosen also answered the question relating to her opinion on #alllivesmatter and #blacklivesmatter and gave an which intrigued me. I assumed because of her career working at many newspapers and being a professor, she would answer in a light way not giving away her real opinion. But, she actually gave her real, honest opinion, which I appreciated a lot.
Even though Ms. Rosen isn't a minority herself, the fact that she openly talked about issues with race and minority problems intrigued me. I think her years of experience as a journalist and her current job help her to speak on the topic of race and issues involving it. Its nice seeing people who aren't minorities interested in the topic, and help advocate for them. Her doing that really inspired me, because I'd like to study similar topics in college.
All in all, Ms. Rosen spoke on many topics and it was great to hear her opinions. The information she gave was inspiring to me and probably many others in the room to go out and try our best even though there will be struggle.
Having Ms. Rosen come into our class and discuss her work experience with us was very interesting. At the same time, a topic of discussion that made myself concerned is the sexual harassment that some female journalists face in order to get sources to tell them information. I was glad that we were able to follow up on it the class after she came in and further discuss it because sexual harassment is something severe and has many consequences.
On Friday we were told that sleeping with sources (something that Ms. Rosen said happened at least once in her experience) can ruin your reputation as a reporter, create a possible bias in your reporting, and allows a person to take advantage of you (plus the whole thing is unethical). I looked further into the issue of the sexual harassment Ms. Rosen described and what I found was extremely alarming.
A Sports Illustrated article I read from last year described the types of sexual harassment that a group of anonymous female sports reporters have encountered and needless to say they are horrible. Some of the things that the reporters encountered were consistent with what Ms. Rosen described to us. The things that were described to us are highly deplorable not only at a lot of work places, but by the general norms of society. The worst part is that in some instances females must encounter people who threaten and intimidate them in order to do their job. One reporter described physical harassment she received and said "'It makes you feel like you are not even human but instead an object for someone else to ogle or fondle.'"Things like this are highly disheartening. Hearing Ms. Rosen talk about similar circumstances, as well as people calling her home late at night and other harassment made me realize the level of persistence and dedication she has to journalism, which I think is reflective of all female journalists.
Ms. Rosen and our readings for class told us that there are few women in the media, yet it does not reflect how it is outside the news room. We learned that women make up 51% of the population and that women make up 60% of bachelor degree holders, yet women in the media are still being treated as objects.
The article, also reflects some of Ms. Rosen's other points such as the existence of a close community of female reporters , the lack of action that the employer can take in combating these issues and finally the problem of reporting these problems as some people will not like an employee who exposes them. Ms. Rosen told us that nothing can be done to help because the people who do these types of things do not work for the paper, and therefore are not subject to the same company policies. When talking about her encounter, a female reporter identically said “'There was no paper trail, just my word against his, and since I was fighting an unknown enemy, I couldn’t even defend myself.'”
I additionally read in a survey from The International Women's Media Foundation that 47.9% of female reporters said they experienced sexual harassment. Numbers that high are alarming as no person should be threatened at work, but the fact that almost one out of two women in media have experienced this is something that can not continue because we rely on all journalists to be able to give us stories. Conversely, journalists rely on the stories because it is what they want to do and what they have worked so hard to do.
Ms. Rosen's talk was very valuable because it put a face, as well as real stories to the facts that we have been reading, and continuous reports about sexual harassment in journalism. Her descriptions of the measures that some of her colleagues took to get stories and her personal encounters with such people helped me appreciate what women in the media do and the constant struggles they still face.
Sources:
http://www.si.com/more-sports/2015/08/16/female-sports-reporters-sexual-harassment-norwood-teague-rio-olympics-ryan-seacrest
https://www.iwmf.org/blog/2014/03/07/sexual-harassment/
Anne Rosen a journalist and teacher at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism talked to our journalism class on Thursday. She talked about what it is like to be a minority or a woman in the journalism field. Rosen brought up many concerns with working in the journalism field like sexual harassment, problems with raising a family, and being out numbered.
One of the questions asked during the meeting was how difficult it was to raise a family or find part-time work in the journalism field. Rosen responded saying it was difficult to find part time work and to raise a family. It is easier to get part-time when you have been with a newspaper for a long time. She said it really depends on what kind of cases you do; if you want big stories; or if there is a lot of news to report.
Another question was if she was intimidated walking in your career knowing it was a mostly white male field. In my personal opinion, I would be intimidated. Especially, because I want to go into sports journalism and that is a heavily male populated field. She was intimidated because they thought she could not do everything that they could do; she had to prove them wrong. At this point she brought up sexual harassment. She said it was not the other journalists that caused a problem, but the people she interviewed. I was shocked and a little frightened by this statement because I have never thought of that before.
Overall, everything she said was very informative and gave me a new light into what it would be like to be a women journalist.
When Mrs. Anne Rosen came to talk to our class on Thursday, I found her talk and her as a person very inspirational. After reading articles about women in journalism the night before, her talk helped elaborate those articles and also helped elaborate what a possible career in journalism could be like. Even though the career of journalism has shifted from when she was in the height of her career, her personal experiences still felt relevant, which made the discussion more interesting as well as current.
One of her personal experiences that I found especially interesting was her experience getting a job with a newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas. She walked into a heavily male-dominated work environment and fought to get a job at the newspaper. The story exuberated so much confidence and so much power that it automatically registered with my beliefs for women. I believe that all women should be portrayed as powerful and as leaders and Rosen's story really resonated with those beliefs. I'm interested in broadcast journalism, and with 63.4 percent of news anchors and reporters being men and only 36.1 being women (in 2014), according to a study by the Women's Media Center, confidence and power is needed to get the job.
Another one of her points I found interesting was her advice to "not sleep with the sources". What I found compelling about this piece of advice was not the advice itself but the fact that the advice is a stereotype normally associated with women. Rosen didn't necessarily go into how its a stereotype, but after the discussion, the more I thought about the piece of advice, the more I realized that is mostly pressed upon women. With the low rates of women in journalism, there comes a high rate of sexism in the newsroom. When women receives good leads, the stereotype of "Did you have to sleep with them?" comes into play, which puts women in a place of inability. A place of inability where women's careers' are put into judgement, which is the last thing you want in a profession.
To conclude, I will definitely take what Ms. Rosen said to our class into consideration when applying to jobs in the field of journalism. Even though she mostly focused on her personal experience, it was those stories that taught me lessons I will take with me.
It is clear that women have come very far in their journey to equality in the past century. For example, we won the right to vote in 1920, less than 100 years ago. What worries me from Ms. Rosen's talk was what we still have to overcome in our professional lives. It is no secret that women make only 79 percent of what men make. This is worrisome, as I will soon enter the workforce and have to compete for not only a job, but to be paid the same as my male co-workers. However, I admire how Ms. Rosen first fought for a job by not taking no for an answer and then fought for equal pay. Far too many people let it happen without saying anything. The only way we can overcome the wage gap is by speaking against it. It was nice to hear someone who actively fought the wage gap and fought for gender equality.
Another topic that Ms. Rosen spoke about that worries me is her experience with hearing of those who “sleep with sources”. I had never thought about sources wanting sexual payment for information. It made me think about journalism in a new light and made me realize how much ethics mean to me. Sleeping with a source could ruin your reputation, credibility, and possibly, your career. Sleeping with a source would mean having a secret to keep, and as Ms. Rosen said, there are not many secrets in a room full of journalists.
In conclusion, Ms. Rosen’s talk was highly informative and got me to really think about the reality of being a female journalist. What she said also helped me know how to recognize and shut down situations I would not want any part of.
Source:
http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
I agree with what Danielle said, minorities only make up a small amount of the newsroom. Since there aren't many people from a minority, the people who report these stories don't have the same perspective as someone who isn't white. The people who report the shootings such as the Alton Sterling shooting in Baton Rouge might react differently then the Dallas shooting. It helps to know how people who support the #AllLivesMatter see things, but when the majority of people are #AllLivesMatter the voice for #BlackLivesMatter isn't as strong.
The white people reporting the Dallas shooting were more passionate about it, and showed more emotion where as the people who reported the shootings of the innocent black people didn't show as much emotion and it still seems as though they try to push the blame on the dead men. Reporting on a minority shooting and reporting on a white shooting is basically like if your family member died you have very strong feelings versus having a distant friend's family member dead. You feel sympathy but, you don't know how exactly the person feels.
There are reporters who are great at being neutral on these topics but, for the general public these situations that are very sensitive should be told from the point of view of someone who can fully understand how the audience is going to feel. It should not be told by a person who has never experienced any type of fear or racism towards the color of their skin and chooses to ignore the shootings towards innocent people.
There is plenty of improvement, and there has been more people of color with there own news shows like Al Sharpton, but that's not enough. There should be diversity within the newsroom to help give the general public a better view on certain news stories.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/06/video-captures-white-baton-rouge-police-officer-fatally-shooting-black-man-sparking-outrage/?tid=a_inl
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/04/in-the-news-industry-diversity-is-lowest-at-smaller-outlets/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/07/16/i-just-wanted-a-piece-of-him-college-officers-pushed-through-injuries-in-dallas-shooting/
I found hearing Anne Farris Rosen speak about her experiences as a journalist very educational and informative to someone like myself. I am a young, African-American girl that wants to make a name for myself in the journalism industry when I grow up. Getting the perspective of a female journalist that used to work in the industry really opened my eyes to what I wanted to get involved in.
One topic Ms. Rosen discussed that worried me a bit was sexual harassment. One thing she said was that my sources could possibly hit on me, so that I could get more information out of them. My problem is what if the source begins to take things too far? Rape is a very big issue in this country. One in every six women have been raped or have rape attempted on them. I do not want to become one of the six women all because I went to cover a story and my source decided they wanted to take advantage of me. I want to be able to do my job without the fear of wondering whether my male, or even female, source would try to sexually harass me.
The other topic that worried me about the discussion with Ms. Rosen was her description of the scenes she saw as a journalist. She described scenes of burning buildings and crime where at both of them people would be dead or dying. I understand that journalist have to cover the bloody and gory scenes, but I never knew that they would actually see someone die. I thought they just had sources tell them that kind of news. That has to be hard to see someone die live in person and then have to tell that to the whole world.
Though these two topics worried me about becoming a journalist, I still want to pursue the career. After the discussion with Anne Farris Rosen, I have a clearer understanding of what my job will be like and I will being to prepare myself for it. I know there will be situations that will arise while I am a journalist, but I will find a way to overcome them. Ms. Rosen has given me the encouragement to take the negatives of the job in stride and to continue on doing what I love, which is writing.
Source
http://www.911rape.org/facts-quotes/statistics
According to an article from slate.com out of 875 women who participated in a survey sixty-four percent of them said they have experienced “intimidation, threats, or abuse” in the office or field. Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said they have been physically assaulted with weapons and received threats from colleagues. One of the worst parts of all this abuse is that less than half of those harassed reported it to any form of authority. Sexual harassment in the everyday workplace is a very large problem in the U.S. and in the field of journalism it is even more prevalent.
Ms.Rosen told us many female journalists including herself have been offered information from a source in exchange for sexual favors. Going through with these offers from sources can be tempting to journalists but also career ruining, making you known forever as the person who slept with their sources for information. While sleeping with a source might be frowned upon many reporters still do it. Bob Beckel, a former member of the Fox show “The Five” who worked in washington for 30 years, said female reporters sleeping with congressman is very common.
Over 30 years ago Anne Rosen had to fight for her job in Little Rock; when she got the job she was surrounded by men. Anne’s situation can be seen today with women still being a minority in the journalism scene. In a study conducted in 2013 it was revealed that women make up only 38% of newsroom staff and that number has stayed the same since 1999. With women being so under represented in the journalism world most of the women in the field go unheard and the stories written by men get more recognition than those written by women.
Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/11/women-journalists-still-underrepresented-in-newsroom_n_3579880.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2014/05/20/is-journalism-really-a-male-dominated-field-the-numbers-say-yes/
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-fives-beckel-confirms-reporters-sleep-with-sources-all-the-time/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/12/03/sexual_harassment_in_journalism_a_new_study_shows_that_the_majority_of_female.html
https://www.iwmf.org/blog/2014/03/07/sexual-harassment/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/journalist-sexual-harassment_us_5608e61ae4b0768126fdfed4
To hear that minorities make up only a small percentage of the local TV news workforce and daily newspaper workforce is extremely troubling. Not to mention that the percentage of minorities in the newsroom and at daily newspapers has fallen, according to The Atlantic. In a country that is struggling profusely with race related issues, we need nothing more than for those percentages to increase. The Atlantic suggests that a possible explanation for the lack of minorities in the news field could be due to the way publications hire. It states, "Newsrooms often value the types of internships and experiences that minorities are less likely to have." But why are minorities less likely to have these types of opportunities? To fully address this problem and race problems similar to this, we need to answer the question, "Why?" This question was one that Ms. Rosen has said many journalists turn a blind eye to. Ms. Rosen suggested that many journalists only state the chaos that is happening in the world, but don't further their article to explain why is it that all of this is occurring.
For example, if you look up "mass incarceration of minorities" on google, a dozen or so articles will show up, but only a few will dig deep into the history of civil rights issues that have resulted in the disproportionate numbers. A lot of the articles will fail to explain the history of Jim Crow, modern day discrimination, and economic oppression affiliated with racism today.
Ms. Rosen offered a lot of insightful points that allowed me to view journalism in its entirety quite differently. Although asking more of the question "Why?" wasn't the only message that I took away from her visit, it certainly was an important one. Being a journalist means possessing lots of curiosity. I think sometimes if journalists ask, "Why?" instead of "What?" they will not only address their own curiosity, but they could also offer explanations and solutions to race related issues that so many Americans fail to understand.
http://www.epi.org/press/mass-incarceration-is-one-of-the-most-pressing-civil-rights-issues-today/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/minorities-in-journalism/399461/
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/newsroom-diversity-a-casualty-of-journalisms-financial-crisis/277622/
Minority representation in the newsroom affects both what type of stories are aired, and how these stories are covered. Although minorities make up more than one third of the population, only 22 percent make up the local TV news workforce, and about 13 percent make up the daily newspaper workforce. The majority of the workforce is caucasian. This demographic can cause stories (especially stories about minorities) to be clouted with bias and prejudice, and the stories can be used to shape stereotypes among these minorities.
One example are the shootings of African American men by white police officers over the past week. If a minority, particularly an African American, were to write about these shootings, they would more likely have more sympathy and understanding than if a white reporter wrote the article. This is due to the common background that African Americans share with each other, common experiences with racism and discrimination, and possibly common experiences with the police. But if a white reporter were to cover the story, the reporter would likely depict the story in a completely different way. For example, an article written by Brian Anderson at downtrend.com defends the police that shot Philando Castile, an African American male that was pulled over for a busted taillight. The writer stated that Castile was pulled over because he was a suspect in a nearby armed robbery, that Castile was not a concealed weapons permit holder, and that the police officer that shot Castile was not white; he was hispanic. Not only are the facts falsified , but the writer is implying that Castile deserved to be shot. Many conservative media outlets use similar tactics, in which they commonly depict minorities as “thugs” or “terrorists”, while white felons who do the same acts are deemed as “mentally unstable.” Some common conservative media outlets are Fox News, The Drudge Report, The Blaze, etc.
Another way minority representation affects how stories are covered are how well minorities are represented in our society. As previously mentioned before, many news outlets depict minorities as “thugs” and “terrorists”, and would rather mention the failures of the race rather than the accomplishments. For example, Carlos Cort wrote an article on medialit.org about how the media shapes our preconceptions of other races by the news we cover, how we cover it, and how extensively we cover it. He even provides an example, in which he describes a gameshow in which one contestant is given a word, and the other has to try to guess it using the clues given by the other contestant. Contestant #1 is given the word “gang” and says, “They have a lot of these in East L.A.” (an area heavily populated by Mexican Americans). Almost immediately, the other contestant replies with the word “gangs.” The reason for the quick answer is our predispositions that are formed by mass media. We often hear about the crimes committed in East L.A., and correlate the crimes with the race of the people populated there. Thus, society creates this conception that Hispanics or Blacks are associated with the term “gangs” or “thugs,” and often associate a crime done by these minorities to “gang activity” without further investigating the crime.
All in all, there has not been much improvement on minority representation in the last decade. If there were more minorities effectively writing and showing their sides and perspectives on the issues that cascade us everyday, the news would have a more well-rounded and unbiased view on things.
Sources:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/04/in-the-news-industry-diversity-is-lowest-at-smaller-outlets/
http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/long-way-go-minorities-and-media
http://downtrend.com/author/71superb
There are lots of great thoughts and points raised here. I'm glad that many of you noted that a journalist's race, gender and ethnicity can affect not only what is covered, but how it is covered.
A few points to follow up on:
* When reporters write stories for a newspaper, they do not write their headlines. An editor -- usually on the copy desk -- writes the headlines.
* Some of what goes on - with some reporters sleeping with sources - is much more subtle than a source saying he or she will relay information if the reporter sleeps with him or her. I have not personally ever heard of that happening. What I have witnessed is reporters who get too close to their sources, and end up dating and sleeping with them. When a reporter gets too close to a source, he or she should ask to be taken off that beat. There would be a perception - and likely a reality - that the reporter could no longer be unbiased in his or her coverage.
* A reference was made in one of your posts to the story that talked about minorities sometimes being unable to grab internships needed to get ahead in their careers. Often, internships in journalism are unpaid. This unfortunately puts students who need to work to pay their tuition in a position of not being able to seek those internships.
Also, always watch your spellings of proper names, whenever you write for publication! And back up sweeping generalizations with specific examples.
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