Newsroom diversity has been a buzz word for many years and for many people, it seems like it will remain just that, a buzz word only said to be fashionable but not practiced in earnest. There have been issues arising for decades that required perspectives and analysis of communities of colors by writers and editors of color. But the simple fact is they’re not there and they need to be.

In fact, recent media census data collected by the American Society of News Editors and the Center for Advanced Social Research shows minorities holding 10 percent of editorial leadership positions in newsrooms, while 90 percent of those positions were held by whites. Diversity across the whole in the newsroom has been stagnant for the past decade with ethnic minorities accounting for around 12 to 13 percent of all newsroom staff according to data from Media Matters For America.

These statistics show that minorities are underrepresented in newsrooms and the media industry with non-whites making up 37.9 percent of the United States population and only 12.76 percent of the staff in newsrooms across the country. Black Americans are significantly underrepresented in newsrooms, holding 4.74 percent of newsroom positions and comprising 13.2 percent of the general population of United States.

In an interview with BuzzFeed discussing newsroom diversity, Ben Fields, Digital Editorial Director at NYMag.com says, “There’s a chicken and egg problem here. There are usually fewer “diverse” candidates for almost any position, whether via application or a survey of who’s already working in the field.”

This underrepresentation in newsrooms isn’t due to lack of minorities gaining the necessary education to become journalists.

A survey of college journalism programs across the United States conducted by Grady College’s Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication found that in the fall of 2013, 32.8 percent of students enrolled in journalism or mass communications programs across the country were classified as a racial or ethnic minority.

The same survey found that in the 2012-2013 academic school year, 25.3 percent of students granted journalism or mass communications degrees were racial or ethnic minorities, and while this statistic falls short of reflecting actual minority populations in the United States, it’s far greater than the amount of minorities that hold positions in newsrooms around the country.

The lack of minorities in positions in newsrooms around the country can lead to misguided news coverage or lack of coverage on important issues in minority communities altogether.

This isn’t a problem that has recently emerged, and calls for change in diversity in the newsroom have not just recently surfaced. In 1968, The Kerner Report which studied black riots in cities like Detroit and Chicago found media to partially responsible and that their coverage of black communities and the amount of African-Americans employed by newspapers to be lacking as well. The investigatory committee that compiled the report concluded:

“Along with the country as a whole, the press has too long basked in a white world, looking out of it, if at all, with white men’s eyes and a white perspective. That is no longer good enough. The painful process of readjustment that is required of the American news media must begin now. They must make a reality of integration–in both their product and personnel. They must insist on the highest standards of accuracy–not only reporting single events with care and skepticism, but placing each event into meaningful perspective. They must report the travail of our cities with compassion and depth.”

The Kerner Report was released in 1968, and to this day, much of the news coverage that we receive is from a white perspective. Employing minorities in the newsroom is vital for the accurate portrayal and coverage of issues that matter in minority communities.

Many news organizations have used the excuse that there aren’t enough minority writers to employ, but this narrative is being combated by journalists and editors of color in the field working to make a change, such as Jazmine Hughes (who helped create www.writersofcolor.org — a database that allows editors to easily find writers of color).

Black narratives matter, and it’s time for news organizations to get the stories of our communities right by including writers and editors of color at every step of the editorial process.

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Ryan Christian Brooks

Writing since July 2016 · 1 story contributed