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VOICES
Is Your Newsroom Still Too White?
Look in Your Own Backyard
BY
WANDA LLOYD
 My
passion for journalism was sparked by Ella P. Law, an English
teacher who had been around our coastal Georgia community long
enough to have taught my parents in the same high school. Considering
her race (African-American), and the era (mid-1960s), it is unlikely
that Mrs. Law ever set foot inside a newsroom. Yet she managed
to instill in young people like me a love for writing and editing
as we worked on our school newspaper.
Unfortunately for young people of color today, there aren’t
many Ella P. Laws left. Over the past twenty years, school system
budget cuts — especially in urban areas where students of
color are most affected — have left many school newspapers
defunct or barely functioning. And while fewer blacks and Latinos
are finding their way to journalism through this traditional route,
many who come to it through other doors are abandoning the profession
in droves. The 2001 ASNE newsroom survey showed that journalists
of color are leaving the profession at a faster rate than whites.
In 2002 the percentage rose slightly, but the news was bittersweet,
as the increase was due not to an aggressive hiring campaign,
but to overall staff cutbacks.
Meanwhile, the communities newspapers cover are changing rapidly.
The 2000 U.S. Census reports that more than 30 percent of the
nation is now made up of people of color. Where will we get the
diverse staffs for newsrooms of the future? The answer for many
editors may be simple: Look in your own backyard. Think of the
benefits of cultivating new journalists from local minority communities:
•
Local talent means local knowledge. Grooming journalists at home
means not having to include a map of the city in a new reporter’s
orientation package.
•
Local talent means local loyalty. Journalists who have family
and friends nearby tend to think twice before picking up and moving
halfway across the country.
•
Local talent enhances the ability to be more inclusive in coverage.
Long-term residents often get tips that may escape transplants
from other parts of the country. People of color who grew up locally
often have a keen sense of community and can bring those insights
to their reporting.
Finding qualified prospects in your community can be a challenge.
Here are some tips:
First, look under your nose. Tell people in your own organization
to keep an eye out for minority employees outside the newsroom
with the qualities we seek in beginning journalists — natural
writing or artistic talent, good spelling and grammar skills,
inquisitive minds. Human Resource managers and directors of other
newspaper departments may know of someone in circulation, advertising,
or marketing who might be a fit in the newsroom.
Talk to the community. When staff members are asked to visit schools,
churches, and civic organizations to talk about the newspaper
and their jobs, be sure they are primed to look for volunteers
for journalism training.
Engage readers. A column by the editor could ask readers to identify
local people who fit the profile of a potential journalist. Also,
look for people who are consistent, thoughtful writers of letters
to the editor.
In recent years, individual papers have had some success cultivating
local minority talent, working with high schools and community
colleges, in one case even starting a journalism training program
for people from underserved communities in the circulation area.
Now, the Freedom Forum and The American Society of Newspaper Editors
have developed industry-wide programs to address these diversity
pipeline issues.
ASNE, through a grant from the Knight Foundation, is going back
to school — sort of — to kick-start interest in journalism
by creating or reviving high school newspapers. ASNE offers partnership
grants to newspapers and high schools for technology and training
programs. The Freedom Forum, meanwhile, is launching a program
this summer in Nashville to train mid-career people of color to
be journalists. The Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University
asks newspaper editors to nominate people from their communities,
send them to the all-expenses-paid institute for twelve weeks
of intensive training, and agree to hire successful graduates
of the program.
Will programs like these make a difference? The potential is there
to hire and keep more journalists of color, and thus create richer
and more diverse news products. But papers, particularly those
that are still smarting from the economic downturn of the past
year, must take advantage of the resources, both in their own
communities and through programs like ours. By doing so, they
can help bridge the growing gap between the press and the communities
we cover.
Wanda S. Lloyd is the executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity
Institute and a member of ASNE's board of directors.
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