(More) Black (Less) White and Read All Over

About 13.4% of America’s population is Black or African American, about 18.1% is Hispanic or Latino and about 2.7% is two or more races – as of July 2017.

This graph represents the projected black population in America. (Photo courtesy of Census.gov)

Newsrooms across the country, as a collective, depict the nation's demographic. The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) stated last year that “minority journalists comprised 16.6 percent of the workforce in U.S. newsrooms that responded to this year's Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey”.

When put under a microscope, though, representation isn’t fully there. Many newsrooms in places such as Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York have an overwhelming number of white staff when a large percentage of the area’s population isn’t white.

The Washington-Alexandria-Arlington area is 54 percent minority – the Washington Post reported 31 percent diversity in its newsroom. A 23 percent gap. They also only have one masthead who isn’t white. The New York Times has a 21 percent gap in its newsroom and the diversity of the region it covers.

The New York Times released graphs representing diversity in their newsroom.

Newsroom diversity brings a better understanding of the community it is writing for. It should represent who the news is about. When a newsroom becomes predominantly white, not only in its staff but more importantly in its editor and top roles, it misses the mark in its reporting. It allows for stories to be told with more perspectives and understanding. Sometimes stories need to be told through a racial lens and sometimes they do not, but without that option, newsrooms will be likely to not know when which is needed.

Adding more voices of color into the newsroom will help in the decision making process. We’ve all seen the headlines that have a clear racial bias. With more black reporters, more eyes will be able to catch that bias that is not clear to a white reporter.

Newsrooms will also be able to help the white members of the community they serve, understand their neighbors of color. More often than not, if a news organization doesn’t have people of color, they will only report on stories about people of color when it is under crime or tragedy. This paints the black population of a community in a bad light, when the white population is getting better coverage. We need to inform the nonblack population about the colored, not just when it’s bad.

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort where we overlap,” said Ani DiFranco.