Media and business elites: still in conflict? - Statistical Data Included

Public Interest, Spring, 2001 by Stanley Rothman, Amy E. Black

In this article, we will compare the views of business, media, and Hollywood elites. We designed the three samples to include people who have reached positions of significant influence and power in their respective professions. The business sample includes chief executive officers, chairmen, presidents and vice presidents of Fortune 1000 companies. The sample of journalists mirrors that from the earlier study, including reporters and editors at major national newspapers, news magazines, and wire services. Finally, the Hollywood sample includes the writers, directors, and producers of recent top-grossing films and highest-rated television shows.

Race, gender, and religion

To begin our comparison of business and cultural leaders at the end of the twentieth century, we first analyzed the demographic characteristics of the three leadership sectors. In what ways do their social backgrounds differ? In general, business leaders are older than their counterparts in journalism and Hollywood. In this study, the mean age of businessmen is 53; whereas, on average, the media and television and movie elites are in their mid forties. Although none of the three leadership groups is particularly representative of the American population, business leaders were, in 1995, still almost exclusively white and male. The creators of television and movies were not much more representative than the business leaders--about eight of every nine in the Hollywood elite sample were male, and 95 percent were white. Journalists are by far the most diverse of the three groups. About one-third are female and more than 10 percent are racial and ethnic minorities. However, propelled by shifts in the culture, affi rmative-action policies, and pressure from activist groups, the composition of American leadership cadres is beginning to change. The diversity of the elite groups is greater in the recent sample than in the survey two decades before, suggesting that traditionally underrepresented groups are slowly making progress entering the corridors of power.

Perhaps in part a function of age, but probably more a reflection of life-style differences, business leaders are the most likely of the three groups to be married. More than nine of ten (93.9 percent) respondents in the business sample are currently married, compared with three of four (76.5 percent) Hollywood elites and two of three (66 percent) journalists. About one of ten members of the cultural elite samples are currently divorced and about one in twenty report living with a partner. Media leaders are the most likely of the three groups to have never married; about one of six are single, a number roughly twice that of Hollywood's elites and more than four times the number of never-married business leaders.

The differences between the business and cultural elites appear even sharper when we compare the respondents' religious background and observance. Half of the business leaders are Protestant, compared with about one-third of the journalists (35.9 percent) and one of six (15.4 percent) creators of television and movies. Jews are well represented in all of the elite groups. Nine percent of the business sample are Jewish, as are about two in ten journalists (19 percent) and more than one-third of the Hollywood elite (36.8 percent). More than three of ten creators of television and movies identify with no particular religion, as do one of five journalists (21.9 percent) and only 8 percent of the business leaders. Members of the Hollywood sample are twice as likely as the other comparison groups to identify with religions outside the Judeo-Christian tradition.