Diversifying the fourth estate - journalism schools

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 6, 1998 by Michele N-K Collison

Will journalism schools continue to pursue students of color now that the American Society of Newspaper Editors has scaled back its commitment to diversity?

Journalism educators say they remain committed to increasing the numbers of minority students and faculty members in journalism schools despite a recent decision by the nation's leading newspaper editors association to scale back its twenty-year-old goals for increasing newsroom diversity.

In 1978, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) pledged that by the year 2000, minority representation in newsrooms would be at parity with national demographics. People of color currently constitute roughly one quarter of the nation's population. Their representation in newsrooms, however, is only at 11.4 percent. In April, less than two years before the year 2000 deadline, the society conceded its original goal was unattainable, proposing a more "realistic" goal of 20 percent minority representation by the year 2010.

"It's too early to tell whether ASNE's decision will have any impact at journalism schools," says Dr. Karen Brown Dunlap, dean of faculty at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. She adds that journalism schools "didn't have that great a record to brag about anyway. The will to [increase diversity] has not been there on a widespread basis."

About 6,000, of the nation's 54,700 newspaper reporters, photographers, and editors are African American, Hispanic, or Native American, according to an ASNE survey (see Incredible Whiteness pg 40). These constitute three times the percentage they had in 1978 when ASNE set its goals. But journalists and educators say that the number of minorities entering the profession has remained stagnant, while the country's minority population has grown far beyond the 15 percent ASNE had projected for 2000. In 1994, nearly 26 percent of the nation's population were members of minority groups, but the number of minority journalists increased just one-tenth of 1 percent in the last year.

And, indeed, the number of minorities who graduate from the nation's journalism schools has tended to mirror employment in the nation's newsrooms. In 1996. 8.9 percent of students who received bachelor's degrees in journalism were African American.

Educators cite many obstacles in recruiting minority students into journalism schools. First, they note, minority students, like White students, can choose many more financially lucrative careers than journalism. Secondly, many said minority students were often reluctant to move to the small cities or rural towns where many journalism graduates often start their careers.

"But those are just a lot of excuses," says Richard Roth, associate dean of journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. "We do have a responsibility to go out and recruit more minority students to diversity America's newsrooms."

Roth adds that the goal of increasing diversity is even more important in journalism than in other professions.

"It does matter in journalism if there is diversity in the ranks of the profession. If the only people in the newsrooms are White males, then they won't know many of the stories in the Black, Hispanic, and Asian American cultures and neighborhoods. People in the newsroom should come from every lifestyle and every neighborhood."

Strategic Recruiting

Currently, 25 percent of Medill's undergraduate and graduate students are people of color. Roth says the school tries to increase its numbers of minority graduate students by recruiting from historically Black colleges and at conferences like the one run by the National Association of Black Journalists. Medill also conducts a summer program for college students to expose them to journalism and offer them internships at Chicago media outlets.

Others say journalism schools need to step up their recruiting of faculty members of color.

"Reluctantly, deans of journalism schools are trying to diversify the ranks of faculty because of accrediting rules that require schools to demonstrate a commitment to increase the number of students and faculty of color," says Dr. Sherrie Mazingo, professor and chair of broadcasting at the University of Southern California School of Journalism. The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications established the requirement known as "Standard Twelve," in 1984.

"The vast majority of programs take [diversity] very seriously," said Charles Higginson, assistant to the executive director of the Council. "And it's not just because we're there cracking a whip. As the country becomes more diverse, the media is demanding that journalism schools [produce] more minority journalists. If the journalism schools don't provide the students, where are the minority journalists going to come from?"

But others say it will be difficult for many minorities to join the ranks of faculty at journalism schools because many colleges, especially historically Black universities, are requiring professors to have doctoral degrees.