A Pilot Study
Will More Diversified Staffs
Diversify Newspaper Content?
By Fred Fedler, Ron F. Smith,
Marion T. Marzolf, and James Phillip Jeter*1
Newspaper editors are trying to diversify their staffs, especially to hire more
women and
minorities. Some call the trend "pluralism" or "multi-culturalism."
Proponents of multi-culturalism believe that it will help newspapers broaden
their
definitions of news to include issues of interest to more Americans.
Ideally, newspapers'
coverage of those issues will help them attract and retain more readers.
But proponents of multi-culturalism seem to be operating on faith. Hundreds of
articles
have been written about the topic, yet it is difficult to find much
empirical evidence
proving the theory correct.
The theory's proponents often begin in J-schools, hiring more women and
offering more
scholarships, internships, and jobs for minorities. To determine
whether that strategy
will help diversify newspapers' content, this study examines the
editorial decisions made
by journalism students to see whether, in fact, the students'
decisions vary by race and
gender.
Clearly, newspapers have a serious readership problem. In 1970, 78 percent of
the total
adult population read a daily newspaper. By 1992, daily readership
among men had fallen
to 65.3%, and among women to 60.2%.1 Other statistics reveal
the importance of the
various subgroups in our society -- subgroups the media may be
neglecting:
*Women make up 52% of the population.
*More than half the U.S. work force now consists of women and racial
minorities.2
*Seventy-five percent of the population is in one or more of the
overlapping
groups of lesbians and gay men, minorities, and women.3
Although minorities make up 25% of the population, over the next decade they
will be
responsible for 87% of its growth. Since 1980, the percentage of
blacks in the population
has grown at twice the rate of whites. The percentage of Latinos has grown at
almost six
times the rate of whites, and the percentage of Asian-Americans has grown at
more than 10
times the rate of whites.4
Many of those minorities are critical of the media, and David Shaw, press
critic for The
Los Angeles Times, found that their primary complaint is that
minorities rarely appear in
the news. Other complaints include negative stereotypes, ignorance
of cultural
differences, use of biased or insensitive language, unfair comparisons, and
the anointing
of unrepresentative and sometimes irresponsible minority spokesmen.
Critics also charge that news stories emphasize "the pathology of minority
behavior --
drugs, gangs, crime, violence, poverty, illiteracy -- almost to the
exclusion of normal,
everyday life."5 Stories that do show minorities in a favorable
light seem limited to
athletes and entertainers.6
The solution, most say, is to hire more minorities. Miami Herald publisher
David
Lawrence explains, "We already know that people bring different
perspectives to their
work, that no matter how progressive and sensitive and thoughtful it
might be, a newspaper
staff and management predominantly male and white cannot fully serve a
genuinely diverse
readership and a genuinely diverse nation."7
Minority journalists agree that, no matter how well-meaning editors may be,
"the press
will not change its fundamental approach to covering minorities and
routinely include them
in the mainstream of the daily news flow until there are many minority editors
participating significantly in the decision-making process."8
Editors add that multi-culturalism is not just fair (morally and ethically
correct) but a
matter of necessity. "To survive," explains Cole C. Campbell of the ASNE Human
Resources
Committee, "we need to be as diverse as possible, with our staffs and every
step of our
newsroom hierarchies reflecting the racial, ethnic, cultural, and
gender diversity of our
communities."9
Several authors add that women are poor readers, not because they lack the time
to read a
newspaper, but because they lack the motivation. Those authors explain that
daily
newspapers fail to publish articles relevant to women.10
Several authors have identified new and more relevant issues that women might
emphasize,
if given more power in newsrooms: stories about sexual harassment,
rape, equity in pay,
child care (and abuse), battered wives, maternity leaves, women's
reproductive choices,
and humanist values in general.11
Lesbians and gays, too, want newspapers to broaden their definitions of news,
and believe
that the employment of more lesbians and gays would help. Issues thought to be
of
special relevance to lesbians and gays include: AIDS, teen suicides,
hate crimes,
lifestyles, civil rights, political activities, and more of the events in
their
communities.12
Still, newspapers' efforts to promote multi-culturalism encounter some
resistance -- a
resistance difficult to overcome when there is little evidence
proving the theory's
effectiveness.
Right or wrong, critics object to the media's political correctness, hiring
quotas, lower
standards, and "cheerleading for (and soft coverage of) favored groups."13
Leslie Spencer of Forbes magazine charges that, "...diversity doesn't bring
diversity [in
news coverage], it's just a kind of sex and race coding."14 Shepard warns that
newsrooms' white males "feel threatened, frustrated and, in many cases,
angry."15 Other
critics warn that new employees are unlikely to change newspapers'
definitions of news:
that the obstacles to change are overwhelming, and that new
employees adapt to rather than
change the system.
Much of the evidence supporting multi-culturalism is anecdotal, with several
authors
insisting that women have already changed newspapers' definitions of
news. Geneva
Overholser, editor of the Des Moines Register, is cited as an example.
Overholser urged
rape victims to speak out, and she won a Pulitzer Prize when a woman
agreed to tell her
story.16
Proponents of multi-culturalism argue that gays and lesbians are also making a
difference. Karen Jurgensen of USA Today explains, "Our coverage of AIDS
over the years
has been immeasurably improved by the presence and active
involvement of gay journalists
in our newsrooms."17
Still, few studies have been systematic in their examination of the issue.
Gibson
examined lifestyle sections and found that male editors are "more likely
to select
gender-neutral content such as entertainment, health, and religion, while
focusing less on
more traditional women's content, such as fashion, society, and personal
advice."18
Goodrick found that editorial writers are examining more women's issues "and
that women
editorial page staffers believe their presence is very important."19
Bernt and Greenwald
found that the views of gay and lesbian journalists differ from
those of senior editors.20
Marzolf surveyed managing editors and found they believe that women are making
a
significant difference in "defining the news and expanding the range of
topics considered
news...."21
Still, many of the previous studies share a common limitation. Their authors
surveyed
journalists, asking their impressions. To determine whether their
impressions are
accurate, this study will ask journalism students to evaluate 18 news
stories, including
several that involve topics mentioned by the proponents of
multi-culturalism.
Methodology
To obtain a large and varied sample, students enrolled in the introductory
newswriting
classes at three universities were asked to evaluate 18 stories,
each typed on a separate
sheet of paper.
Students were told to assume that stories which did not mention another
location
"occurred in your city or state 'today' or 'yesterday.'" All the stories
were true but,
to save time, students were given only the first three paragraphs of
each. All 18 stories
were in an envelope, and the stories' order varied from one envelope to
another.
About half the stories concerned topics that proponents of multi-culturalism
have
suggested would receive more emphasis if newspapers employed more women
and minorities:
topics such as breast cancer, divorce, abandoned babies, interracial
marriages, abortions,
day care, disabilities, welfare, and a contest considered racist and sexist
(See Appendix
A).
Using scales of from "1" to "10," the students were asked to rate each story's
importance, and also to indicate how likely they would be to publish it. (A
pretest
indicated that it was easier for students to use 10-point scales than
to compare the
stories with one another, ranking all 18 in importance. The pretest
also revealed that
students differentiated between a story's importance and the
likelihood that they would
use it. Students considered some stories of little importance --
but great interest to
the public.)
The students were also asked to indicate where in a paper they would place each
story,
and were given five options: (1) front page, (2) main news section,
(3) local news
section, (4) entertainment/feature section, and (5) would not use.
The students were asked four questions about themselves: their gender, year in
school,
major, and race. Finally, to determine their exposure to the media,
the students were
also asked: (1) how many journalism courses they had completed; (2)
whether they had
worked for a high school newspaper or yearbook; (3) whether they had
worked for a college
newspaper or radio or television station; (4) whether they had
worked for a professional
newspaper or radio or television station; and (5) whether they
planned to work for a
newspaper when they graduated.
Results
RESPONDENTS' CHARACTERISTICS. There were 94 respondents: 31.9% male and 61.7%
female.
(Not every set of percentages adds up to 100 because some respondents
did not answer every
question.) Forty-six percent listed their race as white; 38.3% as
African-American; and
8.5% as Asian-American. Seventy-six percent were juniors or seniors.
The respondents were fairly evenly divided by major: 19.1% were majoring in
news-editorial journalism, 24.5% in broadcasting, 20.2% in
advertising/public relations,
and 4.3% in other fields of journalism. Twenty-six percent were
non-majors.
Only 12.8% reported that they had not yet completed any college journalism
courses.
Twenty-eight percent had completed one or two, 25.5% three or four, and
26.6% five or
more. One problem encountered in analyzing the data was that the
minority students in the
sample had taken significantly more courses than had the white
students, a fact that
created something of a problem when trying to explain some of the
differences in the
findings.
Large numbers of the respondents had some media experience, often starting in
high
school. Thirty-eight percent had worked for their high school newspaper
or yearbook, 39.4%
for their college newspaper, and 18.1% for a college radio or
television station. Nearly a
fourth (22.3%) had worked for a professional (commercial) newspaper
or radio or television
station. Still, only 21.3% said they planned to work for a newspaper
when they graduated.
DIFFERENCES RELATED TO GENDER. Overall, men and women students in the sample
differed on
the importance and/or likelihood that they would use five of the 18
stories. Men were more
likely to publish stories about a call for English to be the
official language, an illness
among Native Americans in the Southwest, a Little Leaguer who was
killed by a wild pitch
and a law requiring divorcing couples with children to take
parenting classes. Women,
however, considered the story about the college fraternity's "ugly
woman" contest more
important than did the men in the sample.(See Table 1).
Table 1: Stories On Which Men and Women Differed
Men Women
English as Official Language (U)
3.3
4.3
Illness kills Native Americans (U)
2.8
3.8
Death of Little Leaguer (U)
3.3
4.4
"Ugly Woman" Contest (I)
5.9
5
Parenting classes after divorce (U)
3.9
4.9
U=likelihood of using story; I=importance of story
Both men and women rated the passage of the Brady bill as the most important
story in the
list and a story about breast cancer discoveries third. However,
women considered the
second most important story to be the one about the mother who killed
her son's accused
molester. Men ranked that story ninth. (See Appendix B).
Perhaps of more interest to editors concerned about diversity in their
newsrooms, the men
and women majoring in news-ed journalism differed on the importance
or useability of three
stories to a statistically significant level (and one other at a
level that approached
significance). Men were less interested than women in stories about
parenting classes for
the newly divorced, statehood for Washington D.C., and the shooting
of an accused child
molester by the mother of one of his victims. Women were more likely
to use a story about
charges that campaign workers for a woman gubernatorial candidate
made payments to
suppress the black vote. (See Table 2).
Table 2: Stories on Which Men and Women News-ed Majors Differed
Men Women
Efforts to suppress black vote (U)
4.3
2.4
Statehood for Washington DC (I)
6.8
3.2
Mother kills alleged molester (I)
5.3
2.9
Parenting classes after divorce (I)
5.8
3.6
Men news-ed majors ranked the story about the censorship of books in public
high schools
as the most important in the list, while men in general
Table 3: Stories on Which Women News-ed Majors Differed From Other Women
Majors Non-majors
Efforts to limit abortion protests (I)
3.1
4.6
Obesity as disability (U)
3.8
5.1
Obesity as disability (I)
3.9
5
Babies abandoned in hospitals (I)
2.6
4.3
Babies abandoned in hospitals (U)
2.9
4.5
Efforts to suppress black vote (U)
2.4
4.2
Efforts to suppress black vote (I)
2.6
4.3
Increase in interracial couples (U)
4.7
6.0
Increase in interracial couples (I)
4.4
5.9
Parenting classes after divorce (U)
3.7
5.2
Parenting classes after divorce (I)
3.6
5.0
Welfare reform (U)
2.7
5.4
Welfare reform (I)
2.7
4.2
Statehood for Washington D.C. (U)
3.1
4.8
Statehood for Washington D.C. (I)
3.2
4.8
ranked it 10th. Woman majors put it in 16th place. A story about abandoned
babies was
women news-ed majors' pick as the most important. That story was ranked
sixth by men
majors and eighth by women in general. (See Appendix B).
Since men and women news-ed majors tended to disagree on different stories from
the
general population in the sample, we compared men and women news-ed
majors with
non-majors. Women news-ed majors differed from other women on several
stories. Often the
majors made judgments that might be considered more socially liberal
or feminist.(See
Table 3).
Men news-ed differed from male non-majors on two stories to a significant
level. (See
Table 4).
Table 4: Stories on Which Male News-ed Majors Differed From Male Non-majors
Majors Non-majors
Increase in interracial couples (I)
3.5
5.7
Condoms in the high schools (I)
2.5
4.2
Condoms in the high schools (U)
2
3.7
When respondents were grouped by whether they planned newspaper careers,
several of these
differences disappeared. Men and women who planned to be newspaper
journalists differed
only on the story about parenting classes with women considering it
more important, 4.0 to
6.2.
Men who hope to work for the news media differed from other men on four
stories. They
appeared to lean more toward a socially liberal viewpoint than other
men. (See Table 5).
Table 5: Stories on Which Men Who Planned Newspaper Careers Differed
News Career Other
Increase in interracial couples (U)
3.3
6
Increase in interracial couples (I)
3.3
6
"Ugly woman" contest (I)
4.3
6.3
Abandoned babies (U)
2.7
3.8
Condoms in the high schools (I)
2.5
4.2
Condoms in the high schools (U)
2.2
3.8
The most striking finding was that although women news-ed majors differed from
non-majors
on several stories, there were no statistically significant
differences between women who
planned newspaper careers and those who did not.
Several expected differences along gender lines failed to materialize. There
were no
significant differences in men's and women's attitudes about stories
concerning day-care
centers, breast cancer, or obesity, for example. Women did not
consider those stories more
important nor were they more likely to use them.
DIFFERENCES RELATED TO RACE. Four of the 18 stories explicitly mentioned race:
reports of
(1) alleged efforts to suppress black voter turnout in New Jersey,
(2) the growing number
of interracial couples, (3) an illness among Indians, and (4) the
"ugly-woman" contest.
Three other stories have been considered by some readers to have
racial overtones: one
about a constitutional amendment to make English this country's
official language, one
about efforts to grant statehood to the District of Columbia, and one
about a New Jersey
law intended to discourage mothers on welfare from having more
children after they begin
receiving benefits.
Overall, African-Americans considered significantly more important than whites
stories
about the "ugly-woman" contest and about a woman who walked into a
courtroom in Sonora,
Calif., and killed a man accused of molesting her son. Blacks also
considered the Little
Leaguer's death more important, with the difference approaching
significance. (See Table
6).
Table 6: Stories on Which Blacks and Whites Differed
Whites Blacks
"Ugly Woman" Contest
5.8
4.7
Death of Little Leaguer
5.4
3.6
Mother kills alleged molester
4.3
3
Blacks rated the story about the mother shooting the molester as the most
important story
in the list; whites rated it ninth. Both blacks and whites
considered the story about the
increase in interracial couples as the least important in the group.
(See Appendix B).
More surprising, however, were the differences between black and white news-ed
majors.
They differed on half the 18 stories. (See Table 7).
Table 7: Stories on Which Black and White News-ed Majors Differed
Whites Blacks
"Ugly Woman" Contest (U)
5.7
2.9
Death of Little Leaguer (I)
5
2.1
Obese protected against job bias (U)
4.9
2.1
Obese protected against job bias (U)
5.7
3.4
Illness kills Native Americans (I)
3.8
1.9
Revisions in welfare system (I)
3.6
1.3
Efforts to suppress black vote (I)
3.6
1.6
Discoveries about breast cancer (U)
4.1
1.9
Parenting lessons after divorce (I)
4.9
2.9
Condoms passed out in high schools (I)
3.6
1.7
Black news-ed majors rated the story about welfare reform as the most important
in the
list and one about efforts to suppress the black vote second. White
news-ed majors ranked
welfare reform as the fifth most important and voting scandal third.
(See Appendix B).
Table 8 : Stories on Which Black J-Majors Differed From Black Non-majors
Majors Non-majors
"Ugly Woman" Contest (U)
2.9
5.3
Statehood for Washington D.C. (U)
2.6
4.8
Obese protected against job bias (U)
2.1
4.9
Obese protected against job bias (I)
2.7
5.0
Illness kills Native Americans (I)
1.9
3.7
English as official language (U)
2.3
4.6
English as official language (I)
2.4
4.7
Abandoned babies (I)
1.7
3.9
Abandoned babies (U)
2
4.1
Standards for day-care centers (U)
2.4
4.4
Limits on abortion protests (I)
2.7
4.6
Increase in interracial couples (U)
4
6.1
Revisions in welfare system (I)
1.3
4.3
Revisions in welfare system (U)
1.4
4.3
Efforts to suppress black vote (I)
1.6
4.4
Efforts to suppress black vote (U)
1.6
4.1
Discoveries about breast cancer (U)
1.9
3.8
Parenting lessons after divorce (I)
2.9
5.7
Parenting lessons after divorce (U)
3.1
5.2
Brady Bill passes (U)
1.9
3.6
Condoms passed out in high schools (I)
1.7
4.2
Both black news-ed students differed significantly from non-majors of their own
races.
Blacks disagreed on 14 of the 18 stories. (See Table 8).
However, there were no statistically significant differences between white
news-ed majors
and white non-majors.
As happened when we grouped respondents by gender, we found fewer differences
when we
separated black and white students by whether they planned to work for
the newspapers.
(See Table 9).
IMPACT OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS. The authors also conducted T-tests to determine
whether
the responses of students who worked for their high school
newspapers and yearbooks
differed from the responses of other students.
Compared to their classmates, the students with some experience in high
Table 9: Stories on Which Blacks and Whites Who Plan Newspaper Careers Differed
Whites Blacks
Obese protected against job bias (I)
4.6
3
Obese protected against job bias (U)
4.4
2.2
Condoms in the high schools (I)
3.9
2
Parenting classes for the newly divorced (I)
5.1
3.4
Welfare reform (U)
3.6
1.6
Welfare reform (I)
4
1.4
school considered seven stories less important.22
Page
There was an even more curious finding. Although overall students who worked on
high
school papers tended to consider many of the stories less important and
less useable, that
was not the case with news-ed majors. There were no significant
differences in the
reactions to the 18 stories between news-ed majors who worked on high
school papers and
those who did not. However, there were differences in reactions to 11
of the stories
between non-news-ed majors who worked on high school papers and those
who did not. In
every case, those with high school paper experience thought the stories
were less
important. It is difficult to discern any pattern in the stories' topics,
but that may not
be important.
Thirty-seven of the subjects worked for their college newspaper, and their news
judgment
also differed from their classmates'Dbut in the opposite
direction.23
But again, news-ed majors showed more uniformity. They differed on only two
stories:
stories about welfare reform (2.1 to 4.3) and efforts to suppress the
black vote (2.2 to
4.2).
STORY PLACEMENT. All 94 respondents were also asked where in a newspaper they
would place
each story. Due to the large number of cells and small N, the
authors generally limited
their analysis to the stories placed on Page 1. There were no
differences by gender, but a
few by race.
Minorities were significantly more likely to place two stories on Page 1: the
story about
New Jersey's welfare reform (32.5% vs. 4.8% for whites) and the
story about a woman who
shot the man accused of molesting her son (63.4% vs. 37.2% for
whites).
Minorities were somewhat more likely to place a third story on Page 1: the
story about
attempts to censor books in the nation's public schools (12.2% vs.
2.3%). Whites, on the
other hand, were somewhat more likely to put the story about the
Brady bill on Page 1
(81.0% vs. 65.9%).
Other differences were more predictable.
Advocates of multi-culturalism have said that women would place more emphasis
on stories
about child care. One of the 18 stories reported that the state
legislature was likely to
impose stricter requirements on day-care centers, and 5.7% of the
women said the story
should appear on Page 1, 41.5% said they would place it in their main
news section, and
50.9% in their local news section. By comparison, 73.3% of the men
said they would place
the story in their main news section and 26.7% in their local news
sectionDnone on Page 1,
a significant difference.
Women were also significantly more likely to put the story about New Jersey's
welfare
reform on Page 1 (24.1% vs. 6.9%).
Men, on the other hand, were significantly different in their placement of the
story
about the censorship of books. Seven percent said they would place it
on Page 1, 62.1% in
their main news section, 3.4% in their local news section and 27.6%
in their ent
ertainment/feature section. Only 28.6% of the women said they would place the
story in
their main news section, 58% in their entertainment/feature section,
and 2% on Page 1.
Similarly, only 29.2% of the men (but 58.0% of the women) said they would put a
story
about interracial couples in their entertainment/feature section.
Students who planned to work for a newspaper after they graduate differed from
their
classmates on one story. They considered the story about the number of
interracial couples
in America significantly more important (4.4 vs. 5.8).
REGRESSION ANALYSES. A series of regression analyses were run on the data.
Given this
study's small N and the number of variables, we believe these analyses
in and of
themselves may have little meaning. We report them only as another way of
seeking trends
in the data. For all students in the sample, the regression analysis
suggested that the
number of college courses the students had taken and whether they had
experience on
student papers were the best predictors of how they would judge many of
the studies. High
school experience was the best predictor of their ratings of five of
the stories, college
newspaper experience on four stories and number of courses on three.
For this sample of
students, race and sex were not predictors on any of the stories.
However, the news-ed majors in the sample responded differently. The analyses
indicated
that on three of the stories, the best indicator of how news-ed
majors reacted to the
importance of the stories was race. Those stories concerned the Little
Leaguer's death,
welfare reform and condoms for high school students. Gender of the
respondents was the
best predictor of the story about the District of Columbia's bid for
statehood. The number
of news-ed courses that majors had taken was related to the
importance they placed in
stories about abandoned babies and efforts to suppress the black vote.
Conclusions and Discussion
Before making too many conclusions based on the present study, we should
pointed out that
this was a pilot study involving small numbers of students. No claim
is being made by the
authors that these findings are generalizable to the entire
population. By the same token,
although we reported differences between news-ed majors and
non-majors, we recognize that
the non-majors were students enrolled in news-ed classes. Most of
them were majoring in
fields allied to news-ed, like public relations, advertising or
broadcasting. Clearly, we
would not expect those students to representative of all students
who are not news-ed
majors. But, mindful of these disclaimers, we think the findings may
provide some
questions to be considered in future studies.
Many newspaper managers want to increase the diversity in their newsrooms in
hopes of
making their newspapers more representative of their readers and
potential readers. They
believe one way of doing this is to increase the number of women and
minorities in
reporting and editing positions.
Our study provides some support for that positions. In many cases, minorities
and women
did appraise differently the importance of stories and the
likelihood that they would use
them in the paper or and play them on Page 1. Occasionally, the
stories that they differed
on were not overtly race- or gender-related, further suggesting that
they were making news
judgments based on a different set of life experiences. This would
seem to support the
goal of media companies that are trying to increase diversity in their
newsrooms.
However, the findings also present some problems to be considered.
For years, both media critics and apologists have complained that journalists
seem out of
touch with the rest of society. Among the reasons often cited for
this are that
journalists work odd hours, tend socialize with each other and, at some
papers, are l
imited by ethics policies that discourage community involvement. But the
root cause of
journalists being out of step may be more fundamental than that.
Earlier research has indicated that news-ed majors often differ from other
communications
students.24 They tend to chose their careers at an earlier age and
for different reasons,
often more idealistic ones. Our study found considerable differences
between the news
judgment of news-ed majors and the other communications students in
this sample.
Researchers might want to look into this phenomenon to determine if these
differences are
the result of attitudes students have when they make their career
choices or the result of
their experiences in the news-ed classrooms and on student and
professional publications.
These studies might look into a curiosity hinted at in our findings:
Students who planned
newspaper careers showed even more similarities than did the
news-ed-major group (which
included majors who did not plan to work for newspapers).
Our study found that women news-ed majors occasionally displayed news judgment
that
differed from that of women who were majoring in related areas, although
women who plan
newspaper careers were not significantly different from the other
women. We also found
that African-American news-ed majors' judgments occasionally differed
from black
non-majors. This raises questions about the success of efforts of media
managers who hire
women and minority journalists to make their papers more responsive
to the interests of
women and minority readers. A question that may need to be explored
is whether female and
minority journalists are just as out of step with their peers as
white journalists are
alleged to be.
To determine whether any of these concerns are justified, this pilot study
should be
followed up with (1) studies with larger samples that might be more
readily generalized to
the general populations involved, (2) studies of professional news
people to see if women
and minorities in newsrooms do react differently to the set of
stories, and (3) studies to
see if these judgments are representative of non-journalistic
populations. These findings
could be tied to studies of the development of the attitudes and
news values of people who
go into journalism.
Endnotes
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