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2016 campaign cable news coverage. Pew
Research Center’s most recent newsroom
diversity study revealed that only one in
eight journalists (12 percent) are a minority.
It is important to note that I am not glossing
over the slight (or stagnant) improvements
newsrooms have made in hiring more
journalists of color over the past decade.
However, without diverse people holding
management and important decisionmaking positions within newsrooms,
their ideas and expertise are not always
effectively utilized. “You will have people of
color and women who have risen,” Carole
Jenkins, the founding president of the
Women’s Media Center in a recent WNYC
discussion said. “But if you look at who
covers the politics it remains still a very nonintegrated type of set-up.”
Had there been a more diverse press corps
on the campaign trail and/or more people
of color in leadership positions within
newsrooms, I believe the 2016 coverage and
outcomes so far would be different.
Wesley Lowery, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Washington Post reporter, said one major
failure of the media in 2016 was the inability
of outlets to recognize the legitimacy of
the Trump candidacy. “[This failure was]
in large part because political reporters
underestimated the racial animus among
many white voters,” Lowery said in an email
interview. “The largely white press corps
couldn’t fathom that such a large swath of
GOP primary voters would mobilize around
a candidate who trafficked such thinly veiled
declarations of racism and nativism. The
reporters of color I knew were much less
surprised.”
This topic does not necessarily equate to
a fun discussion, but I do believe it is an
issue that young journalist should be made
cognizant of at an early age. Perhaps if we
educate the next generation of journalists
of these issues early, we will not have to face
them again when they are the ones sitting in
the national editorial board meetings, on the
press corps buses or network anchor chairs.
BELOW ARE EXERCISES YOU CAN USE
WITH YOUR STUDENTS TO START CLASS
DISCUSSION ON THIS TOPIC:
• Watch small sections of any of the
presidential debates. Record the
questions asked of the candidates. To
whom do those questions mainly pertain?
Were some outlets’ questions more broadranging than others? Who was asking
the questions? Brainstorm questions
that were not asked that may be very
important to other populations that are
not present.
• Hold a mock-debate in your class. Let
a few students act as the candidates and
others act as journalists asking questions.
After a brief question and answer period,
analyze what questions the students
asked. Were they asked based on their
personal experiences or perspective?
What questions might other groups of
people have asked that were left out?
Eric Burse
Eric Burse is the former
Engagement Editor at
The Courier-Journal in
Louisville, Kentucky. Eric
was the 2012 National
Association of Black
Journalist Student
Journalist of the Year.
Email: eric.burse@gmail.com