Color Definition in Journalism

During class the past week, the issue of nonexistent minority journalists came up. It was interesting to learn how from 2010 to 2011 the number of minority journalists in newspapers dropped almost 1%. I'm not sure the exact statistics for the number of minority journalists in television, but I'm sure the statistics are slightly similar. However, I do believe that change is evident. My mother was a Mexican American TV anchor for the ABC affiliate station KVUE in Austin, TX for sixteen years. Through my investigation on the topic, I found an article titled "Are Minorities Getting a Fair Shot at Journalism Jobs?" through the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

My mother, Olga Campos Benz

The article opens up with a story about a young graduate journalism major's struggle to be taken seriously as a writer. The lack of diversity that I learned in class is clearly shown in the article as the author, Carolyn Toll Oppenheim, pushes to increase job opportunities and internships for minority journalists. Her drive and passion for this cause stems from her own experience working at The Chicago Tribune where diversity was appreciated. Much of the article contains commentary about the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and their failure to identify solutions to the minority dilemma. Even the few minority students that make it through the journalism curriculum still have pressures of being understood by the majority of white journalism students. I believe an overall change to the entire journalism system needs to be put into effect in order to help speed up the pace of change of diversity in journalism. A good example of a successful school implementing diversity acceptance is Wayne State University's Journalism Institute for Media Diversity. I included a diversity promo video that I found that truly captures their success.