Minorities in Media
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Stories featuring minorities in print and broadcast media have always been limited, causing some minorities groups to discontinue their consumption of news that they cannot relate to.
The Internet was suppose to fix this problem because it is has unlimited space and publishers.
Online culture is not held back by the institutionalized habits of legacy newsrooms, and this is a post-racial society.
Coverage is expected to cover all different lifestyles, including class, race, geography, generation, and gender.
A yearlong study by the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education examined mainstream online media and identified the coverage of different minority groups.
The conclusion was that online media still has the same problems as traditional media when it comes to covering minorities.
The Huffington Post featured the greatest diversity of stories. Salon and Slate came in last with the fewest stories covering diversity.
African Americans are the minority most covered, although many of these stories are about celebrities and athletes. Stories about Hispanics tend to focus on the issue of immigration.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, minorities are 36 percent of our population, but this statistics doesn't correlate with the amount of coverage minorities receive.
Photo Credit: Joseph Girmay
1 comments:
Inequality with minority groups has been an issue with representation and coverage in our news industry for some time. It is good to hear that percentages are increasing for more equality with these groups, but it does not seem to be rising as quickly as it should.
We have learned that diversity is an imperative piece to any successful paper, and this includes diversity in every facet. We should reward organizations that implement it all levels. Coverage, stories and staff should all be examined for equal representation to ensure that a wide variety of topics are being included and covered and therefore an expanded group of readers will result and hopefully continue to grow.
Post a Comment