As part of an RJI fellowship, Melba Newsome, an independent journalist and editor in Charlotte, North Carolina, will create a diversity training program that she will implement in newsrooms to help them include people of color and underrepresented groups in their reporting to be more reflective of the communities they serve.
The need for this training was affirmed in a recent survey conducted by a fellowship team led by Newsome. The objective of the survey was to determine, among other things, journalists' views on diversity in reporting, how this currently impacts their reporting and, based on where they are now, what kind of training will help them improve the diversity of their reporting.
A few findings:
- When given a list that included race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic, LBGTQ, geography, religion, age and socioeconomic status, the overwhelming majority of respondents selected race and/or ethnicity as the first determinant in diversity. Gender ranked a distant second and LBGTQ came in a close third.
- Asked about their efforts to include more diversity in their reporting, 91 percent of respondents said they either try to include diversity in every story where it seems natural or make it a priority for all of their reporting.
- Nearly one-third of all respondents said that the biggest obstacles to including more diverse sources was that they lacked a network of diverse sources and 15 percent say the crush of deadlines makes finding new people to interview more difficult.
Learn more about the survey and the fellowship project
