Institutional Disconnects as Obstacles to Diversity in Journalism in the United States

Abstract

The 1968 Kerner Commission identified the monocultural perspective of US media as contributing to 1960s social unrest. Ten years later, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), a primary journalism gatekeeper, declared a mandate to diversify newsroom staff and news coverage. Journalism in the United States has been under this mandate for change for more than three decades. The year 2000 target date passed seriously short of achieving the diversity goal. Staffing demographics of 2013 show little promise for reaching the newer 2025 target. We suggest why only minimal, superficial diversification occurred during the last three decades, despite diversity goals promoted by journalism's professional associations and educational accreditation body. We conducted and helped to supervise in-depth interviews with 613 reporters, editors, and news directors from high-circulation newspapers, and radio and television broadcast newsrooms. We also examined journalism program descriptions and course syllabi. Finally, we reviewed professional association documents and reports, the ASNE newsroom census, and other studies. Findings indicate that such change requires a cohesive mission, consistent philosophical and material reinforcement of new values and practices, and changes in practitioner role definitions. These conditions must be met across relationships structuring the profession, and require “connectedness” among journalism institutions. Study results indicate that meaningful diversification of staff and news coverage is impeded by established newsroom culture and by the lack of structural mechanisms to facilitate such change. Findings indicate serious “disconnects” among the institutions of professional journalism, dissipating the “environmental pressure” for diversification and miring contemporary US newsrooms in outmoded monoculturalism.