Who’s Telling the News

2004 Newsroom

Diversity Census Report

Ryerson University

School of Journalism

Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors

November 2004

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who’s telling the news

Contents

Introduction

Key findings

Questions for discussion

Diversity in other media

Background

Research method

References

The Authors

John Miller is professor of newspaper journalism at Ryerson University. His 1994 diversity census of Canadian daily newspapers established a baseline for this similar survey 10 years later. Miller is former deputy managing editor of the Toronto Star who teaches reporting and covering diversity at Ryerson. His work won the School of Journalism the 2003 Award of Excellence from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

Caron Court is a former marketing professional who is in her graduating year in Ryerson’s journalism program. She was research assistant on this project.

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Introduction

Why we need to measure

diversity in newsrooms

.

By John Miller and Caron Court

In the decade between 1991 and 2001, Canada’s population underwent a profound demographic change. The percentage of Canadians who identify themselves as either Aboriginal or visible minority increased from 11.7 to 16.7. This was mainly due to three unprecedented factors: High immigration from non-white countries, a low birthrate among Canadian-born adults, and a 50 per cent increase in the number of Canadians who identify themselves as Aboriginal (from 625,710 in 1991 to 976,305 in the 2001 census).

Along with the increased numbers, settlement patterns changed. Non-whites spread out from their traditional Toronto-Vancouver-Montreal concentrations. An analysis of Statistics Canada census data shows that 28 communities in five provinces have non-white populations of more than 20 percent, including Port Moody, B.C., Calgary, Winnipeg, Markham, Mississauga and Saint-Laurent, Quebec. Several others are approaching that point.

This has put pressure for change on many major institutions across Canada, which was the first country in the world to enshrine official multiculturalism in its constitution. Educational and financial institutions, the justice system and police forces, and major industries are facing demands to better reflect these changing demographics in their workplaces. Some are doing nit proactively, because they recognize the business case for diversity, and are tapping in to the fastest growing segment of our society. Others recognize that in an environment that is increasingly global, diversity in the workplace leads to creativity in the market. Other institutions fall under the federal Employment Equity Act, and are required to report every year on their workplace demographics and hiring strategies.

One academic hopefully calls this process “the multicultural reconstruction of Canadian society.” (Fleras 1995, 406) One institution playing a key role in this is the mass media, which millions of Canadians rely on to be their window on societal change. Dismayed by what they see as stereotypical or non-inclusive coverage, racial minority communities (as women did before them) have criticized how newspapers, television stations and advertisers depict them. Some critics point to the fact that newsrooms are still largely dominated by white males at a time when the communities they cover are increasingly diverse (Gist 2000).

While they still have a long way to go to mirror the diversity in their communities, some media organizations are getting the message. A key catalyst for change has been the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulates broadcasters. As a condition of license renewal, the CRTC expects television networks to fulfill obligations under the Broadcast Act to fairly depict Canada’s multicultural society. Eighteen years of compliance with the Employment Equity Act has forced federally regulated companies, such as broadcasters, to address the diversity of their work forces. Some progress, in the form of increased representation on air, is evident on nightly television news.

Less is happening in the offices of daily newspapers which, with their larger news-gathering staffs and more local focus, still set the news agenda for the Canadian media.

Newspapers are not regulated like broadcasters nor do they fall under equity legislation. Many do not even formally compile statistics on the gender and race of their employees. As multicultural groups reach critical mass in many communities, they look first to daily newspapers to reflect their reality, and many do not like what they see (Goldfarb 1995).

Content and discourse analyses have identified problems and blind spots in news coverage (Henry and Tator 2002, Miller 1998). This study examines staffing: Who’s telling the news? How many racial minorities and Aboriginals gather the news for Canada’s daily newspapers? Does their representation in newsrooms match the levels in their communities? Is there diversity through the ranks, among supervising editors as well as reporters, copy editors and photographers? Do hiring editors have a strong commitment to making their staffs more representative? Do recent hiring trends show progress in that regard? Are newspapers feeling pressure from their communities to change? If so, how many are doing something about it?

The study attempts to set the stage for discussions that might take place within the newspaper industry, and among newspapers, educational institutions and community groups.

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Key findings

Minorities in society: 16.7%

Minorities in newsrooms: 3.4%

Racial minorities have slightly increased their presence in the newsrooms of Canada’s daily newspapers in the last decade, according to a survey done by researchers at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism. Non-whites now constitute 3.4 per cent of the newsgathering staffs of 37 papers that returned questionnaires, compared to 2.6 per cent of staff at papers which responded to a similar survey in 1994.

Now the bad news: The gains do not keep pace with the huge increase of non-whites in the Canadian population. People of colour, including Aboriginals and those who self-identify as visible minorities, made up 16.7 percent of the population in the 2001 Canada Census, up from 11.7 percent in 1991. So the gap between minorities in the newsroom and in the communities they serve has widened during the last 10 years.

Moreover, significant gaps in minority employment exist in all circulation groupings, not just at the biggest papers. On average, at any given daily newsroom in the country, minorities are more than six times under-represented.

Chart One

Minorities in Community vs. Newsroom

Large gaps exist in every circulation category.

Circulation	% Minorities in Population	% Minorities in Newsroom
Over 100,000	24.7	4.1
25,000- 100,000	14.5	2.2
Under 25,000	6.9	1.0

Note: Percentages of minorities in population are only for cities of newspapers that answered survey

The research was carried out in summer and fall, 2004, by Professor John Miller and researcher Caron Court. Questionnaires were sent out to managing editors at 96 of the country’s 102 dailies. The response rate of 38 per cent was disappointing, said Miller, especially since the research was endorsed by the Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors.

This year’s census included gender, which was not measured in 1994 when Miller and researcher Kimberly Prince did the first diversity census for what was then the Canadian Daily Newspaper Association. It shows that 34 per cent of news professionals in 2004 are female.

Among the highlights of the 2004 Newsroom Diversity Census:

Only 72 minorities were identified by managing editors as being on staff at 37 daily newspapers in all 10 provinces. Total staff at those papers was 2,119. This compared to 41 papers that answered a similar questionnaire in 1994, identifying 67 minorities in a total staff of 2,620. The difference in staff size is accounted for by the fact that some large newspapers that reported in 1994 chose not to do so this time. In fact, 21 newspapers in the 1994 survey did not return questionnaires this time. This made direct comparison difficult. To get an indication of how much has changed in newsrooms in 10 years, we identified newspapers that answered both questionnaires, and compared their newsroom staffing for diversity and gender over the period (see Chart 2). This included six papers in the over-100,000 circulation group, three in the 25,000-100,000 group, and 10 in the under-25,000 circulation group.

Chart Two

Changes in staffing over 10 years

Over 100,000 Circulation

	2004 (Total#)	2004 (%)	1994 (Total#)	1994 (%)	Change in #
Papers	6		6
Total supervisors	246	(%)	158	(%)	88
Minorities	10	4.1	8	5.1	2
Women	72	29.3	-	-	-
Minority Women	1	0.4	-	-	-
Total reporters	520	(%)	533	(%)	-13
Minorities	31	6	12	2.3	19
Women	211	40.6	-	-	-
Minority Women	12	2.3	-	-	-
Total copy editors	314	(%)	280	(%)	34
Minorities	7	2.2	4	1.4	3
Women	122	38.9	-	-	-
Minority Women	4	1.3	-	-	-
Photographers/artists	105	(%)	105	(%)	0
Minorities	9	8.6	8	7.6	1
Women	26	24.8	-	-	-
Minority Women	2	1.9	-	-	-
Total staff	1185	(%)	1076	(%)	109
Minorities	57	4.8	32	3	25
Women	431	36.4	-	-	-
Minority Women	19	1.6	-	-	-

Changes in staffing over 10 years

25,000-100,000 Circulation

	2004 (Total#)	2004 (%)	1994 (Total#)	1994 (%)	Change in Total #
Papers	3		3
Total supervisors	30	(%)	36	(%)	-6
Minorities	0	0	1	2.8	-1
Women	8	26.7	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total reporters	56	(%)	80	(%)	-25
Minorities	2	3.6	1	1.3	1
Women	22	39.6	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total copy editors	28	(%)	42	(%)	-15
Minorities	0	0	1	2.4	-1
Women	7	25.5	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total photographers/artists	15	(%)	23	(%)	-8
Minorities	0	0	2	8.7	-2
Women	4	26.7	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total staff	128	(%)	181	(%)	-53
Minorities	2	1.6	5	2.8	-3
Women	41	32	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-

Changes in staffing over 10 years

Under 25,000 Circulation

	2004 (Total#)	2004 (%)	1994 (Total#)	1994 (%)	Change in Total #
Papers	10		10		0
Total supervisors	29	(%)	45	(%)	-16
Minorities	1	3.4	0	0	1
Women	5	17.2	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total reporters	74	(%)	78	(%)	-4
Minorities	1	1.4	1	1.3	0
Women	21	28.4	-	-	-
Minority Women	1	1.4	-	-	-
Total copy editors	30	(%)	33	(%)	-3
Minorities	0	0	0	0	0
Women	6	20	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Photographers/artists	19	(%)	21	(%)	-2
Minorities	0	0	1	4.8	-1
Women	1	5.3	-	-	-
Minority Women	0	0	-	-	-
Total staff	152	(%)	177	(%)	-25
Minorities	2	1.3	2	1.1	0
Women	33	21.7	-	-	-
Minority Women	1	0.7	-	-	-

In this direct paper-to-paper comparison, we see that 57 of the 61 minority journalists work for the largest newspapers, with the biggest gains being in the job category of reporter (31 positions, up from 12). Minority managers – those key people who set the news agenda – seem to be scarcer at the largest papers than they were in 1994. Minorities also seem to have less presence than they did 10 years ago at the three medium (25,000-100,000 circulation) newspapers that we compared. They remain largely excluded from the staffs of under-25,000 circulation papers. This seems to indicate that minorities do not benefit from the traditional training ground that reporters, editors and photographers find at smaller papers.

What’s interesting in this comparison is the decline in the total number of jobs in the newsrooms of medium and small newspapers in the last 10 years. While the staffs of larger metropolitan papers have increased, there are 35 percent fewer supervising editors at under-25,000 circulation papers than there were in 1994; at medium-sized papers, the reporting staff has been cut by 31 percent and copy editors by 37 percent. Overall staff levels at the medium-sized papers have been cut by nearly one-third.

These figures also show that women are more likely to be represented in all job categories at large papers than they are at medium or small papers. This holds true for minority women, who are largely absent in medium and small newsrooms. Overall, women’s representation increased from 28 per cent of news gatherers in 1994 (Robinson and Saint-Jean 1998), to 34 percent at the newspapers polled in 2004 (see Chart 3).

Chart Three

Gender in the Newsroom

· There are 6 percent more women working at Canadian dailies than 10 years ago.

· The percentage of women in the Canadian labour force was 46.4% in 2003.

Gender	1974* (%)	1994* (%)	2004 (%)
Women	21	28	34
Men	79	72	66

*From a study by Gertrude Robinson and Armande Saint-Jean

When we look more closely at the 72 minority journalists identified as full-time news gatherers at the 37 newspapers which answered the survey this time, we see some notable under-representations (see Chart 4). Chinese were the largest minority grouping, with 27 journalists employed, followed by 16 South Asians and an equal number of Blacks. But there was only one journalist representing the second-largest non-white group in the general population – Aboriginal people, at 3.29 percent. That means Aboriginal Canadians are 70 times less likely to be employed by daily newspapers than their numbers in society would seem to warrant, a shockingly bad inclusion rate and one that may help explain the endemic stereotyping and marginalization of native people in the press.

Chart Four

Racial Groups in Newsrooms

Racial Group	Total number of positions in 2004	Total number of positions in 1994	Change
South Asian	16	13	+3
Chinese	27	17	+10
Black	16	16	0
Filipino*	3	-	-
Arab/West Asian*	2	-	-
Latin American	3	2	+1
Aboriginal	1	4	-3
Other**	4	15	-11

*Not measured in 1994.

**Other included Filipino and Arab/West Asian in 1994.

Given the slow progress women have made in reaching critical mass in newsrooms, it is useful to study recent hiring trends to see if the same pattern may be facing minority journalists. Editors were asked to account for their full-time and part-time newsroom hiring for the past year. As we see (Chart Five), editors in all three circulation groupings did considerable hiring during this time, but hiring diversity was only evident in the large and medium newsrooms, and more often for part-time positions than permanent, full-time jobs (see Chart 5). All 17 full-time and 35 part-time hires at under-25,000 circulation newspapers were white. In fact, 22 out of 37 newspapers (59 percent) reported all-white staffs in 2004, up from 16 of 41 (39 percent) in 1994. In the United States, where this has been monitored since 1978, only 34 percent of newsrooms still are all-white (Dedman and Doig 2004)

It’s interesting to note that, although the newspapers collectively hired 89 full-time and 192 part-time newsroom staff in the past year, nearly half (16 of 37) agreed with the statement that “we’re not hiring anyone.”

Chart Five

Hiring in last year

· How many minorities did you hire for full-time and part-time positions?

Type of Position	Circulation Category	Over 100,000	25,000-100,000	Under 25,000
Full-time	Total Hires	49	23	17
	Minorities	5	2	0
	% of Minorities	10.2	8.7	0
Part-time	Total Hires	125	32	35
	Minorities	27	4	0
	% of Minorities	21.6	12.5	0

FACT: 59% of daily newspapers

have all-white news staffs, including

one in the largest circulation group

What is the commitment to hire minorities at daily newspapers? In contrast to 1994, when 26.8 percent of editors in all three circulation groups said they had a “very strong” desire to hire a diverse staff, only 13.5 percent felt the same way in 2004. The largest dropoff was in medium papers (see Chart 6). The most common reason given by the papers is that they “hire the best person regardless of race or gender.” Most often, the “best person” is white. Many papers said there aren’t enough minorities in their area for diversity to be an issue.

Chart Six

Commitment to hire

· How strong is your commitment to hire more racial minorities in your newsroom?

Level of Commitment	Circulation Category	2004	1994
Very Strong	Over 100,000	33.3	45.5
	25,000-100,000	12.5	40
	Under 25,000	5	10
	Total	13.5	26.8
Somewhat Strong	Over 100,000	66.7	45.5
	25,000-100,000	37.5	40
	Under 25,000	45	45
	Total	48.7	43.9
Not Very Strong	Over 100,000	0	9.1
	25,000-100,000	25	20
	Under 25,000	45	40
	Total	29.7	26.8

A majority of managing editors agreed with the statement that “minorities just don’t apply here.” Yet none of them mentioned taking any steps to ensure they were attracting minority candidates, such as recruiting at journalism schools or ethnic publications. None said they were training existing staff, including minorities, to take newsroom leadership roles. The responsibility for getting jobs seems to be shifted to the minority journalists rather than taken on as a recruiting challenge for the paper. Asked how minorities could improve their chances of getting hired, the editors most often said “just apply.”

The survey also asked if editors felt their newsroom’s tradition and culture are impeding the hiring and progress of minorities, and they were almost unanimous: No, it was not (Chart 7).

Chart 7

Impact of Newsroom Culture

· Do you feel your newsroom’s tradition and culture are impeding the hiring and progress of minorities?

Circulation Category	Yes (%)	No (%)
Over 100,000	0	100
25,000- 100,000*	0	87.5
Under 25,000*	10	85

*Note: The missing percentages are from papers in the category not answering the question.

When asked what is standing in the way of minorities being hired, 54 percent of the papers cited a lack of minority applicants, and 34 percent cited minimal hiring and low turnover of existing staff. Only two papers said there were no problems standing in the way.

The good news is that a majority of Canadian editors now believe that journalism schools are producing qualified visible minority candidates. Fifty-seven percent (21 of 37) agreed with that statement.

The best stimulus for a newspaper to take initiatives to improve coverage of minorities is the most obvious one: When it gets complaints about coverage. There was a very close correlation between the number of papers reporting such initiatives and the number that had been approached by one or more racial minority groups within the past year to discuss coverage. Most often, the reason for the approach was “problems with coverage.” The second most-cited reason was the lack of diversity of staff. This indicates that minority communities can achieve results when they take their concerns to the editors (see Chart 8)

Chart 8

Community Response

· Has your paper been approached by any racial minority group in the past year to discuss coverage?

Circulation Category	Yes (%)	No (%)
Over 100,000	77.8	22.2
25,000- 100,000*	25	62.5
Under 25,000	10	90

*Note: 12.5% of papers in the 25,000-100,000 circulation category did not answer this question.

Newsroom Response

· Has your paper taken any initiatives to improve the hiring and coverage of minorities?

Circulation Category	Yes (%)	No (%)
Over 100,000	88.9	11.1
25,000- 100,000*	25	62
Under 25,000	30	60

*Note: The missing percentages are from papers in the category not answering the question.

Eighty percent of the newspapers agree that diversity coverage is a job for everyone, and it shouldn’t depend on hiring diverse reporters.

Eight of the nine papers in the largest circulation group, two out of eight in the middle group and six out of 20 of the smallest papers managed to list at least one initiative to improve coverage, outreach and recruitment of minorities. This represented a decline from the number of papers that responded to a similar question in 1994. Many of the mentions were general, such as “increased awareness resulting in more diverse coverage” or “younger reporters are more in touch with younger readers.” Four papers mentioned efforts to increase diversity through internship programs. Three mentioned establishing “diversity beats.” Two others have hired minority columnists to write about issues relevant to their communities, and a similar number have appointed external editorial advisory boards.

There was a significant shift of opinion in 10 years when editors were asked, “Do you feel you and/or your top managers need more background knowledge on race and ethnocultural relations to effectively manage your newsroom?” Only six of 37 papers (16%) answered yes. Five of them were in the over-100,000 circulation category. In 1994, 19 of the 41 papers (46%) answered yes to that question.

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Questions for discussion:

1. Should the racial make-up of our newsrooms matter? Why?

2. Do we think there is any connection between the presence of diversity in newsrooms and inclusive coverage of minorities in the newspaper?

3. If you think there is a connection, and if it’s going to take a long time to make our newsrooms more representative, what can be done in the meantime to ensure fair and accurate coverage of minority communities?

4. Why has the commitment to hire a more diverse staff declined from 10 years ago?

5. Why do fewer papers mention specific diversity initiatives than did so 10 years ago?

6. Why is the racial representation in our newsrooms falling further behind the growth of non-whites in our population, in every circulation group?

7. What can be done about the striking under-representation of Aboriginals in the newsrooms?

8. “They don’t apply here” is the most-cited reason for little diversity in newsrooms. What can be done about that?

9. Do any further discussions or studies need to be undertaken?

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Diversity in other media

2002

News agency	Total employees	Visible minorities	Aboriginals	% Non-white
CFTO	1.080	134	8	13.0
Rogers Communications	1,864	287	20	11.0
CHUM Ltd.	2,086	187	22	10.0
Canadian Press	317	25	2	8.6
Craig Broadcasting	215	11	7	8.4
CBC	7,049	344	92	6.2

Source: Human Resources Development Canada, Employment Equity filings for 2002

Appendix A

Women by type of newsroom role 2004

Role	Circulation Category	Total # of positions	Total # of women (%)	Total # of minority women (%)
Supervisors	Over 100,000	298	93 (31.2)	1 (0.3)
	25,000-100,000	81	22 (27.2)	0 (0)
	Under 25,000	63	17 (27)	0 (0)
Reporters	Over 100,000	683	258 (37.8)	13 (1.9)
	25,000-100,000	138	52 (37.8)	0 (0)
	Under 25,000	155	54 (34.8)	1 (0.6)
Copy Editors	Over 100,000	379	146 (38.5)	6 (1.6)
	25,000-100,000	62	14 (22.8)	0 (0)
	Under 25,000	51	12 (23.5)	0 (0)
Photo/Artists	Over 100,000	147	35 (23.8)	2 (1.4)
	25,000-100,000	35	5 (14.3)	0 (0)
	Under 25,000	28	4 (22.5)	0 (0)

Appendix B

Minorities by type of newsroom role: 2004 and 1994

Role	Circulation Category	Total # of Positions	# Of Minorities (%) 2004	# Of Minorities 1994
Supervisors	Over 100,000	298	10 (3.4)	13 (5.4)
	25,000-100,000	81	1 (1.2)	2 (1.8)
	Under 25,000	63	1 (1.6)	1 (1.1)
Reporters	Over 100,000	683	33 (4.8)	20 (2.2)
	25,000-100,000	138	3 (2.2)	4 (1.8)
	Under 25,000	155	1 (0.7)	1 (0.6)
Copy Editors	Over 100,000	379	10 (2.6)	7 (1.5)
	25,000-100,000	62	3 (4.9)	1 (1.1)
	Under 25,000	51	1 (2)	2 (3.8)
Photo/Artists	Over 100,000	147	9 (6.1)	10 (6.3)
	25,000-100,000	35	0 (0)	2 (3.7)
	Under 25,000	28	0 (0)	4 (10)

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Background

Little research has been done to determine the racial diversity of Canada’s news gatherers, particularly those working for daily newspapers. The only comprehensive study (Canadian Daily Newspaper Association 1994) identified serious under-representation in 41 newsrooms, where only 67 (2.6 percent) of 2,620 news professionals were identified as non-white. The CDNA census was based on questionnaires returned by managing editors. The industry association, since renamed the Canadian Newspaper Association, has not done another survey since.

This under-representation of visible minorities and Aboriginals in the news media has been partially confirmed by a more recent survey that attempted to provide a demographic profile of Canadian journalists across all media (Sauvageau and Pritchard 1998). Their study relied on interviews with 554 randomly selected journalists from daily and community newspapers, television and radio stations, and found that the typical Canadian journalist was white (97 percent) and male (72 percent). It did not break respondents down into job categories, so there is no way of knowing how many were news gatherers (reporters, photographers) and how many were news managers, who decide what news gets covered.

Although Sauvageau and Pritchard found almost no variance in racial representation between newspaper journalists and those working in broadcasting, there is other evidence that minority representation tends to vary by news medium and by whether the news outlet operates in French or English. A content analysis done on 329.5 hours of news programming on Canada’s private television stations (Canadian Association of Broadcasters 2004) found that visible minorities represent 12.3 per cent of all appearances as anchors/hosts for English-language news. The comparable figure in French-language news programs was zero percent. The report compared these figures to the percentage of ethnic, racial and Aboriginal groups in the population: 19.3 in provinces outside Quebec; 7.9 in Quebec.

The content analysis done for the CAB did not look beyond what appears on the screen. No census was done to identify how many minorities make news decisions behind-the-scenes for Canada’s private broadcasters. But it did identify significant gaps in coverage, particularly of Canadians of Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Korean descent; and of Aboriginal Canadians, whose on-screen presence was less than 1 percent of the total, or one-third of their share of the Canadian population. Focus group participants interviewed as part of the research felt that the depiction of people from ethnocultural or Aboriginal backgrounds is often unbalanced. As a result of its research, the CAB became the first media industry group to adopt the goal of reflecting Canada’s diversity in its programming and workforce, and endorsed a series of “best practices” to measure progress.

There has also been no Canadian research on how many minority journalists are women. A significant gender gap among all journalists has been identified in the various levels of newsroom hierarchy (Robinson and Saint-Jean 1994). Women increased their representation in Canada’s daily newspaper and television newsrooms from 21 percent in 1974 to 28 percent in 1994. But that landmark research did not include race as a determinant, and it is 10 years old. What has happened to women’s representation since then, when they have outnumbered males in journalism schools and when the number of minority students has increased?

The United States is the leading country in measuring newsroom diversity and for naming diversity as a top priority. The American Society of Newspaper Editors conducts an annual census of America’s daily newspapers to measure the progress of minority journalists. The ASNE says its survey is a tool to measure progress towards its goal of having the percentage of minorities working in newsrooms equal to the percentage of minorities in the U.S. population by 2025. Minorities now make up 12.9 percent of newsrooms, compared to 31.7 percent of the U.S. population (ASNE 2004).

ASNE started tracking the percentage of women working at U.S. dailies in 2001. They declined slightly to 36.9 percent of newsroom staffs in 2003, although the number of minority women increased. Women are less likely to be supervisors or photographers than reporters or copy editors. In every racial category except for Asians, there are more minority men (63 percent) employed at U.S. dailies than women (37 percent). The largest minority group working at U.S. dailies is Blacks, while Native Americans are the least represented.

In his book The Global Journalist, David Weaver says race and gender in newsrooms have not received the study that they deserve. Fewer than half of the countries and territories in Weaver’s study reported a figure for racial and ethnic minority journalists, forcing him to conclude that little research has been done globally on this subject. Available data show the percentage of minority journalists is small, ranging from 1 percent to 11 percent (Weaver 1998). Weaver suggests the low figures reinforce the notion that journalists come predominantly from the established and dominant cultural groups in society. “This seems to hold true especially in Taiwan, Britain, and Canada and somewhat less so in Brazil, China, and the United States.” (Weaver, 460). Men are more typical than women in newsrooms in all 19 countries that reported gender proportions. The average proportion of women was 33 per cent.

Canadian scholars (Fleras And Kuntz 2001; Mahtani 2001) have called for more research into understanding the mechanisms through which distorted and stereotypical representations of ethnic minorities are produced in the media. In particular, there has been little done to investigate any direct correlation between the representation of visible minorities and women in newsrooms and the resulting news coverage. The argument for proportional representation of minority journalists rests on an assumption – that it will lead to more sensitive, more accurate coverage (Pritchard and Brzezinski 2004). Others (Fleras and Kunz 2001) argue that race and gender don’t matter as much as other factors: Journalists are still largely bound by the dominant cultures within which they operate, and adopt embedded prejudices, stereotypes and populist frames of thinking. There is even an argument that the problematizing of minorities by mainstream news media is systemic and structural, not individual and attitudinal (Fleras 2004). This would make it harder to identify and discuss, since the biases would tend to be unconscious ones.

The most influential study to link minority portrayal and hiring was the 1968 report of the Kerner Commission, formed by President Lyndon Johnson to explain the causes of the urban riots that swept the United States in the mid-1960s. It blamed the media for their failure to adequately report on black life and hire black journalists (Kerner 1968). That finding caused ASNE to start its impressive diversity effort, including the annual census of newspaper newsrooms. It is commonly agreed among journalists that a diverse newsroom staff strengthens news coverage and credibility. A 1996 survey showed that 86 percent of white U.S. journalists agreed with that notion.

Canadian research (Miller and Prince 1994) has measured the gap between newspaper coverage and minorities in the population. Their examination of photographs and news stories in six large Canadian newspapers found that coverage of minorities generally lagged behind their representation in society. The only exception was at the Montreal Gazette, where the news staff was deliberately reaching out to minority communities in an attempt to build circulation.

This effort – or the lack of it – seems to be noticed by minority communities. A 1995 focus group study conducted by Goldfarb Consultants for the Canadian Daily Newspaper Association found that over half of the ethnic minorities surveyed felt like they were either ignored or treated like foreigners in daily newspapers (Goldfarb 1995).

Two U.S. content analysis studies assessed the tone of coverage of minorities and compared it to prevailing attitudes and routines in newsrooms. Gist studied the effect of minority representation on news coverage at two U.S. newspapers where there was a gap of at least 10 percent between percentage of minorities in the newsroom and the community. Most coverage of minorities was negative. She suggests a reason: Determination of news is highly subjective, and “news judgment inevitably reflects the perceptual biases and cultural anchors of those making the judgment.” (Gist 2000, 56)

A more comprehensive study attempted to find the “connection between the climate in the newsroom regarding race and ethnicity, and the content of the newspaper or evening newscast” (Pease, Smith and Subervi 2001, 7). While a “straight-line” correlation wasn’t established between the diversity of the staff and the diversity of the news product, researchers found that “it does seem clear (that) the degree to which news managers can communicate their vision regarding diversity to the newsroom, and the degree to which the journalists and other employees buy into that vision, heavily influence whether news coverage will include the full diversity of the communities journalists serve” (Pease, Smith and Subervi 2001, 9).This seems to support the view that under-representation and mis-representation of minorities by the news media are not accidental; rather, they are messages conveyed to society by people who work for profitable corporations that share a strong interest in maintaining the way of life of the majority culture (Ungerleider 1991).

The literature does seem to call into question how cohesive our multicultural society can be when the demographics of our news gatherers lag so far behind the diversity of the general population. Focus groups interviewed for the CAB’s Task Force on Cultural Diversity were unanimous in saying that it is essential to reflect Canada’s diversity on television. Doing so fosters a sense of self-esteem and belonging. Lack of minorities in decision-making positions in newsrooms was identified in the report as a major barrier to cross-cultural understanding and coverage. “There was also a consensus that while representation has improved over the past five to 10 years, there is a clear desire for more: more representation, and more accurate portrayal.” (Canadian Association of Broadcasters 2004, 25)

The literature also seems to indicate that the personal cultural backgrounds of journalists would certainly tend to influence their selection of news to report, and how they’d be likely to frame it.

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Research method

A questionnaire was developed to allow for statistical comparison to the 1994 report done by Miller and Prince for the Canadian Daily Newspaper Association. We divided news gatherers into four main job categories, and listed seven of the largest racial minority groups as defined by Statistics Canada. Our intention was to compare the diversity of news professionals to the diversity of the population as determined by the most recent Canadian census, in 2001.

One category was added – gender. That was in keeping with the decision in 2001 by ASNE to keep track of men and women in key newsroom categories. It also allowed some comparison to the percentage of women in Canadian newsrooms compiled by Robinson and Saint-Jean in 1998.

Other questions coincided with ones in the 1994 CDNA report: How much hiring has your paper done in the past year; how strong is your commitment to hire more racial minorities in your newsroom; has your paper been approached by any racial minority group in the past year to discuss coverage; and describe any initiatives you have taken on coverage or hiring of non-whites. Two questions were designed to get at whether the editors felt that any newsroom traditions or culture are impeding the hiring and progress of minorities; and whether they feel their top managers need more background knowledge on race and ethnocultural relations to effectively manage your newsroom.

Respondents were also asked if they agreed or disagreed with several excuses cited most often by editors in the 1994 survey to explain the low numbers of visible minorities in their newsrooms, including “people of different races just do not apply here” and “The journalism schools don’t supply them.”

A list of managing editors was obtained from the Canadian Association of Newspaper Editors, which agreed to endorse the survey. Since the CANE list was incomplete, we used newspaper websites to identify others at key papers, eventually compiling a list of the chief newsroom editors of 96 of the country’s 102 daily newspapers published in either English or French.

Copies of the survey, translated into French for the newspapers on the list published in that language, were mailed out between the last week in May and the middle of June, 2004. The editors were promised that their papers would not be identified individually when the results of the survey were compiled. This was done to get the largest response possible, and to match the instructions given 10 years before. When an editor requested the survey by e-mail, that was done. Follow-up was handled by phone and e-mail when the initial deadline of June 15 expired. A second mailing of the survey was conducted in July, to overcome any disruption caused by the campaign for the Canadian federal election, held in June. Newspapers that did not respond were contacted at least three times by phone or e-mail.

Thirty-seven newspapers completed the questionnaires, a response rate of 38 percent. This compared to the 41 of 82 papers (50 percent) that responded in 1994.

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References

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Dedman, Bill and Stephen Doig. Does Your Newspaper’s Staff Reflect the Racial Diversity of the Community it Serves? A report for the Knight Foundation, 2004. Available at http://powerreporting.com/knight/top200.html.

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