2022 Diversity Audit Report (page 7)

NC Diversity Audit Analyst Workbook

A project of the NC Local News Workshop and the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media

This Audit Report Compiled by: Kaia Niambi Shivers, New York University

Organizational survey comments

This analysis was informed by Letrell Deshan Crittenden’s (2021) rubric to assess diversity and inclusion in newsrooms and The State of North Carolina’s Diversity Initiatives published by the NC Office of Human Resources. As well, this assessment employed the state’s report on its demographics, although there is a limitation in the data. Mainly, the Hispanic category is problematic because it leaves out portions of Latin American identity, namely those who are Lusophone, Francophone, or speak Kreyol/Creole, all of which might have some type of representation in the Latino communities of North Carolina.

Point 1: The ownership structures of newsrooms in the survey show a strong representation of nonprofit newsrooms, indicating that this type of organization relies on grant money that more than likely requires proof in showing practices of diversity and inclusion. In particular, in a post-racial upheaval in the U.S., it is critical that newsrooms offer transparency in staff demographics such as race, gender, sexuality and ability, as it will play significantly into the coverage and economic layout of working media professionals.

The independent local owner, I assume, is either a for-profit or non-profit entity that can overlap in other categories. This was a confusing category. Nonetheless, the second most noted news organization being independent reifies that local and hyperlocal news remains a critical part of the media landscape.

Independent and private companies, in my opinion, tend to lean more in partisan papers which can report news focusing on a specific perspective or political purview. At the same time, they can provide needed reporting and coverage that is about or from communities that are under-represented in the mainstream media.

Point 2: Locations of participating newsrooms show an over-representation of counties housing the most populous and diverse cities in the state. In these counties, there is a visible representation of both Black/African-American and Hispanic. That said, the concentration of counties represented leaves out the rural portions of the state, and the multitude of Black, Indigenous and Hispanic news representation.

Point 3: Platforms published by participating news organizations show an overall noticeable decrease in newsrooms, though there is a movement to the digital. On one hand, this gradually pushes out the traditional or older readers, such as the Baby Boomer generation. Plus, it causes concern for areas in the state that are not as technologically equipped, or those potential readers who cannot access the internet consistently. While from another angle, the newsroom is tasked with the ability to transform in the expanding digital reliance on reporting, and how news can be delivered and constructed that considers its audience and the areas it covers. This also poses both a challenge and an opportunity for newsrooms to hyperfocus on local issues and the communities within the State.

Point 4: Most subjects reported as being either news staff or production staff, showing respondents who are in some of the most labor-intensive sections of news organizations. While there are high numbers of production and news, the numbers of engagement staff to the ratio of production employees create issues in addressing and creating, then establishing a diverse newsroom of ideas, representation and overall inclusivity.

Moreover, the limited presence of engagement staff runs the risk of a news organization’s ability to gauge the emotional well-being and feelings of inclusivity by overall staff, thus fostering the opposite.

Another point to note is the issue with newsroom culture being situated in a white, patriarchal, middle-class purview. To transform means there must be adequate engagement staff and leadership to do so. Often, diverse staff must enter a culture and climate that is not only foreign, but hostile in them growing as productive contributors to the newsroom.

Point 5: High number of freelancers, and in particular, new freelancers and contractors indicate a high turnover rate. Noted in the reports were a higher number of African American and Hispanic/Latinos in their positions fairly recently when compared to their white counterparts. This shows that career longevity must be a focus to increase and maintain diverse newsrooms.

In general, freelancers can destabilize companies, and definitely disrupt attempts to implement and normalize newsroom culture that is inclusive, diverse, and more importantly, equitable. Additionally, white males tended to lead in hires across the board, including freelance positions. Again, this stronghold reduces the States overall potentiality to offer a robust representation of its constituents at news organizations; and in particular, around coverage of politics, culture, gender/sexuality and community at such high stakes moments.

On another note, gay men showing slightly higher numbers as freelancers also brings to note as to LGBTQ open representation in the newsroom, but also bears questions to the visibility of lesbians, queer and those who identify as non-binary. Included, the gay men tend to skew more towards white, which still infers the power brokers and economic stability remain moreso with white males.

Point 6: Gender of staff shows a robust respondent being women. While this exhibits an increase in gender representation that parallels the 2020 Census Bureau’s reporting on the percentage of female persons (51%), in the newsroom, female staff are usually not in leadership positions. Additionally, the audit report must be informed by the 2018 status of women and earnings. The data indicates that while women increased in sharing the workforce, the higher representation of women indicates more evidence of economic disparities. In North Carolina, on average, women make $8,600 less than men. Conclusively, while women are visible in news organizations, their pay, their record of promotion and their responsibilities in the newsroom run the risk of showing a gender gap.

Point 7: Racial representations show white and Black representation in the newsroom aligned with the U.S. Census 2020 data (whites 70.1; blacks 22%). Although news organizations are located in counties with the most visible Hispanic residents, the representation of Hispanic and/or Latino is significantly lower than census figures. When understanding the Hispanic and Latino demographic in an agricultural state such as North Carolina, there needs to be an account for that representation in newsrooms. Plus, the absence of a significantly visible group points to issues of language barriers and cultural exclusion in the professional space and in news programming, and the invisibility of a Hispanic and Latino professional class in the media.

Furthermore, the high percentage of white representation must also note the generations of white political blocs and administrative regimes that systemically ran African Americans out of North Carolina following Emancipation. The most popular effort is the 1898 Wilmington massacre. Yet and still, there have been efforts prior to and certainly following that occurred outside of East North Carolina, and were not exclusive towards Black Carolinians. This must take into account the racial demographics of North Carolina and who and how one reports. Simultaneously, it should also be reflected in understanding the survey outcomes as those racial and economic pressures still persist, and might play out in respondent’s answers.

Point 8: With the reporting of those with disabilities having more than one ability issue, there must be in place a newsroom that accommodates a population that largely remains on the margins, but are very present.

Brief final thoughts: Platforms moving to the digital offer a promising landscape to grow more diversity in the newsroom. Because digital operations can reduce the costs of brick and mortar spaces, it can open up the hiring pool for the overwhelming numbers of news entities that reported 10 or less staff. On the other hand, companies can position themselves as extracting more labor from modestly-filled news staff by requiring more work for employees. Subsequently, it creates the potential risk of a reduction of staff.

At the same time, print news is still palpable in North Carolina. There wasn’t enough information showing what populations consume print versus digital, but previous studies suggest that younger populations tend to consume media on their phones. Nonetheless, newsrooms must adjust to the changes demands of its readership, while also balancing the tech-divide that is very much a reality in states with large rural populations like North Carolina.

While women are strongly represented in newsroom diversity, the milieu runs the risk of the population that most benefited from affirmative action: white women. The organization also shows more newsrooms that reported, are located in the metro areas. While most North Carolinians live in the metro, there still is a significant population of those residing in rural parts of the state (10,551,162 people – with 2,154,273 people living in rural North Carolina, according to the USDA-ERS).

Future questions: What type of progress, policies and activities put in place, and as stated by NC Diversity Initiatives, will newsrooms commit to in fostering inclusivity and diversity?

Future ramifications: The disproportionate numbers in diversity representation harkens the conversation back to the 1968 Kerner Commission, and studies after that have repeatedly expressed the issues of diversity in the newsroom. The most glaring gap is the lack of Hispanic and Latino incorporation into the newsroom. At the same time, the miniscule representation of Asians and Native peoples must be duly noted too.

If the newsrooms do not accommodate the growing Hispanic and Latino population with newsroom representation, which ultimately points to news coverage, the news landscape in the State will suffer more financial loss and the consequences of a skewed organization that does not represent its constituents.

Individual Survey Results

Point 1: While digital shows low numbers, there is still a growing number of consumers for that platform. That said, it raises the question about how many print newspapers and public radio use websites and social media as auxiliary ways to reach their audiences.

Point 2: There is an over-representation of white women in the report on demographics, which makes the author of this analysis underscore the problems in reporting, gender-gap pay, and newsroom culture. While white women are certainly a minority group, they share households and perspectives with white male counterparts. But also, this shows the ability for white women to use media as a way to navigate a career, while contributing to the racial-wealth gap in the U.S.—meaning white women have found the media as a career inroad.

Another glaring part of the report is the 30% of respondents who reported a disability, but out of that only 3% sought accommodations. This indicates a newsroom culture situates itself in an environment ableism.

Point 3: A representation of heteronormative respondents places newsrooms at risk in how LGBTQ stories are covered, and how many.

Point 4: The reports show that white, heterosexual men still represent the group that has the most stability in the newsroom, and the most opportunities for promotion, leadership and career longevity. In turn, that allows economic stability for few, all the while, cultivating a newsroom that fits their perspective and worldview. Overall, the newsroom holds space for this privileged group.

On another note, career longevity shows Black, white and Hispanic staff had a median of 10 and 11 years as media makers, but they only worked one to three years at the current organization of which they reported. This unsettling trend indicates an issue with representation in terms of the power brokers in newsrooms, which inevitably impact reporting and if it covers the spectrum of life.

Subsequently, that maintains newsroom diversity issues such as the “cherished newsroom myth” (Jenkins, p.5) and a “News coverage routinely reflecting mythical common sense about the events of the day.” In addition, other issues connected to the representation are jobs such as editors, engagement staff, and management. Of other importance, the lack of media makers of color in management positions makes it impossible for them to learn the business of media, and make important connections if they decide to start their own news organizations.

Point 5: On the other hand, this shows that the path to cultivate a career in the news for media makers of color and women is still a volatile terrain, albeit white women over-represent in numbers. This is evident at the invisibility of Blacks/African Americans in the engagement staff, and low numbers of women and Hispanic/Latino employees in the same area. For newsrooms, the lack of engagement runs the risk of a newsroom neglecting to build a news ecosystem providing holistic and inclusive reporting.

Point 6: At the same time, the noticeable number of contractors and freelancers shows that white males also lead in this category, which brings to question, where are media makers of color situated in roles, responsibilities, and pay?

Point 7: Who runs and rules the newsroom? The data shows that largely, male representation demands both the newsroom and leadership positions. This bears the concern towards discussions regarding media narratives, the lens by which news is reported, and the masculinist space reified in its culture. More glaringly, the limited presence of women and more so black women, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander and non-binary peoples.

Point 8: This also points to the income scale in the data which skews more towards those who make $50,000 and less. Part of the issue of sustainability is providing fair and sustainable wages for jobs demanding high performance, long hours, and unaccounted physical labor in traveling, even locally. When reporters’ experience income volatility, inevitably it affects reporting and newsroom culture. Moreover, it retains inequitable power at news organizations.

Point 9: While $50,000 might translate as decent pay in parts of North Carolina, in the metro areas, where most of the reporting news agencies of the survey are located, the rise in the cost of living will strain the bracket of income. Furthermore, news organizations have been known to overwork and first-fire those who are at the lowest part of the hierarchical structure in a news organization; especially when they implement austerity measures in the organization.

Point 10: Another issue emerging is how and who is on the ground covering underrepresented communities when there is a dearth in representation. Because longstanding, problematic relationships between the press and communities of color, it is imperative to have those represented in the newsroom—from editors to reporters, to engagement, and definitely leadership. Ultimately, you can tell how a paper covers a community when reporters go into the community for stories. Often their silence indicates a history of neglect and imbalanced coverage. That said, even the most well-meaning reporter has blindspots culturally, economically and from other purviews.

Point 11: Another important process that needs further revision is the representation of those who identify within the range of sexual identities. The presence of these groups are critical in understanding and transforming the language around sexuality and identity in reporting and the society culture. In particular, those who identify in these categories are imperative in providing insight for newsrooms to map out important earmarks of their stories such as language and how to identify. Again, this brings up questions of how invested agencies are in engagement and trust, as pointed out in Crittenden’s rubric.

Point 12: The report indicated that most respondents expressed feeling a sense of belonging points to a strong sentiment of feeling valued. At the same time, the definition of a “sense of belonging” ranges, thus it is hard to gauge in the closed ended survey. A question about what programs and policies that intentionally focus on equity and inclusion would augment or in more ways, provide more depth in belongingness.

Brief final thoughts: There is much work to be done, yet there is so much power in transformation..

Future questions: How will news organizations provide more value in their investments of representation and restructuring a newsroom that is reflective of the world it reports?

Future ramifications: The demographics of the U.S. are rapidly changing. Those organizations that remain immobile in profound structural change run the potential of being left behind. Many organizations have existed in such strict boundaries that often where to start in peeling back years of implicit biases will take years of concerted effort that must incorporate in full, the communities they report on. In particular, the state’s past of generations of discriminatory practices also must be remedied in news agencies. While North Carolina is at a crossroads, its newsrooms can be a template of progress.