NPR News Anchor And SU Alums Discuss Diversity In The Newsroom
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The National Public Radio news anchor, Laksmhi Singh, told college journalists that the increase of diversity in newsrooms is ‘painfully slow,’ in her lecture starting off the Race and Media Symposium at Syracuse University on Tuesday night.
“The bottom line at the time was that newsrooms were overwhelmingly white, and now, standing here 25 years later, the makeup has barely changed,” Singh said.
Singh said that increasing diversity in newsrooms has been a concerning issue since she graduated from Syracuse decades ago.
Singh said the problems with diversity can affect the media’s coverage of various events. In her speech, she remembered reading some news outlets that would commonly refer to Puerto Ricans as ‘immigrants’ in Hurricane Maria coverage even though they are U.S. citizens.
Singh believes “a newsroom diverse enough to reflect the communities it covers would catch that issue” and said the demographics are far off from showing that.
Laksmi Singh and SU Alums ring in the Race and Media Symposium by sharing their experiences and answering questions about diversity in the newsroom
Singh cited NPR’s demographics in their 2018 employment figures. She said 72% of NPR’s news and informational division are white and people of colour make up only 27%. She expressed that the change has been minimal.
“Newsrooms are in dire need of balance across racial, ethnic, and gender lines,” Singh said.
Singh recalled the interview Gayle King conducted with musician R. Kelly on ‘CBS This Morning.’ She said the NPR newscaster’s unit had a debate over the use of “towering” to describe when Kelly jumped out of his seat.
“Would we be talking about the physical aspects of that exchange if the subject was not a tall, black man,” she said.
Singh called these issues teachable moments for journalists and asked them to “confront their subtle biases.”
Singh was joined by five recent SU alums. Together, the six journalists answered questions from students and give their insights about being a young journalist of colour.
“What I fear is that we can be back here having these same freaking conversations, it’s exhausting.”
Lena Pringle, a morning anchor for WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida urged students to speak up about issues, learn to navigate the space and have intentional conversations.
“Being a double minority, there are certain ways that you just can’t move like everybody else,” Pringle said.
Elliot Williams, an assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine, said more people should come out to these events because issues with diversity need to be discussed.
“I think we need to get more people out. This should be a conversation that’s had with those that don’t want to have it,” he said.
Junior Colleen Ferguson believed that hearing young industry professionals was valuable.
“We really only scratched the surface of some pretty nuanced issues of diversity in newsrooms. It’s simply important to keep giving platforms and spaces to reporters of colour, through things like student media organizations, but also in the alumni,” she said.
Singh said conversations about race relations and diverse voices in the newsroom need to be continued.
“What I fear is that we can be back here having these same freaking conversations, it’s exhausting,” Singh said.
