borchardt10_PixsoozGetty Images_journalismmicrophones

The Necessity of Diversity in the Digital Newsroom

Jun 25, 2020 Alexandra Borchardt

Demographically uniform newsrooms have been producing uniformly homogeneous content for decades, and the lack of diversity in the media has actually worsened in recent decades. The most likely reason is that industry leaders continue to regard the digital transformation as a matter of technology and process, rather than of talent and human capital.

MUNICH – When a local radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina started a podcasting competition in its community, it was prepared for many contingencies, except one: that the response would overwhelm the station’s server. The initiative was aimed at increasing on-air diversity, and tens of thousands of people wanted in. Groups and individuals from all walks of life submitted more than 370 ideas for podcasts, and 33,000 listeners logged on to vote for them. What started as a one-time experiment will now be a regular feature.

Journalism has always suffered from a lack of diversity. Demographically uniform newsrooms have been producing uniformly homogeneous content for decades. And while editors around the world have increasingly recognized that this is a problem, too little has been done to address it.

One reason, ironically, is a preoccupation with digital change. “There has been so much focus on digital transformation in recent years, the question of diversity has had to stand aside,” explains Olle Zachrison of the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio, in a study comparing diversity efforts in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany. And yet, as the newsroom in Charlotte discovered, diversity is not just an added bonus; it is at the very core of audience engagement today.

We hope you're enjoying Project Syndicate.

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Already have an account? Log in

Support High-Quality Commentary

US President-elect Joe Biden may have promised a “return to normalcy,” but the truth is that there is no going back. The world is changing in fundamental ways, and the actions the world takes in the next few years will be critical to lay the groundwork for a sustainable, secure, and prosperous future.

For more than 25 years, Project Syndicate has been guided by a simple credo: All people deserve access to a broad range of views by the world’s foremost leaders and thinkers on the issues, events, and forces shaping their lives. At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, that mission is more important than ever – and we remain committed to fulfilling it.

But there is no doubt that we, like so many other media organizations nowadays, are under growing strain. If you are in a position to support us, please subscribe now.

As a subscriber, you will enjoy unlimited access to our On Point suite of long reads and book reviews, Say More contributor interviews, The Year Ahead magazine, the full PS archive, and much more. You will also directly support our mission of delivering the highest-quality commentary on the world's most pressing issues to as wide an audience as possible.

By helping us to build a truly open world of ideas, every PS subscriber makes a real difference. Thank you.

Subscribe Now

new comment has been posted. new comments have been posted.

0 Comments on this paragraph, 6 in all 6 Comments on this article

Elizabeth Pula Jul 9, 2020

The most likely failure is the "either/or" simplistic comparisons without much direction of "group-think" and further progression to "NO thought" at all.

BTW, the public has never only been a passive recipient of anything. You are a member of the public, or aren't you? Are you just a mindless XXXX, sitting on all fours waiting for the next "product" to be thrown in your face, or your mouth? Or better yet waiting for the muzzle to be removed from your face, your collar released from it's chain, and permission granted from your all-knowing master?
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Elizabeth Pula Jul 9, 2020

Unfortunately, you do not grasp the fact that we are not dealing with the simplistic level of "digital information as a commodity". The problem is not any superficial problem of audience loyalty to a few major platforms. The matter of survival is NOT audience loyalty, nor loyalty at all.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Elizabeth Pula Jul 9, 2020

Actually, not long ago, editorial choices were NOT guided necessarily by gut feelings and assumptions, only certain MSM network leadership were guiding and presenting messaging that was coming from an extremely low level of acknowledgement and confirmation of the awareness levels of the general viewing audience.
Unfortunately, in the US, especially FOX network, and then even the other major networks lost any level of responsibility to conform to reasonable standards of the original goals of the FCC, FTC, and US expectations of citizen lifestyles and acceptable behavior.

Unfortunately, globally, much of the aberrant behavior that has been promoted and adulated across the media networks is rooted in the predatory behavior of certain political/religious ideology. The predatory goals to undermine the idealism and principle of enlightenment have been, due to ignorance, supported by many people with good intentions by the deceptive practices in action by others from extremely bad intentions.

Principles of leadership significantly mean a little bit more than limited ability for reading text from a teleprompter prepared by any focused team of experts skilled in propagandizing strategized commercial or political messaging.

Actions do speak louder than words.

The contradiction of principles that has played out globally before the eyes of the public is sacrilegious to all scales of heart felt and sourced action/movement of any human beings.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Elizabeth Pula Jul 9, 2020

FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY.
A real message is really a little bit more than just playing to a mark.

The following example is starting to address the real problem. AND, it's not just simplistically based in only individual "personal choices." However, the example is pretty decent coming from talking faces from a certain perspective. At least somebody is acknowledging the essential need to present reasonableness while messaging.

Much of what the present POTUS has supported is the absolute worst and lowest form of "pandering to the mark", ultimately for his own personal gain, and absolutely not the nation, as a nation.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/07/27/cnns_don_lemon_bill_oreillys_criticism_of_black_community_doesnt_go_far_enough.html
A new reply to this comment has been posted.
Michael Public Jun 25, 2020

No. No. No. In media the reader is the user. The customers are the advertisers.
- Elizabeth Pula Jul 9, 2020
  
  Really, the "reader" and "commenter" is being used, and undermined, on all levels during the process of being used from bad intent on any present platform. That is a simplistic generalization, and not always valid due to circumstances beyond most of the smaller corporate and private entities that are attempting to establish operations in the present "paradigm" globally.
  
  AND, one important aspect of "media" that is globally forgotten is the real media, which is the telecommunication hardware, such as global cabling especially under the oceans. on poles, on towers, in the ground, and in the air-as satellites.
  A new reply to this comment has been posted.
A new reply to this comment has been posted.

https://prosyn.org/lZkQ1xh

Cookies and Privacy

The Necessity of Diversity in the Digital Newsroom

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

New Comment

Email this piece to a friend

Contact us

Log in/Register

Cookies and Privacy

The Necessity of Diversity in the Digital Newsroom

To continue reading, subscribe now.

Support High-Quality Commentary

Edit Newsletter Preferences

Set up Notification