previous | next | table of contents

The American Society of Newspaper Editors ¹ [ASNE]
Time Out For Diversity and Accuracy

For one week in May, more than 2,000 journalists set out to explore how accurately their news coverage reflects the diversity of their communities. They piled into buses to explore neighborhoods, coaxed people from churches and homes into their newsroom and pored over demographic information about their regions and their readers. They also looked inward assessing how well they choose their words, their sources, their page one stories and photographs.

This nationwide exploration was called The National Time-Out for Diversity and Accuracy, a project developed by the 1999 APME Diversity Committee with support from ASNE, The Freedom Forum and The Maynard Institute.

The committee sought to address dual desires of APME and ASNE and editors across the country: to confront and address our weakened credibility with readers and to better diversify our newsrooms and our news coverage.

The Time-Out's mission was simple: We asked newsrooms to spend a week exploring those two issues, in whatever way they wanted. We asked them to identify what they do well and areas that needed work. And we asked them to report back on what they found.

Soon after we began recruiting newspapers in March, the positive e-mail responses flooded in. By Time-out week, more than 150 newsrooms had signed on, as well as 43 bureaus of the Associated Press. The newsrooms were told to design their own diversity explorations. We provided discussion guides and audit forms. We sent out updates to participants, sharing ideas for Time-out activities, tips for audits.

Newsrooms responded creatively. The Jackson Sun staff went on a guided bus tour to learn more about the African-American history of the community. The Augusta Chronicle held meetings throughout their community. The Spokesman-Review brought in James McBride, author of "The Color of Water," for morning and afternoon workshops. At the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 18 groups of editors were assigned to look at specific coverage issues from different perspectives, including age, economics, religion and ethnicity. The Associated Press staff in Phoenix met with an expert on media, race and gender, who helped them set up a content analysis.

After Time-out week, editors were asked to complete a survey to share the comments and views of their staffs, to recount the results of their audits and to share ideas for improving coverage and newsroom structure. Most also pledged to continue their efforts in the coming months.

The surveys formed the basis for this report. Here are some highlights:

• Widespread participation: 150 newsrooms (newspapers, wire services) and 43 AP bureaus pledged to participate.
• Support for the premise: 92 of 96 reporting newsrooms agreed with our basic premise.
• Audits conducted: 60 newsrooms conducted audits - from full newspaper audits to self-audits on individual stories, photos and section fronts. While many newsrooms found they did a good job reflecting racial diversity of their communities, most reported that they rely too heavily on traditional, official sources and that reporters - and editors - need to spend more time outside of the office.
• Best practices identified: Every newspaper shared details of what's working in their newsroom to improve their organization and to improve coverage. They think about how to cover their beats - and whether to create new ones. They do regular audits of their work. They have diversity committees to explore issues of coverage, hiring and style. They have community forums. They include attention to diversity issues in performance evaluations.
• Commitment to change: Of those responding to the survey, 85 said they want to pursue the idea of reframing diversity as an issue of accuracy in their newsroom. And many of them shared their plans to do so in the coming months, either by continuing the forums and discussions that began during Time-out week or by re-creating beats, reviving diversity committees and renewing their commitments to report more completely on their communities. Beyond the specific goals of the project - to identify strengths and weaknesses in our newsrooms and to focus on ways we can improve - editors said the Time-out project had other effects as well. Many reported with pride on the honest, articulate and passionate discussions they witnessed as their staffs wrestled with the issues. Editors spoke of revelatory audits and newsroom surveys. Many said they felt a renewed sense of mission. For some newsrooms, the project discussions stirred up simmering concerns or old resentments, issues that need to be handled before moving ahead. Some identified conflicts within their newsrooms on issues of language, balance and fairness. And some questioned whether their commitment would last for only one week. For most of us, this project simply opened a discussion that we hope will continue.

Most newsrooms that responded to the survey reported that they want to work to improve their coverage and internal structures to better address the issues raised in their newsrooms during Time-out week. Of those responding to the survey, 85 newsrooms reported that they felt reframing the issue of diversity as an issue of accuracy was an idea they wanted to continue to pursue.

We think the Time-out helped many newsrooms get back on track on the issue of diversity and gave them a way to explore methods of improving their internal practices as well as their coverage.

We recommend that we conduct another Time-out in 2000, building on the gains we made this year and focusing more intensely on producing results in newsrooms and bureaus throughout the country.

The APME Diversity Committee members felt these two values - diversity and credibility - were linked and should be addressed together. They also wanted to reach beyond editors and into newsrooms to get journalists to change the way they look at diversity in two key ways:

• Consider diversity as an element of accuracy. We wanted to view diversity not as a value that is apart our core journalistic values but as part of the core:that without addressing diversity in our reporting and editing, we were somehow not fulfilling our missions to report accurately on the communities we cover.
• Create a broader definition of diversity. We felt our traditional understanding of diversity should be broadened to include elements beyond race and ethnicity: class, geography, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political ideology - and any other issues that help define people in our communities.

1. From the ASNE Web Site: http://www.asne.org/kiosk/diversity/1999timeout/exec.htm