CONTENTS
Executive Summary
Survey Results
The Premise
Audits
Selecting Sources
Best Practices: Coverage (Ideas at a glance)
Best Practices: Internal
Changing Coverage
Changing Newsrooms
Pursuing Diversity and Accuracy
Voices in the Newsroom
Appendix A: A Letter to Editors
Time-Out 2000
About this report
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Executive Summary
THE MISSION
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.
Thisnationwide 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.
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THE PROJECT
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.
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THE FUTURE
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.
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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 from 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.
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