We want to accurately reflect life in our
communities. If our newspapers are not inclusive
enough to regularly portray the diversity of those
communities, then we are presenting a
fundamentally inaccurate report. That lack of
accuracy undermines our journalistic credibility.
It's our belief that using the language of the
newsroom -- taking a content-focused approach to
this diversity conversation -- will engage every
journalist who shares the basic value of accuracy.
We believe that reframing the issue can provide
motivation for significant change.
It's not our intention to undercut the business
case for covering a diverse community, nor to
diminish a principled commitment to recruiting and
retention. Moreover, we're aware that we're not
the first organization to think about diversity as
a journalism issue. In fact, without decades of
hard work by many to make our newsrooms more
inclusive, we wouldn't be at the point where we
can even have this conversation.
What do we hope to achieve with the Time-Out?
The discussion would focus on three areas:
1. Consider the disturbing reality that we are
being told -- and many of us acknowledge -- that our
daily reports are inaccurate. We want to raise
consciousness by reframing the conversation.
2. Celebrate the successes that have made our
newspapers more reflective of our communities and
codify those best practices for others. We want to
be a collection point for success stories.
3. Ask what more needs to be done and commit to
change. We want to encourage tangible results.
We're asking that you sponsor staff meetings,
brown bags, pizza parties, whatever works for you.
The purpose is to debate the premise we've
presented and to see what changes -- if any -- you
might want to make to achieve a higher degree of
accuracy and authenticity in your daily report.
The diversity committees of APME and ASNE, working
with the Maynard Institute and the Freedom Forum,
will furnish you the following:
* A set of discussion guidelines, including
suggestions for change that have worked at some
newspapers.
* Three audit forms, enabling your newspaper to
dive deeply into empirical data --or to just skim
the surface.
Tailor the Time-Out to your newsroom and your
staff
We encourage every newsroom to take its own
approach. The audit tools and guidelines are yours
to use, to ignore or to modify. If you'd rather
define reflecting a diverse community as
thoroughness or fairness, rather than accuracy,
fine. The key is to view diversity through a
journalism lens. And we're defining diversity
broadly, encompassing ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, age, socio-economic class, religion
and political affiliation.
This goal is not to create quotas or quick fixes
for the sake of political correctness. The goal is
an earnest effort at being more accurate. In many
cases, structural fixes (beats, teams, shifting
focus to different city council districts) or
heightened consciousness (What mall does a
reporter visit to do a trend story?) can result in
tremendous change. But we apparently lack the
motivation or the imagination to make those
changes.
We're asking that you send us a brief follow-up
report by May 28. We'll publish the results at
Unity '99 in July, at APME's conference in October
and in our professional journals. A feedback form
is attached, or you can reply on the Web by going
to either www.asne.org or www.apme.com.
Is accuracy worth a couple of hours of your time?
The leaders of APME and ASNE believe that viewing
diversity as an issue of accuracy and fairness has
tremendous power; perhaps even the potential to be
a galvanizing journalistic issue. This is a
challenging idea and a fresh approach, one that
has to be worth a couple of hours out of the life
of your newsroom.
If you're interested in participating or want to
discuss the premise or the process, please contact
one of the people listed below by April 1.
This is just one of the efforts that ASNE and APME
will undertake under the auspices of Diversity
2000, an effort to identify practices that will
significantly increase the diversity of our
newsrooms and broaden our coverage so that we
might see our communities clear and whole.
If you intend to participate, please contact:
* Suki Dardarian, Tacoma News Tribune and APME
vice-chair at (253) 597-8257 or
dardarian.suki@m.tribnet.com
Note: This email address is no longer working
* David Yarnold, San Jose Mercury News and APME
diversity chair at (408) 920-5254 or
dyarnold@sjmercury.com
Thanks for your consideration. Please let us know
by April 15.
David Yarnold
APME Diversity Chair
Wanda Lloyd
ASNE Diversity Chair (incoming)
Executive Summary