Pursuing Diversity and Accuracy

Is reframing the issue of diversity as an issue of accuracy an idea you want to pursue in your newsroom? How will you do that?

To this question, 84 respondents said they want to continue to pursue the premise of diversity as an issue of accuracy. They say they'll use audits, critiques and conversation to help keep the issue alive.

Monthly diversity committee meetings and quarterly meetings with staff. Include diverse coverage goals in the performance evaluations of editors and reporters.
-- Rebecca Allen, team leader, The Orange County (Calif.) Register

More frequent audits, developing methods for translating the results into identifiable goals and specific reactions.
-- Joe Happ, assistant to editor and publisher, The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise

We plan to set up a system for conducting content audits every six months that will help us chart our progress toward expanding our sourcing. We also plan to establish an area of the editor evaluation form that charts recruiting efforts in the area of diversity. The diversity committee has accepted an expanded role in this initiative.
-- Stan Wischnowski, acting managing editor, (Rochester, N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

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We've already begun training sessions focusing on accuracy, which also is our No. 1 goal for the coming year. As part of that, we're incorporating the diversity-as-accuracy idea into our training, so diversity isn't held as a separate entity.
-- Deanna Bottar, deputy metro editor, (Utica, N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch

Continuing the conversation on a regular basis -- and preferably, in the newsroom. We are designing a credibility project that will include interviews with readers, focusing on a specific story. We will ask readers to 'critique' our stories with the goal of judging the report for accuracy and fairness. We will print the results in our paper.
-- Sharon Roberts, assistant managing editor, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman

In our Time-Out conversation, we didn't specifically couple the idea of diversity and accuracy. We are in the very beginning stages of talking about diversity in our newsroom and there are many stages we need to work through before we can see the issues in that framework. -- Jessica Tomlinson, community coordinator, Portland (Maine) Press Herald

It is integral to our part of the ASNE credibility project. Our strategy involves ongoing community audits and repeat audits and contact with auditing individuals and groups.
-- Steven Smith, editor and vice president, The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette

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Photo by Judy Griesedieck, Star Tribune
(Minneapolis) Star Tribune staff, including (left to right) business reporter Dee DePass, graphic artist Mark Boswell and St. Paul bureau reporter Heron Marquez, gather on a panel to discuss diversity and accuracy.

We will be setting up some formal, ongoing programs to learn more about subjects that will increase our knowledge of diverse topics. We will make a more pointed effort at discussing accuracy and diversity in our daily critiques. As a major program of our editor, Tim J. McGuire, we have adopted diversity as one of 13 principles being worked on by the staff. The goal on diversity is to ensure that we create and maintain a diverse staff and industry. We also are working with the University of Missouri on an audit and doing survey work aimed to help us deal better with diversity in our journalism.

-- Sherrie Marshall, news content editor, and Kent Gardner, administrative editor, (Minneapolis) Star Tribune

We plan to change the way we look at this issue. Right now we focus on minorities. The issue is larger than that, and we are going to re-focus our attention on all types of diversity.
-- Mark Dickerson, assistant managing editor, (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader

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Pursuing Diversity and Accuracy