Last Updated: February 03, 2000
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Gay and lesbian journalists
USC assessing the views of mainstream gay and lesbian
journalists on working conditions and coverage of issues; the first such
survey was published by ASNE in 1990
An updated, expanded version of ASNE's historic 1990 survey of newspaper
coverage of gay and lesbian issues is now in the field.
Issued under the auspices of the University of Southern California's
Annenberg School for Communication, the new survey will asses the views
of mainstream gay and lesbian journalists in broadcasting and new media
as well as at the nation's newspapers.
I am directing the new study, just as I directed the first.
When I was executive editor of The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, 10 years
ago, I coordinated the first-ever survey of gay and lesbian newspaper journalists
at the behest of ASNE. That survey of 205 mostly closeted journalists found
that coverage of gays and lesbians was mediocre to poor. During my presentation
at the 1990 convention, I revealed to about 850 peer editors that I was
gay. Soon after that, I founded the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists
Association.
The new survey - which is anticipating more than 500 responses - will
assess contemporary views of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender mainstream
journalists as to press coverage of gays and lesbians as well as working
conditions. In addition to a comparison with the previous studies, the
new survey contains many new questions aimed at evaluating conditions created
by the fast changes of the '90s.
The result, it is hoped, will help the industry design practices into
the new millennium. Hundreds of journalists in mainstream newsrooms are
now out, serving as resources in the effort for better journalism around
gay issues. However, expectations have risen, and there has been some retrenchment,
so we expect these findings to be quite interesting.
The mandate for the original survey - conducted during 1989 - came from
Loren Ghiglione, then ASNE president, now director of the Journalism School
at USC. Ghiglione's goal was "to learn what the problems are and to help
newspaper editors deal with issues that many of them were unfamiliar with
and, indeed, unaware of."
Then-Executive Director Lee Stinnett asked me, among the very few newspaper
editors out in their newsrooms at the time, to coordinate the study. ASNE
produced an 80-page report with findings and sidebars that described in
detail the conditions in which gay and lesbian journalists were mostly
invisible, yet critical of how their institutions covered news important
to them and to other sexual minority readers.
News of the survey and my coming out inspired formation of NLGJA, which
now has 1,300 members in 23 chapters in the United States and in a Canada
affiliate. As trusted insiders, many in key positions, NLGJA members made
a convincing case for fair and complete journalism that had impact in bringing
the issues to public attention.
USC's journalism school is conducting the present survey in collaboration
with NLGJA and Radio-Television News Directors Foundation. ASNE is cooperating
in disseminating information on the study.
Getting a high volume of return will be critical to the weight of the
survey's findings. The findings will be first reported at NLGJA's 10th
anniversary conference in San Francisco, Sept. 6-9, 2000. V
Aarons is visiting professor and director of the Study of Sexual
Orientation Issues in the News at the USC Annenberg's journalism school.
The new survey contains many new questions aimed at evaluating conditions
created by the fast changes of the '90s.
