Last Updated: August 13, 1999
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Time out
What’s all this buzz about diversity anyway? I mean, we’re journalists
and isn’t this what we’re supposed to be about? We do this stuff every
day giving voice to the voiceless, writing the first draft of history,
trying to make a difference in the tradition of truth, justice and the
American way.
Diversity? Don’t tell me my job. And yet, as I drove past the endless
pines on the nondescript interstate that twines from Charleston to Columbia,
there was a subtle voice in the back of my head.
“You sure talk the talk but ...” And I wondered.
At the Columbia bureau, twelve staffers gathered around a conference
table for our Time Out session. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I had
checked the AP South Carolina copy for six months and the numbers didn’t
lie. Lots of stories about blacks and women, the two biggest minorities
in South Carolina.
Other ethnic groups are not as well represented in the report. But Hispanics,
Asians and Native Americans make up less than 2 percent of the state’s
population. We’re doing OK, aren’t we?
“Perhaps,” said the subtle voice.
Diversity is not just adding up numbers of minorities, News Editor Doug
Fisher suggested.
“If we’re talking about covering the richness, the diverseness of South
Carolina, we’re not doing that,” he said. We need to get out of the bureau
more, see and hear what people are really thinking and a new staff addition
will help, he said.
The voices of various groups need to be reflected in the entire report,
not relegated to a handful of stories on various groups, said John Shurr,
the bureau chief.
“We shouldn’t just sit down and make a list of minority groups and say
this is what we’re working on this week,” he said.
And even when we do cover minority groups, how reflective is our coverage?
Perhaps it could be better, staffers said.
Given the constant deadlines every AP reporter faces, it’s quick and
easy to go to the usual contacts in a minority group to get a quote. But
do we end up talking to the same people all the time? And are there others
there who represent other opinions?
“We need to go beyond the ‘usual suspects,’” said Broadcast Editor Jack
Jones.
“It’s easy to cover news events when people are outraged and willing
to talk,” said Jim Davenport, one of the bureau’s legislative writers.
“It’s easy to get the reaction story. It’s harder to get the motivation
story.”
The staff agreed to designate a diversity writer. While every reporter
needs to be sensitive to various groups, a designated writer will help
provide a more complete picture when an issue needs to be examined in-depth,
Shurr said.
The other staff suggestion seemed so simple, but many times never seems
to happen: Talk to each other. Discuss stories with others in the bureau
and solicit suggestions for other voices that will make stories as representative
as possible. Discuss stories with staffers who have different views.
Later, over lunch with Shurr, I wondered what might come of the meeting.
The important thing, he said, was the meeting itself — people are having
discussions and looking at the issues, perhaps in a way they never looked
at them before.
Driving back to Charleston that afternoon, I wasn’t so self-assured.
Not a bad thing, though, for a journalist. For if we are to see the diversity
that is all around us, we must find new ways of looking at the world.
Smith is the Charleston, S.C., correspondent for The Associated Press.
