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How Minorities are Represented in Public Radio
by Laura Riggio
In May/June of 2004, Steve Rendall and Daniel Butterworth of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) published a study of NPR’s guests and commentators in their article, “How Public is Public Radio." Even though NPR president Kevin Klose said that diversity and inclusivity were among NPR’s top priorities, they questioned whether NPR was truly an alternative to its commercial competition. They asked, “Is the public really heard on public radio?”
While Rendall and Butterworth said that NPR provides more than mainstream news broadcasts, they found that NPR relies on the “same elite and influential sources that dominate mainstream commercial news and falls short of reflecting the diversity of the American public.”
In the same way this reporter wanted to look at how NPR covered issues concerning minorities. NPR says on its website that it is committed to leadership in diversity. We wanted to take a closer look at when and how minorities are covered, with questions like, are minorities reduced to cultural stereotypes and is coverage diverse in both content and perspective, always in mind. All of these factors contribute to how minorities are perceived by those outside, and even more importantly, themselves.
After reviewing the transcripts of NPR’s top news shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered from September through October 2007, NPR does a fair job of reporting on minority issues.
In May/June of 2004, Steve Rendall and Daniel Butterworth of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) published a study of NPR’s guests and commentators in their article, “How Public is Public Radio." Even though NPR president Kevin Klose said that diversity and inclusivity were among NPR’s top priorities, they questioned whether NPR was truly an alternative to its commercial competition. They asked, “Is the public really heard on public radio?”
While Rendall and Butterworth said that NPR provides more than mainstream news broadcasts, they found that NPR relies on the “same elite and influential sources that dominate mainstream commercial news and falls short of reflecting the diversity of the American public.”
In the same way this reporter wanted to look at how NPR covered issues concerning minorities. NPR says on its website that it is committed to leadership in diversity. We wanted to take a closer look at when and how minorities are covered, with questions like, are minorities reduced to cultural stereotypes and is coverage diverse in both content and perspective, always in mind. All of these factors contribute to how minorities are perceived by those outside, and even more importantly, themselves.
After reviewing the transcripts of NPR’s top news shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered from September through October 2007, NPR does a fair job of reporting on minority issues.
Findings
Minorities are the Minority: During the two-month period, only 6 percent of stories covered minority issues on Morning Edition and 8 percent of stories covered minority issues on All Things Considered. Though minorities were the minority in getting news coverage, the distribution of coverage over each topic was fairly even between shows. This reporter considered the following topics as part of minority coverage: immigration, race, class, gender, disability and elderly.
On Morning Edition, 31 percent of coverage went to Race, 29 percent to immigration, 17 percent to class, 13 percent to gender, and 8 percent to disability. On All things Considered, 31 percent of coverage went to race, 25 percent went to immigration, 22 percent to class, 13 percent to gender, 3 percent to disability, and 2 percent to elderly.
Stereotyping: While NPR does many traditional stories relating to minorities including crime in neighborhoods, they provide a different perspective from mainstream media. In the Morning Edition's report Newark Fights to Reclaim Bloodied Streets which is based on the murder of three people in New Jersey, NPR explored how "church leaders, anti-violence groups and politicians hope the killings can serve as a turning point in a battle against street violence." This different perspective of a story like this is what has set NPR apart from other news sources.
Diverse Coverage (in perspective and content): Many of NPR feature stories on minorities included coverage on books, food, and film. This more diverse perspective is what kept NPR from stereotyping. All Things Considered did pieces like A Celebration of Sausage, the Poor Man's Steak, that talked about food enthusaists who gather at "Stuffed: A Journey of Midwestern Sausage Traditions" to discuss steak, including recipes that came from Macedonian immigrants.
All Things Considered also did a piece, “Haitian Immigrants Memoir Honors Two Fathers," which talks about a woman's story of growing up in Haiti, the sacrifices her family made as immigrants in the United States and Haiti's growing political instability.
In Easy Rawlins and the Unbearable Sadness of Being NPR talked about Walter Mosley, an author who wrote Blonde Faith which explores issues of race and what it was like to be a black man in America during a time of change.
What it Means
NPR's coverage of minorities had a balanced perspective. There are many factors that contribute to this including staff, time, and money.
Colleen Eddy of Poynter Institute told this reporter that diversity in the newsroom “takes an investment of time, money and an effort to make it happen--it could take years." NPR says on its website that it employs "more than 700 people around the world, people that represent a wide range of different generations, cultural histories, racial and sexual identities, educational backgrounds, spiritual beliefs, physical abilities, and professional aspirations."
However, not all newsrooms are able to do so. Mark Lloyd, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America, told this reporter that sometimes media outlets are "trapped in the dominant structural problems of America: a tendency to put the short-term desires of powerful market players first; racism reinforced through continuing segregation, and sexism reinforced by the cultural norms of a patriarchal society."
Aside from constraints on money, Lloyd also attributes media consolidation as one of the key problems that can interfere with diversity in the newsroom and balanced coverage. “Consolidation in radio is the result of rules established by Congress and the FCC. To change consolidation we have to create rules in Congress and the FCC to encourage diversity of ownership and to make the owners more accountable to the communities they are licensed to serve. In our (CAP) report on The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio we discuss broad rule changes that we think are necessary. Radio and television stations may broadcast in many languages but in regards to ownership, and control over news, minorities do not have control.”
In a Free Press study called, “Off the Dial: Female and Minority Radio Station Owners in the United States,” media consolidation was shown to be one of the key factors keeping female and minority station ownership low. “As consolidation cuts back the already limited numbers of stations available, women and people of color have fewer chances to become media owners and promote diverse programming.” They found that Racial and ethnic minorities own just 7.7 percent of all full power commercial broadcast radio though they account for 33 percent of the US population and women own just 6 percent of full power commercial broadcast radio stations even though they account for 51 percent of the US population.
Though NPR does not fit into the same category as commercial broadcast radio, it is still important to look at how media ownership is affecting diversity in the newsroom which can lead to bad balance in perspective and coverage.
Importance of Diverse Perspective: Carlos Cortes, author of The Children are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity, wrote in an article for Media and Values called, "A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media" that "whether intentionally or unintentionally, both the news and the entertainment media 'teach" the public about minorities, other ethnic groups and societal groups and that it has a powerful educational impact on people who have little or no direct contact with members of the groups being treated. For this reason, it is important for news coverage of minorities to not always be negative."
By hiring minority journalists, there is a better chance of balanced coverage of minority communities because they don’t want to have the neighborhoods succumb to negativism and stereotyping.
Eddy said, "in general, if you don’t have a staff that understand and relates to the people that are being covered, it is difficult to cover minorities from a different perspective" than the stereotypes that the mainstream media have cast on them.
At the same time, it shouldn't always take someone of the same ethnic background to create a balanced story.
How We Can Make it Better
This reporter concludes that although NPR's coverage of minorities was low, what was more important was how minorities were covered. The feature stories done by All Things Considered are something that journalists can look at when writing stories on minority communities. By creating a different perspective on minority communities, there is a more balanced view of how minorities are seen by others.
Even though diversity in both newsrooms and coverage is going to always be a struggle, it is important for journalists to strive for better balance because it affects everyone in all communities.
Mark Lloyd, said in an email interview that “no group is particularly well (if that means accurately or realistically) represented in dominant media in America today, but the goal should not be for "mainstream media" to represent minorities well but to create equal opportunities for all groups to speak for and represent themselves before the whole, and of course to ensure that all Americans have an equal opportunity to access those representations.”
Minorities are the Minority: During the two-month period, only 6 percent of stories covered minority issues on Morning Edition and 8 percent of stories covered minority issues on All Things Considered. Though minorities were the minority in getting news coverage, the distribution of coverage over each topic was fairly even between shows. This reporter considered the following topics as part of minority coverage: immigration, race, class, gender, disability and elderly.
On Morning Edition, 31 percent of coverage went to Race, 29 percent to immigration, 17 percent to class, 13 percent to gender, and 8 percent to disability. On All things Considered, 31 percent of coverage went to race, 25 percent went to immigration, 22 percent to class, 13 percent to gender, 3 percent to disability, and 2 percent to elderly.
Stereotyping: While NPR does many traditional stories relating to minorities including crime in neighborhoods, they provide a different perspective from mainstream media. In the Morning Edition's report Newark Fights to Reclaim Bloodied Streets which is based on the murder of three people in New Jersey, NPR explored how "church leaders, anti-violence groups and politicians hope the killings can serve as a turning point in a battle against street violence." This different perspective of a story like this is what has set NPR apart from other news sources.
Diverse Coverage (in perspective and content): Many of NPR feature stories on minorities included coverage on books, food, and film. This more diverse perspective is what kept NPR from stereotyping. All Things Considered did pieces like A Celebration of Sausage, the Poor Man's Steak, that talked about food enthusaists who gather at "Stuffed: A Journey of Midwestern Sausage Traditions" to discuss steak, including recipes that came from Macedonian immigrants.
All Things Considered also did a piece, “Haitian Immigrants Memoir Honors Two Fathers," which talks about a woman's story of growing up in Haiti, the sacrifices her family made as immigrants in the United States and Haiti's growing political instability.
In Easy Rawlins and the Unbearable Sadness of Being NPR talked about Walter Mosley, an author who wrote Blonde Faith which explores issues of race and what it was like to be a black man in America during a time of change.
What it Means
NPR's coverage of minorities had a balanced perspective. There are many factors that contribute to this including staff, time, and money.
Colleen Eddy of Poynter Institute told this reporter that diversity in the newsroom “takes an investment of time, money and an effort to make it happen--it could take years." NPR says on its website that it employs "more than 700 people around the world, people that represent a wide range of different generations, cultural histories, racial and sexual identities, educational backgrounds, spiritual beliefs, physical abilities, and professional aspirations."
However, not all newsrooms are able to do so. Mark Lloyd, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America, told this reporter that sometimes media outlets are "trapped in the dominant structural problems of America: a tendency to put the short-term desires of powerful market players first; racism reinforced through continuing segregation, and sexism reinforced by the cultural norms of a patriarchal society."
Aside from constraints on money, Lloyd also attributes media consolidation as one of the key problems that can interfere with diversity in the newsroom and balanced coverage. “Consolidation in radio is the result of rules established by Congress and the FCC. To change consolidation we have to create rules in Congress and the FCC to encourage diversity of ownership and to make the owners more accountable to the communities they are licensed to serve. In our (CAP) report on The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio we discuss broad rule changes that we think are necessary. Radio and television stations may broadcast in many languages but in regards to ownership, and control over news, minorities do not have control.”
In a Free Press study called, “Off the Dial: Female and Minority Radio Station Owners in the United States,” media consolidation was shown to be one of the key factors keeping female and minority station ownership low. “As consolidation cuts back the already limited numbers of stations available, women and people of color have fewer chances to become media owners and promote diverse programming.” They found that Racial and ethnic minorities own just 7.7 percent of all full power commercial broadcast radio though they account for 33 percent of the US population and women own just 6 percent of full power commercial broadcast radio stations even though they account for 51 percent of the US population.
Though NPR does not fit into the same category as commercial broadcast radio, it is still important to look at how media ownership is affecting diversity in the newsroom which can lead to bad balance in perspective and coverage.
Importance of Diverse Perspective: Carlos Cortes, author of The Children are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity, wrote in an article for Media and Values called, "A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media" that "whether intentionally or unintentionally, both the news and the entertainment media 'teach" the public about minorities, other ethnic groups and societal groups and that it has a powerful educational impact on people who have little or no direct contact with members of the groups being treated. For this reason, it is important for news coverage of minorities to not always be negative."
By hiring minority journalists, there is a better chance of balanced coverage of minority communities because they don’t want to have the neighborhoods succumb to negativism and stereotyping.
Eddy said, "in general, if you don’t have a staff that understand and relates to the people that are being covered, it is difficult to cover minorities from a different perspective" than the stereotypes that the mainstream media have cast on them.
At the same time, it shouldn't always take someone of the same ethnic background to create a balanced story.
How We Can Make it Better
This reporter concludes that although NPR's coverage of minorities was low, what was more important was how minorities were covered. The feature stories done by All Things Considered are something that journalists can look at when writing stories on minority communities. By creating a different perspective on minority communities, there is a more balanced view of how minorities are seen by others.
Even though diversity in both newsrooms and coverage is going to always be a struggle, it is important for journalists to strive for better balance because it affects everyone in all communities.
Mark Lloyd, said in an email interview that “no group is particularly well (if that means accurately or realistically) represented in dominant media in America today, but the goal should not be for "mainstream media" to represent minorities well but to create equal opportunities for all groups to speak for and represent themselves before the whole, and of course to ensure that all Americans have an equal opportunity to access those representations.”
Sources
Steve Rendall and Daniel Butterworth, "How Public is Public Radio" EXTRA. May/June 2004 <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1180>
Carlos Cortes, "A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media" Media and Values, issue 38 1987 <http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article231.html#bio>
"Media Consolidation Diminishes Diversity on the Radio" Hear Us Now, 6 May 2007 <http://www.hearusnow.org/homepage/00/1/mediaconsolidationdiminishesdiversityonthe
radio/>
Carlos Cortes, "A Long Way to Go: Minorities and the Media" Media and Values, issue 38 1987 <http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article231.html#bio>
"Media Consolidation Diminishes Diversity on the Radio" Hear Us Now, 6 May 2007 <http://www.hearusnow.org/homepage/00/1/mediaconsolidationdiminishesdiversityonthe
radio/>
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