I was watching a news program one morning when I was struck by one of the reports. A white female anchor, who had been a newsroom reporter for 35 years, was fired. She was fired because she had let her hair go grey, and the powers that be felt she should color it!!! A female veteran of 35 years in the newsroom is let go because of her grey hair, while a male reporter in his 50's or 60's with grey hair, is said to look distinguished and wise. There's something wrong here.
The Pew Research Center surveyed 12,000 journalists and reports that newsroom diversity is a work in progress. Journalists give their news organizations mixed grades on how well they are doing in building a diverse staff. Still, newsrooms today, about 82% of decision makers are white men. Over 70% of on anchors are white male. There are many women in high profile reporting jobs, but we need more. People of color, especially Asian Americans and Native Americans still lag far behind. We live in California, where there is a great deal of diversity in news reporting which reflects the population, but if you go to other areas of the country, this simply isn't so.
Diversity at the upper levels of management and decision making, means there will be more diverse stories reported. This is what I want, and hopefully you see this as a good thing. One Asian American reporter from the mid west was told to move to California, where she would have a better chance at success. That may be true, but hopefully not for long.
Newsrooms are changing, and hopefully older, experienced reporters, especially women, will not be locked out of jobs because their hair has gone grey and they like it that way. Reporters around the country should reflect the diversity of our country, and hopefully give us a greater perspective on the world.
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