Interviewing the Interviewers: Journalistic Norms and Racial Diversity in the Newsroom

Abstract

Many mainstream newspapers have diversified their organizations—at least to some extent—by hiring minority journalists. Some scholars argue that a diversified newsroom will improve media coverage of minority communities and issues; others think that the power of journalistic norms will constrain minority journalists so that they will be unable or unwilling to enhance the news coverage of minorities. In this article, the authors examine journalistic norms and racial diversity in mainstream newsrooms by conducting face-to-face interviews with African American and Latino journalists working at mainstream papers. They investigate journalists' perceptions of how norms influence their behavior and their attitudes about advocacy. They also examine their perceptions of audience characteristics and how they choose sources, and conclude that journalistic norms do shape the behavior of African American and Latino journalists; nevertheless, many of these journalists are still able to bring a unique perspective to the table.

KEYTERMS:

• advocacy
• balance
• diversity
• journalistic norms
• minority journalists
• newsroom

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago and the Purdue University Political Communication Brownbag Series; we greatly appreciate the feedback from our colleagues. We thank Drs. George Curry and Kasie Mitchell Roberson for their helpful advice on this project.

Notes

There have been several organizations involved in this effort, including the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the Native American Journalists Association, and UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.

One interview with a Latino journalist was conducted over the phone.

The interview instrument is available upon request.