Challenging Assumptions about Ownership and Diversity: An Examination of U.S. Local On-Air Television Newsroom Personnel

ABSTRACT

Media ownership and diversity have been areas of concern for the U.S.’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for decades. In this study, the effects of ownership type and network affiliation upon ethnic and racial diversity within U.S. television newsrooms were explored. An exploratory content analysis of local television stations (N = 232) was undertaken to compare the diversity levels of on-air personnel for stations that were network owned-and-operated, as well as stations involved in Shared Services Agreements (SSAs). Findings reveal some significant positive effects for network owned-and-operated stations, but none for SSA-attached stations. Network affiliate status also did not play a significant role.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Kevin Hull and Becky Zhang for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No financial interest or benefit for the author has arisen due to the application of this work.

Notes

1. The term Hispanic is used interchangeably in the media industry with Latino/a; some scholars prefer the latter term. However, the term Hispanic is used throughout this study because it is the official term used in the U.S. Census Bureau categories, which were used to identify and measure diversity levels in the larger study. To clarify, Hispanic origin is not a race, but rather an ethnicity; Hispanics can be of any race.

2. These categorizations and their definitions can be found at https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-1.pdf.

3. See for example, http://www.nationalmediaspots.com/media-stats/Nielsen-2016-2017-Hispanic-TV-Homes.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for carrying out this study.