The failure of America's newsrooms to balance the hiring of minority and white journalists results in a distortion of news coverage that favors white communities and misinterprets minority communities, a Washington Post politics reporter stated in a lecture at the School of Law last Wednesday. Local government reporter Vanessa Williams spoke at the fourth lecture of a series sponsored by the journalism department that investigates the issues that arise in today's newsrooms. A member of the National Association of Black Journalists, Williams called attention to the fact that minority journalists are underrepresented in America's newsrooms.
Black journalists feel they have been left behind in the ghetto.
The news media started frantically hiring black journalists to document the fear, frustration and rage of black America. As rioting ended, news media still relied on black journalists to report on events in black communities. However, those stories were all too often the only ones black writers were assigned, Williams said. The input of black journalists was not as valued as that of their white colleagues, unless it was about the black community. Three decades later, American media continues to interpret the world's events from the perspective of white males, who make up the majority of positions of power in the industry, though fair reporting on the country requires that minority perspectives be present as well, Williams said.