Newsroom Diversity is a Daily Fight

Posted by Bianca Olvera Lopez

Monday, March 4, 2013—Karen Mitchell, assistant professor of convergence journalism at Missouri, and Drake alum, presented “Living the Struggle for Newsroom Diversity” for E.T. Meredith Magazine Center‘s visiting professional event.

Mitchell walked through the history of newsroom diversity, and shared some of her personal experiences and beliefs. I wasn’t surprised to hear about her struggles—I expected that—but I was surprised to hear her say that diversity in the newsroom is not getting better. According to ASNE there are 40,600 employees at daily newspapers. The minority population makes up 12%. The 4th Estate also broke down the numbers in this infographic. I’m Hispanic and this worries me. Why do we have this problem? Will it ever get better? Should it get better?

Mitchell was able to answer these questions, and said that she expects improvement (by 2050), but I’m still feeling nervous. I worry that like Mitchell, I too will always be a minority hire. I’m also concerned about where the problem starts. Does it start in journalism schools? High schools? Also, I don’t know if seeing an increase in the amount of minorities in newsrooms will help journalists work outside their own comfort zones. I read Beyond Newsroom Diversity: Should who covers what matter?, and it got me thinking about why I decide to work on certain stories.

We could go on and on about this topic, but I think Mitchell is right. Newsroom diversity is a daily fight, and we have to keep on fighting for inclusion if we want to get better. What are your thoughts?

Why aren’t music journalists inherently positive?

by Lucca Soria

The model for finding new music, in the last ten years, has been reversed. Instead of readers blindly trusting what some popular critic has to say, they have the ability to sample the music themselves via YouTube, SoundCloud, Band Camp, and many other audio hosting sites. So why hasn’t the model for music criticism been entirely flipped?

3 tips for primary research

Posted by: Cecily Miniaci

I remember cringing at the thought of a research report. Looking online, checking out books, and interviewing sources made me uneasy. But, as I have learned with many things, practice causes appreciation. Being a college student means you need to become comfortable with doing research. No matter if its secondary or primary, research is a tool you will use the rest of your life.

DSM Band Bombshell: Local Music Journalism

The Des Moines music scene is ever growing.  More and better bands are getting a stronger following than in years past.  Erika Owen, a Drake University journalism student, recently created a blog dedicated solely to that explosive scene.  DSM Band Bombshell is your new one-stop shop for all things local music related.

Twitter knows where you are

Twitter has finished an optional feature called geotagging, that allows you to show others your exact location when you tweet. You can add a link to the end of your tweet that will show a map with a pinpoint on your location. I’m not sure why you would want to use this function – sounds like a good tool for a stalker, at least on an individual basis. For bands and organizations holding events, it could be a good way to show people exactly where you are, when you want them to join you.

This new geotagging function has a more practical function too – it let’s you find what’s happening in your area. You can search for tweets in your city, and even your neighborhood. So if you want to know what people are doing in the East Village on Friday night, you can find all the tweets from people that live in the East Village.

This feature is optional, and you have to go into your settings to change it:

According to Mashable.com, Twitter changed their privacy policy to incorporate this new feature. Do you think this is a feature you will start using? Or do you think it’s sharing too much information?