Why tracking source diversity can be a step toward more inclusive journalism

Can we practice better, more inclusive journalism by tracking the diversity of our sources? 

About 5 years ago I was inspired to tackle that question after participating in training by Luis Clemens, NPR’s senior editor for diversity, and Keith Woods, NPR’s chief diversity officer. As part of that training they suggested taking snapshots of your newsroom coverage. 

As the lead producer of a daily talk show at KCUR in Kansas City, I saw a real imperative to this work: Who in our community are we inviting to contribute their voice? I realized I was a gatekeeper. 

So I created a form to audit our talk show guests. The process helped us see more clearly that our guests were typically whiter and more male than the communities we served. That was just the beginning of the work.

Doing a diversity audit is a step toward understanding how reflective stories are of the communities you cover and the gaps your coverage may have, but it is only a start toward making an impactful, systemic change.

For newsrooms confronting inequality in their practices and culture while seeking the public’s trust in journalism, an audit must be shared internally within the newsroom and externally with the communities served. This blog post is an example of that part of the process.

Here’s what we’re tracking and how we’re doing it.

Baseline and latest results

We started with creating a baseline, taken by assessing the 186 stories, features and talk show posts published on the websites of KCUR, WABE, WITF, Louisville Public Media, New England Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio, WUSF and WFIU between Sunday, February 23, through Saturday, February 29. 

This week was chosen because it was before America Amplified community engagement work was implemented at these stations and it was after President Trump’s impeachment proceedings (remember that?),  which was dominating the news cycle. Our baseline was drawn from 447 sources.

We then compared the results with America Amplified content from those same 8 stations between February 29 and July 1.  We also compared the results with all America Amplified content produced during that same time period, including those 8 stations (noted as "all stations"). Our network includes more than 50 stations.

Note: The 36 stories, features or posts representing 104 different sources in “All Stations since February” is a partial sample size of America Amplified content.

Some initial findings

There were a number of things we observed in this snapshot.

We saw a greater proportion of sources with lived experience, as opposed to experts, in America Amplified stories.

We also saw increased representation of people with Latino/a/x, and Black/African-American identity in America Amplified content. We also came closer to population representation in gender identity.

When it comes to racial diversity, consider the protests against systemic racism that have happened across the country since late May. How well do these results reflect the communities at the core of those stories?

It is also interesting that the political ideology balance shifted to more liberal since February.

Looking ahead

Many of the America Amplified collaborative editors have expressed an interest in building their own diversity tracking system.

There are a myriad of things to consider when starting that process, starting with what demographics you plan on measuring, why you want to measure them and what your goal will be. 

Then how will you implement this in the newsroom and how will you share the results publicly? (Read how they did it at KUT in Austin.)

We will share more about these strategies as we continue to analyze the data we’re receiving from our partner networks. Here’s the form we’re using.

We believe community engagement journalism will play a role in producing work that sounds different and features people who haven’t typically been on public radio airwaves.

It is up to each of us to hold ourselves and each other to higher standards, to know what choices — conscious and unconscious — we’re making daily.

If you have any questions about this work, please contact America Amplified at info@americaamplifed.org. I am thrilled to be part of this journey.