Diversity Disconnects, a research report funded by the Ford Foundation, argues that the news media fall far too short of the goal of parity with the population because their efforts and energy have been focused only on newsroom integration, putting the burden of diversifying news coverage on minority journalists.

"During the last 25 years, the discussion about diversity in journalism has been very narrow, focusing more on the presence of minority journalists in newsrooms and on the achievement of news coverage that mirrors society, instead of making sure that minority perspectives and ideas are regularly presented to the public," said CSUN journalism professor José Luis Benavides, one of the authors of the report.

"This perspective makes individuals - rather than organizations - responsible for integrating news coverage," he added. "The wrong assumption here is that the presence of more minority journalists will automatically produce diverse coverage, instead of making sure that the culture and priorities of the news organization are arranged in such a way to encourage diversity of thoughts and opinions."

Benavides and his co-authors Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Cristina Bodinger-de Uriarte, a sociology professor at Cal State Los Angeles, will present their report to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. at 10 a.m. (EST) on Friday, March 14, when it will become available to the public.

Twenty-five years ago this spring, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) called for racial parity in newsroom employment by the year 2000. The plan became the single most forceful effort to change the makeup of both broadcast and print newsrooms. But in 1998, ASNE admitted its effort had failed.

The findings of Diversity Disconnects suggest that a misstep occurred when ASNE¹s goals focused only on racial diversification in employment. The report argues that intellectual diversity must go hand-in-hand with racial and ethnic diversity throughout the newsroom. Only then can the news media truly achieve diversity.

Diversity Disconnects provides a candid look at the effort to diversify the news media, beginning with the failure of journalism education and continuing as African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and American Indians depart from newsrooms in numbers that match their recruitment. It suggests alternative ways to achieve diversity in content and stop the revolving door of minority employment.

The findings of the two-year study are based on 25 years of documented materials including diversity reports from ASNE, census reports from ASNE and the Radio-Television News Directors Association, accreditation data about colleges and universities, 300 journalism course syllabi, and interviews with more than 600 reporters, editors and news directors nationwide.