Diversity: Best Practices

Diversity: Best Practices A Handbook for Journalism and Mass Communications Educators Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications DIVERSITY HANDBOOK Table of Contents Introduction . 3 A Vital, Complicated Standard . 4 Saundra Keyes on diversity and journalism The Diversity Standard. 5 The current standard; a proposed revision; how accrediting teams make their assessments It Begins with Leadership. 8 Douglas A. Anderson on commitment to diversity Best practices: curriculum . 9 Ten Commandments of Diversity. 30 Loren Ghiglione on hiring a diverse faculty Best practices: faculty . 31 Campus, Newsroom Diversity. 44 David S. Broder on the University of Michigan and the Supreme Court Best practices: student body . 45 Campus Environment is Critical. 61 Caesar Andrews on the complexities of climate Best practices: environment . 62 Sources and Resources Excerpts from syllabi . 68 Recommended texts, videotapes and Web sites . 72 Organizations . 77 Glossary of abbreviations and acronyms . 77 © 2003, The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Some sections are the property of other copyright holders and are reprinted by permission. Contents may be copied, reproduced or redistributed for educational purposes. Please cite the Accrediting Council as the source in any reproduction. DIVERSITY HANDBOOK Introduction BY BEVERLY KEES he goal of the diversity standard of the ance assessments. In the same period, the second Accrediting Council on Education in most often failed standard — curriculum — TJournalism and Mass Communications is to accounted for 39 findings of non-compliance (See improve daily journalism — to train future jour- page 78 for more details.). While diversity in cur- nalists how to see a story from more than their riculum, faculty and student body has increased own perspective and experience, to recognize the greatly in recent years, it still falls short of goals. great variety of groups within a community, including the under-reported, and to anticipate Administrators of journalism programs, even questions and reactions from a diverse readership. those in compliance, gave dozens of reasons for Another goal of the standard is to ensure that pub- not doing as well on the diversity standard as they lic relations and advertising students recognize, hoped. The purpose of this booklet is to find and understand and respond effectively to the various publicize solutions to those problems. markets they will address. Where can solutions be found? We use a time- The standard was urged not only by educators honored method used by editors everywhere: We but by professionals who wanted their staffs to steal good ideas from our colleagues. Some school recognize and accurately report on all groups in somewhere in the country has found a solution for their readership areas. As American society every problem. diversifies, so must those who bind it together by informing, persuading and transmitting and inter- All accredited journalism programs were asked preting culture. for their most successful actions in diversifying curriculum; in finding, hiring and retaining fac- The 2000 Census showed a society rapidly ulty of color; in diversifying the student body; and becoming more diverse, with immigration rates in maintaining a climate in which diverse individ- near the level of the early 20th century. Editors, uals and ideas can thrive. Every accredited pro- news directors, public relations and advertising gram responded with at least one suggestion. To professionals know their survival depends on their minimize repetition, some suggestions have not ability to reach these communities with news and been included in the final report. information that matter to them. Those employed in these professions still don’t mirror the diversity Caesar Andrews, Accrediting Council member of their communities, nor do the faculty members representing the Associated Press Managing needed to teach them. The pools of students of Editors, and Council President Jerry Ceppos origi- color and faculty of color need to expand. But nally suggested this report. beyond the need for more graduates of color is the need for graduates of all colors to be comfortable We thank the John S. and James L. Knight and competent in covering diverse communities. Foundation and Eric Newton, the foundation’s director of journalism initiatives, for funding this Unfortunately, the diversity standard is the report. We thank the educators who offered ideas, standard schools have most often failed to meet. the Center for Integration and Improvement of Accrediting visiting teams first assessed compli- Journalism at San Francisco State University for ance/non-compliance with each standard in the providing online diversity syllabuses (http:// 1987-1988 academic year. In the accrediting newswatch.sfsu.edu/diversity_syllabuses) and all reports from then through 2002-2003, 71 schools those who provided sidebar information and were out of compliance with the diversity stan- analysis. dard. That was 26 percent of all out-of-compli- 3 THE STANDARD A Vital, Complicated Standard BY SAUNDRA KEYES he Accrediting Council’s diversity standard pose. As media organizations struggle to fully evokes more sustained discussion than any reflect their communities, they expect journalism Tother. That is partly because measuring educators to help increase the supply of graduates compliance involves a complex blend of statistics, who can contribute to that goal. curriculum, instruction, and patterns of recruiting and retaining students and faculty. And it is partly Though other accreditation standards also because the standard’s champions believe so pas- encompass accuracy, the diversity standard is not sionately in its value. redundant. Ensuring that students can accurately reflect a multicultural world is far more compli- Critics say that passion has made cated than teaching them the importance of As media organizations diversity a super-standard that is often spelling names correctly, or verifying dates or struggle to fully reflect weighted more heavily than others in checking addresses. their communities, they accreditation decisions. They say debate on the standard is often con- To reflect diversity requires exposure not only expect journalism ducted in terms of moral absolutes to facts but also to perspectives that can vary rad- educators to help rather than the legitimate variables of ically depending on race, gender, sexual orienta- increase the supply of academic assessment. tion, religious belief, economic circumstances or country of origin. graduates who can It is true that the diversity standard is contribute to that goal. based on a sense of what is right. But it is That is why the diversity standard outlines a also rooted in a basic operating assump- variety of obligations — the employment of fac- Saundra Keyes, editor, The tion: that journalism’s central obligation ulty, the recruiting, advising and retention of stu- Honolulu Advertiser,represents is to report the news accurately. dents, the planning of an inclusive curriculum. the American Society of Newspaper Editors on the The link between diversity and accu- The Council has repeatedly discussed appropri- Accrediting Council. racy was best articulated by leaders of the ate measures of compliance with those obliga- American Society of Newspaper Editors tions, acknowledging that results depend not only and Associated Press Managing Editors on a department’s good intentions, but also on fac- in 1999, when they launched an industry-wide tors outside that department’s control. Those fac- initiative on the topic. tors may include the competitiveness of an insti- tution’s salary levels, the appeal or unattractive- “We want to accurately reflect life in our com- ness of its location to diverse pools of faculty and munities,” wrote organizers of the National Time- students, or state laws that restrict affirmative Out for Diversity and Accuracy. “If our newspa- action programs. pers are not inclusive enough to regularly portray the diversity of those communities, then we are To let those factors become excuses would be presenting a fundamentally inaccurate report. wrong, but to ignore the challenge they represent That lack of accuracy undermines our journalistic would be wrong as well. credibility.” This project represents the Council’s commit- The point applies with equal force to broadcast ment to helping all accredited programs meet that journalism, and indeed to all forms of communi- challenge. cation that rely on credibility to achieve their pur- 4 THE STANDARD The Diversity Standard BY BEVERLY KEES he Accrediting Council has attempted to fos- Recruitment efforts must not be discriminatory ter diversity for years, and the development in nature and must have as their objective enlarg- Tof what is now Standard 12 - Diversity has ing the overall talent pool. moved in several steps. In 1980, ACEJMC added a Accreditation site visit teams will apply this single question to the self-study: “What is done (i.e., standard in compliance with applicable federal affirmative action procedures within the journalism and state laws and regulations. unit) to assure diversity within the student body, faculty and staff?” Explanation: The Council adopted a separate standard on Freedom of expression and freedom of access to diversity in 1984, after a revision of all standards information are fundamental to the exercise of the directed by a committee headed by James W. Carey. rights guaranteed under the First Amendment

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