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NOOR MOUGHNI

Daily News Editor 
& MiC Columnist

From the A&I Committee: A look 
at TMD’s Demographic Report

An internal survey of The Michigan Daily’s staff members offers data on 
the publication as well as a view of the barriers to access in the newsroom 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
2 — Wednesday, September 2, 2020 

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily

The Michigan Daily shares data collected from a demographic survey conducted over the summer of 2020.

The Michigan Daily conducted 

a demographics survey during the 
summer of 2020 to gain a better 
understanding of the barriers to 
access in our newsroom. After 
keeping the anonymous survey 
open for one month, 282 staffers 
responded to the survey out of 488 
staffers total in both the Editorial 
and Business halves of The Daily, a 
57.8 percent response rate. 

The recently formed Access and 

Inclusion Committee created a 
report summarizing the findings. 
We created another survey asking 
anyone in the newsroom to share 
their thoughts on the results, 
anonymously if preferred, and have 
included all responses.

The 
2020 
Demographics 

Survey largely confirmed that our 
newsroom is a majority rich, white, 
hetero and cis organization much 
like the rest of the University of 
Michigan. Latinx, first-gen and 
low-income students in particular 
are 
underrepresented 
at 
The 

Michigan Daily compared to the 
general campus population. 

While we acknowledge that 

this data is not entirely reflective 
of our newsroom because of non-
response, the numbers still hold 
great value. The Daily has clear 
socioeconomic, 
racial, 
ethnic, 

gender and sexuality disparities. 
Acknowledging this, The Access 
and Inclusion committee and the 
newsroom as a whole can move 
forward prioritizing diversity and 
inclusion. 

The Daily created two Access 

and Inclusion co-chair positions 
in 2018 for students outside of the 
newsroom to help with conflict 
resolution and diversity, equity 
and inclusion work. This summer, 
Access and Inclusion has expanded 
to a committee of four students, 
and we’re looking to hire one more.

We are committed to ensuring 

that 
The 
Daily 
grows 
more 

representative of all identities 
on our campus. Without this, 
we know our newsroom and our 
coverage suffer because we do not 
accurately reflect the communities 
that we serve. 

Our purpose is not to fill some 

diversity quota or to uphold an 
appearance of diversity. Rather, 
we are committed to making sure 
that people from all backgrounds 
and experiences, especially those 
with marginalized backgrounds, 
feel welcomed at The Daily and feel 
encouraged to make their voices 
heard. 

Income Level and Student 

Status 

The Daily does not pay its 

staffers much for their work, and 
the survey reveals that we are 
not accessible to lower-income 
students as a result.

Here are some of the most telling 

statistics:

• 
There are three times 
more staffers from families 
making $200,000 per year 
than staffers from families 
making less than $75,000 
per year. 

• 
Though 14.8 percent of 
undergraduates 
at 
the 

University 
come 
from 

families making less than 
$50,000, only 6.8 percent 
of The Daily’s staffers do. 

• 
Only 
16 
staffers 
who 

responded to the survey 
said they were work-study 
students.

One staffer said he wants to 

know if the socioeconomic divide is 
even more apparent among editors 
at The Daily. He noted that editors 
have to commit large amounts of 
time to the newspaper before and 
during their tenure, which is less 
possible for lower-income students. 

Though the survey didn’t ask 

for the positions of those who 
responded, we believe an even 
greater stratification of income is 
very likely among editors based on 
the nature of editor roles. 

LSA senior Aria Gerson, a 

sportswriter on the football beat, 
said she “grew up solidly middle 
class, so I was pretty shocked to see 
that 70 percent of The Daily staff is 
richer than I am.”

Similarly, LSA sophomore Haley 

Johnson, an assistant social media 
editor, said, “As a low income 
student, I was really shocked by 
the income distribution of Daily 
staffers. I hope we can work to get 
better class representation on our 
staff.”

One thing The Daily should do 

is create an easily accessible list 
of Daily scholarships, third-party 
journalism scholarships and paid 
internship opportunities, Gerson 
said. Though The Daily sends these 
resources sporadically, Gerson said 
she’s largely had to find them on 
her own.

16.3 percent chose not to answer 

any income-level related questions. 

Race and Ethnicity 
The majority of staffers in 

the newsroom are white. Asian 
staffers, while still a minority in the 
newsroom, make up a much greater 
percentage of the newsroom than 
all other POC staffers combined. 

Gerson suggested that The Daily 

could work with other campus 
outlets to establish student chapters 
of certain national journalism 

associations, such as Association 
for Women in Sports Media, 
National Association of Black 
Journalists, National Association 
of Hispanic Journalists and the 
Asian 
American 
Journalists 

Association. 

“This would likely help recruit 

more 
diverse 
talent 
because 

students could see more people 
in this industry who looked like 
them and those orgs also provide 
tons of internship and scholarship 
opportunities,” Gerson said. 

Gender and Sexuality

LSA 
junior 
Alex 
Harring, 
a 

senior news editor, said The Daily 

should consider creating employee 

resources groups, which exist at many 

professional outlets. 

He pointed to NBC, which has a 

Black Employee Network, OUT at NBC, 

Women at NBC.

“(It’s a) great way to build community 

and have a space to share ideas and 

concerns,” Harring said. “Could be as 

simple as a pizza dinner once a month 

or something like that!”

The Daily: Post-COVID-19 and the 

Death of George Floyd

About 9 percent of those who 

responded to the survey or their 

immediate families have contracted 
the coronavirus. Out of these 9 
percent, about 16 percent said they 
or their family member could not 
access adequate medical care.

Only 27 percent of staffers said 

they thought about their race on a 
daily basis prior to George Floyd’s 
death. That number shot up to 
81.9 percent after George Floyd’s 
death.

Other
All 50 states and four countries 

outside of the United States (Chile, 
Hong Kong, India and Taiwan) 
are represented at The Daily. The 
Daily has a similar in-state vs. out-
of-state proportion as the general 
undergraduate population. 

The large majority of students 

(70.5 percent) are in the School of 
Literature, Science and the Arts. 

Notably, 
a 
significant 

proportion of staffers are new. 
Close to 60 percent have been at 

The Daily for less than one year, 
while a bit more than a quarter of 
the staffers have been at The Daily 
for 4 semesters or more. 

Next Steps
With this information, the 

Access and Inclusion committee 
has been taking the following 
actions to ensure our goals are 
upheld. First, we have been 
communicating with several other 
newsrooms who have succeeded in 
their inclusion efforts in attempts 
to emulate their achievements and 
learn from their mistakes. 

In the future, we will continue 

conducting more demographic 
surveys, publishing the results and 
remaining transparent with our 
progress. In these surveys, Art and 
Design senior Emily Considine, 
editorial page editor, said she 
hopes to see more section-specific 
data, “if only to help recruitment 
committees and section heads 
understand the ways in which our 
specific sections need to improve 
in attracting and representing the 
rest of the University.”

This 
year’s 
Access 
and 

Inclusion committee chose not 
to ask staffers for their section. 
We thought some students might 
worry this information could be 
identifying, especially if there 
is only one person of a certain 
identity in a given section — 
which points to our newsroom’s 
lack 
of 
diversity. 
However, 

we will make this an optional 
question in the future, allowing 
for a deeper understanding of 
our demographics so that we 
can implement more effective 
recruiting strategies. 

In addition, we are in the process 

of planning a racial bias and 
reporting sensitivity workshop, 
and our hope is to make similar 
workshops routine every semester. 
This workshop will be mandatory 
for all students on staff. We will 
also 
compile 
past 
resources 

together to create streamlined 
guides on inclusive style and how 
to cover communities that one may 
not be a part of.

Lastly, we want to build stronger 

and 
more 
trusting 
relations 

with 
communities 
who 
have 

historically not had such relations 
with journalists. The News section 
has reached out and met with 
several prominent student groups 
about their thoughts on our past 
coverage and how we can work 
together in the future. 

We encourage members of our 

community to hold us accountable 
to make all the changes listed 
above become reality. We want to 
ensure marginalized voices on our 
campus are heard and that we end 
the historical trend of The Daily 
being a predominantly white, cis, 
hetero and rich institution.

To provide any feedback, you 

can reach us at the following email 
addresses:

• 
A&I Chair Dannah Wilson 
(dannahew@umich.edu)

• 
A&I Committee 
Member Noor Moughni 
(nmoughni@umich.edu)

• 
A&I Committee Member 
Claire Hao (cmhao@
umich.edu)

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