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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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