Much has been done, but there's still work to do.
Despite subtle improvements in nationwide newsroom diversity, newspapers still suffer from unfair community expectations and alack of diverse backgrounds, Society of Professional Journalists panelists said Saturday morning.
Speaking at Covering Diversity: Connecting with our Communities, panelists also discussed what is being done to improve community-newspaper connections and what isn't.
"It's scandalous," said Peter Bhatia, managing editor of the Portland Oregonian. "Most don't have any minorities at the small papers in the small towns."
Bhatia said the American Society of Newspaper Editors reported at its recent conference that whites still comprise a disproportionate number of newsroom staff at 89 percent.
He said one way the Oregonian is attempting to reach out to its varied communities is with "greater expertise" by establishing reporting teams to target issues and communitities, and allowing reporter input on coverage decisions.
"It helps to give us more authority," Bhatia said. "The coverage is based on what the people out on the street are telling us. It pushes more decision-making onto (reporters)."
A national newsroom of figure of just 11 percent minorities is what prompts Kevin Weston, associate editor of YO! (Youth Outlook) to offer a simpler solution to improving minority newpaper coverage.
"Hire them," Weston said.
None of the panelists said stories should be assigned based on ethnic or sexual orientation; it doesn't neccessarily take a black reporter to cover a black issue.
But certain issues do need someone with specialized knowledge.
"I get pissed off when I see stories written by people not associated with the culture," Weston said. "Like with hip-hop."
Elizabeth Weise, a lesbian reporter in Associated Press's San Francisco bureau, said certain issues do require special knowledge our experience in a community -- like stories about the death of Randy Shilts, one of America's best gay journalists.
"You don't have to be a member of a community," Weise said. "But you need information. You need background."
Despite advantages of being involved in a community, Weise said expectations of that community can be unrealistic.
Professional news judgment conflicts with community perceptions, Weise said.
She said the Lesbian Avengers wanted coverage of a protest involving dumping 100 grasshoppers in the office of a Marin group that advocated "re-educating" gays. The Lesbian Avengers explained that the dumping was a symbolic release of a plague of locusts.
Bill Wong, panel moderator and editor at the Oakland Tribune, said classical journalism is in a period of transition due to publications like YO! where first-person stories are more common.
"It is worth it for readers who are quickly fading into tabloid television," Wong said.
Weston said all reporters should have a quest for knowledge that should allow them to transcend any defficiencies in background knowledge of people, culture and communities.
"You should be a seeker," Weston said.