Natives underrepresented in journalism

Journalists make gains in time of industry perilOverall, the ASNE report found that the percentage of minorities in newsrooms stood at 13.41 percent, a decline of .11 percentage points from a year ago. The overall job loss, including non-minorities, was the largest one-year decline in employment in the history of the census.

But Native American journalists did not stick to the trend. In 2009, according to the ASNE data, they actually saw a 3.17 percent increase in their numbers. In this decade, there has been a net increase of Native American, Latino and Asian journalists and a net decline of African-American journalists.

Despite the year-over-year percentage increase, Native Americans comprised only .63 percent of the total journalism work force, according to the census.Comment:  Roughly speaking, minorities make up 30% of the US population but have only 13% of the journalism jobs. Indians make up 1% of the US population but have only 0.6% of the journalism jobs. In other words, minorities and Indians are badly underrepresented in journalism. That suggests their stories are underrepresented also.

For more on the subject, see Native Journalism:  To Tell the Truth.