A call for diversity in response to Richard Lapchick study

It’s a man’s world in the realm of sports media. Actually, it’s a man’s world in all forms of the media in today’s society, more specifically a white man’s world.

Let me preface by saying that I don’t think this is right. Women and minorities should have the opportunity to work in sports media, or any media they so desire, just as much as anyone else.

But studies sadly show this isn’t the case.

Richard Lapchick’s 2008 study of gender and race in the APSE newspaper and media staffs sheds light on something that is more than likely known by many in the media.

The results aren’t shocking, especially when it comes to sports writing – 94 percent of sports editors are men, and 94 percent of sports editors are white.

Women make up only 11.5 percent of total APSE staffs in 2008, down from 12.6 percent in 2006.

One downside to this study is that it fails to mention how many minorities or women applied for these positions in 2008. I would imagine that the majority of people applying are white males, which obviously gives them a better shot of being hired.

Many American sports are dominated by minorities – African Americans in the NBA and NFL, and Latin Americans in MLB, etc. So where are the minorities when it comes to reporting on these sports?

In a perfect world, one could say that the people doing the hiring and interviewing of candidates aren’t biased, but I just don’t believe that to be the case. Something needs to be done to get these voices heard.

Women and minorities can possibly bring creative new ideas and perspectives never before seen in the sports media world.

As a sports reporter for a college newspaper, I’ve seen this firsthand.

There are only three female sportswriters on our staff of about 15 people or so, but I will be the first to say that these writers are some of the best we have on staff. The best enterprise sports story I’ve ever read in our paper came from a current female sports reporter last year.

What needs to be implemented in newspaper and other media jobs is some sort of rule similar to the “Rooney Rule” in the NFL. This would force editors to interview at least one minority and one female for each position, possibly giving them more opportunities to have their voice heard in the media.

There are some positives that show that things may be slowly changing. The percentages of African-Americans increased as sports editors, columnists, copy editors and
support staff/clerks, and the number of Asians increased, as well. The number of women is increasing in some positions as well, but at a very slow rate.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favor of having the best candidate get the job. If the best candidate for a certain position is a white male, then so be it.

But the Rooney Rule has helped get more minority coaches more opportunities to be hired in the NFL.

A rule like this is the media world would do the same thing.