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Diversity Syllabi Database
A resource for journalism educators to use in creating and/or improving diversity courses at the university level.
Donate to the Challenge Fund for Journalism
February Event Will Mark CIIJ's 15th Anniversary
A resource for journalism educators to use in creating and/or improving diversity courses at the university level.
Mar 28, 2004 in JOURNALS comments (0)
Newswatch Journal Spring 2001
Gays and Lesbians: In the Newsroom and Making News
by Dara Williams
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The first widely circulated gay periodical in North America, One, was first published in 1953. But it took seven years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that One could be distributed through the mail. And it wasn't until 1981 that a major U.S. daily newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, hired an openly gay journalist, Randy Shilts.
Nine years later, a survey by the founder of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association showed that 59 percent of gay journalists were open about their sexual orientation to their newsroom colleagues. Today, that number has risen to 91.5 percent.
While visibility in the newsroom is a crucial component to ensuring fair, accurate, and relevant coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, it is only a first step.
Daily stories about LGBT communities are still lacking. NLGJA founder Roy Aarons released another study last year that shows, on a scale of 1 (too little) to 10 (too much), 87 percent of gay and lesbian journalists rated the extent of news coverage of gay and lesbian issues at 5 or below.
We need to improve these numbers. One way is to constantly remind ourselves of the advice of the late Charles Jackson, who mentored hundreds of journalists and was the editor of the Oakland Tribune and director of News Watch last year: practice open journalism.
He wasn't talking about "open" in the sense of sexual orientation. He meant journalism that is open to all, that covers the movers, shakers and the moved and the shaken.
He challenged us to go into neighborhoods with which we are unfamiliar and find good stories to tell. He was telling us to be open minded, understanding, and know that our prejudices ‹ and we all have them ‹ will be challenged.
This issue of the News Watch magazine looks at one area of American society in which we need to do more to open the journalistic door. Besides the articles examining LGBT issues, News Watch has compiled a nationwide resource list of organizations you can turn to when covering LGBT communities. If there are some we left out, let us know.
We also need your eyes and ears open for examples of news stories that have positive or negative portrayals of LGBT communities, people of color and people with disabilities. When you see or read a news story and you find yourself nodding in agreement, or if it makes you pound your fist on the desk in frustration, use our tear-out form on page 14 for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Send the form and the journalistic work to us and we'll review it. The piece may be featured on our Web site or in a future News Watch magazine.
Keep the faith. Practice open journalism.
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