One thing more thing on the Russell Crowe movie: It does have plenty of minorities sprinkled in the newsroom, except of course in the lead roles. There’s the black city editor who hounds Cal. There’s a few black writers seen at their desks. And an Asian guy who could be an editor or the legal guy.
And they’re all working in a place that looks like a fire hazard.
I didn’t hear my kids say, “Gee, Dad, I want to work there.”
It must have seemed to them like a white collar coal mine.
Still, the lack of diversity in journalism may actually be a good thing now. Maybe minority journalists are lucky that we’re not the lead rats on the sinking ship.
I suppose that depends if journalism is LIFO (last in, first out) or FIFO (first in, first out).
In survival mode, the state of journalism makes it impossible to sustain any kind of racial equity. And retention rates for talented minorities were low even before the decline of the industry. If anything, media companies will need better affirmative action programs to make sure journalism and the media business doesn’t stay all-white for another 100 years.
As both a former TV and newspaper reporter, I did note how in the journalism movie, convention has turned the glamorous TV reporter into the dramatic chorus. Formerly, a director would simply flash a newspaper headline, filling the movie screen in bold type to emphasize a plot point.
So old school. But soon even an anchor or a breathless reporter summing up the plot will seem outdated.
In the future, we’ll all just get twittered.
