Improving source diversity in education journalism

The key to making source diversity a durable newsroom practice may be putting reporters in charge of the effort.

By Amber C. Walker

In 2014, Paul Fanlund, editor and publisher of my former newsroom, The Capital Times, announced “Together Apart: Race in Madison,” an attempt to intentionally discuss race by providing space for Black residents to contribute op-eds  and encouraging journalists on staff to write nuanced, deeply reported stories about the concerns of Madison’s communities of color. However, by the time I joined the Wisconsin paper in 2016 as the education reporter, no one mentioned “Together Apart” anymore.

News outlets have begun all kinds of initiatives aimed at inclusivity over the years — and usually have let them fade away, quickly and quietly. Media diversity initiatives typically come as a response to community backlash or tragedy. We saw it after the 2016 election as reporters flooded rural America to collect stories from the “silent majority.” We are seeing it now, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, as journalists dig into why Black folks are shouting that our lives matter.

The fanfare is loud — but usually short-lived and there is no follow-up as the inciting incident eventually becomes a memory.

One key factor may be that most of these efforts are top-down rather than bottom-up.

Keith Woods, NPR’s chief diversity officer, has cautioned against using top-down initiatives to solve systemic issues. “We’ve structured ourselves into a problem with systems and habits, and we’ve been trying to solve it with projects and initiatives,” he said in a 2016 Current piece. “We’ll no doubt make some progress that way, but this big ideal of looking and sounding like America? That will elude us until we’re ready to make more substantive changes.”

The substantive changes Woods is talking about involve, among other things, being aware of whom you talk to for a story and why, and putting reporters in the lead. The work of diversifying sources — or widening the pool of experts that are interviewed for reported pieces while being conscious of the identities that they represent — can help ensure news coverage better reflects the multitudes of people in our country. A publisher writing a statement about the importance of diversity in coverage isn’t enough, nor is hiring a flurry of journalists from underrepresented backgrounds.

In order for journalists to commit long term to the critical work of diversifying their sources and coverage, it must be a process they can easily manage as well as an intrinsic belief that the effort will improve their reporting.

In order for journalists to commit long term to the critical work of diversifying their sources and coverage, it must be a process they can easily manage as well as an intrinsic belief that the effort will improve their reporting. – Amber C. Walker

Woods joined NPR in 2010 as their chief diversity officer and he leads The Sourcing Project, the newsroom’s effort to track the race, ethnicity, geographic location, and gender of sources heard on its flagship news magazines, All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

NPR publicly released the data in 2015 and again in 2019 with the stated goal of making their coverage reflect the diverse makeup of the country.

However, NPR’s most recent analysis showed their coverage actually became less racially diverse, with 73% of sources identifying as white in 2015 vs. 83% in 2018.

Although its analysis did call out an uptick in political stories during the Trump administration as a potential reason for less diversity in on-air sources, NPR also mentioned the numbers mirrored what they saw in 2013 under President Barack Obama, who had the most diverse administration in presidential history.

Of course, as a vice president, Woods leading The Sourcing Project for NPR appears as a top-down directive and it seems his idea about the long-term ineffectiveness of using projects and initiatives to tackle issues with systems and habits may be proving itself correct.

However, there is a bright spot: NPR’s most recent report highlighted the education beat as having some of the most diverse coverage in the newsroom.

We’ve been working on [source diversity] for a while now, but in the last couple years we introduced a spreadsheet and started tracking our sources for every story. – NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz

Anya Kamenetz, who covers education for NPR, said the education team takes an internal, collaborative approach to tracking their sources, which helps to ensure momentum and accountability.

“We’ve been working on it for a while now, but in the last couple years we introduced a spreadsheet and started tracking our sources for every story. This makes the process visible to everyone, which holds us accountable, and keeps it front and center in our minds,” Kamenetz said in an email to The Grade.

“We also discuss sourcing frequently and openly amongst ourselves and trade recommendations for diverse experts and techniques for finding diverse characters to focus on. Sometimes it’s as simple as saying we are looking for diverse voices (in a Twitter callout).”

In August, Kamenetz took to Twitter to find sources for her story about classroom teachers balancing their work and parenting responsibilities during COVID-19. Kamenetz’s tweet specifically stated she was looking for diversity in all its forms and for people who did not live in New York City, the place that dominated the early days of COVID-19 coverage.

The Twitter callout was so effective, Kamenetz ended up creating a Google Form to collect responses. She heard from nearly 100 people. The resulting story profiled elementary, middle, and high school teachers from rural, suburban, and urban areas across the country. The teachers and their students also came from a multitude of backgrounds, including immigrants to the United States and those with special needs.

Although Kamenetz admits that sourcing expert women’s voices may be a bit easier on the education beat given the overrepresentation of women in the field, her team is committed to making sure its coverage reflects the country’s population.

“We still have a long way to go, but our team’s approach to getting closer to representing the country has been transformed by the advocacy of (editors) Lauren Migaki and Nicole Cohen,” Kamanetz said. “And the fact that our boss (Steve Drummond) also manages Code Switch, NPR’s outstanding podcast on race and identity, probably helps our awareness as well.”

Anything that forces you to think about who you’re calling as an expert, or calling as a source of any kind, is helpful. – NYT reporter Ben Casselman

Late last year, Ben Casselman, who reports on business and economics for The New York Times, tweeted about his process and motivations for tracking the race and gender of the people he quoted in his stories. In an interview with The Grade, Casselman said he started with two metrics to simplify the process.

“Gender and race were two of the starkest dividing lines in our society, and certainly, as an economy reporter, highly relevant to our economy and the way our economy functions,” Casselman said.

“For each story, I counted the number of men, women, and nonbinary people I was quoting and counted the number of people of color I was quoting…There’s a lot of different dimensions of diversity that we might care about. But if you set out to count all of them, then it’s like a recipe for stopping because that’s just going to be a tremendous amount of work to do.”

Casselman credits his colleague, Patricia Cohen, who covers the national economy, for rallying his team to begin the tracking process. Cohen “started a Google Doc of diverse sources. It was originally a list of women, then broadened out to be people of color as well. She encouraged all of us to drop in names and contact information of economists,” Casselman said.

As Casselman wraps up his second year of tracking his sources, he’s refined the process to concentrate on other diversity dimensions that are important to him.

“A shortcoming of that original effort was that I didn’t count race, ethnicity, and gender separately. I didn’t have a way of counting like how many women of color for example, I quoted. So that’s something I’m trying to remedy this year,” he said.

Casselman said he believes that paying attention to source diversity in his reporting has made him a better reporter. “Fundamentally, I went into it because I thought it would improve my journalism and after almost two years of doing this, it’s just extremely clear to me that it does. Anything that forces you to think about who you’re calling as an expert, or calling as a source of any kind, is helpful,” he said.

“Just talking to a broader range of people, and that’s not only along racial and gender lines; that’s talking to people across all sorts of dimensions. It’s just going to bring richer stories and a richer range of stories. I would encourage people to do it. I think it’s a valuable exercise.”

We want to make [tracking source diversity] more of a streamlined process where we can share that info across bureaus and nationally. – Chalkbeat’s Emiliana Sandoval.

Members of Chalkbeat’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging [DEIB] Group — which includes reporters, editors, and other staff — saw Casselman’s tweet and brought him in earlier this year to talk to their editorial team about his process.

In an interview with The Grade, Emiliana Sandoval, managing editor for style and standards for Chalkbeat, said the” lunch and learn” series Casselman participated in was a part of an ongoing effort including conversations and trainings spearheaded by the DEIB Group.

Sandoval said more trainings are slated for early 2021 with a goal to begin an organization-wide source list and source diversity audit.

“We are very conscious of broadening expert sources, so we’re working on that. We’re also very conscious that education — at the teacher and admin levels — still tends to be a majority white population. We’re trying to really make sure we’re talking to … as many educators of color and experts of color as possible,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval said all Chalkbeat reporters should be tracking their sources and pointed to national reporters Matt Barnum and Kayln Belsha, who have been vocal about their process in the newsroom.

“Every reporter has their own way of tracking and their own lists,” she said. “We want to make it more of a streamlined process where we can share that info across bureaus and nationally.”

We are already seeing evidence of Chalkbeat’s consolidated efforts. Chalkbeat uses a combination of its website and social media to reach potential sources. Chalkbeat has a standing page on its site with information on how to be a source and ways potential sources can get in contact with its newsrooms. For people who are not well versed in talking to the media, but have a story to tell, the resource helps bring transparency to the process.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Chalkbeat wanted to reach out to history and civics teachers about how they were talking to students about the dynamics of the race. Chalkbeat’s flagship account and bureaus all posted the tweet with a link to the site callout. The tweet included common hashtags used by educators in order to broaden its reach outside its followers.

The resulting story included reporting from journalists across Chalbeat’s eight regional bureaus. Chalkbeat’s model inherently results in urban, suburban, and rural diversity, with dedicated reporters covering large urban metros like New York City and statewide reporters in places like Indiana. The story also engaged elementary, middle, and high school educators who represented a multitude of backgrounds and taught a wide range of students, both in person and online.

Although Chalkbeat is in the early days of its organization-wide tracking process, Sandoval said it likely would share its source diversity data publicly.

“I’m comfortable saying we would” publish the data, she said. “As a nonprofit, we were already so transparent about so many things. I think to say that we are uplifting and sharing voices in communities of color, and with our anti-racist statement, if we didn’t share that it would be very disingenuous.”

“We’re proud to talk the talk, but back it up by walking the walk.”

Half of the sources quoted in this piece identify as white and half identify as women. – Amber C. Walker

When I covered K-12 education, source diversity was something I was conscious of, although I did not have a system to confirm it. One of my goals as a reporter was to have my coverage reflect the makeup of the students in the district. Since the majority of kids were students of color, I wanted the majority of my coverage to focus on those students. While I believe I accomplished that goal, the only way to confirm it is to go back and look.

For the sake of leading by example, I’ll note half of the sources quoted in this piece identify as white and half identify as women. I was conscious of reaching out to a racially and geographically diverse set of journalists who could speak to this topic, and, understandably, not all were available given the constraints of remote reporting during the holiday season. The four journalists quoted for this piece will mark the beginning of my own tracker to ensure I hold myself accountable in my reporting process.

I see the value in reporters tracking their sources and auditing the data. Taking the extra couple of minutes at the end of the interview to ask your sources how they identify and logging the data is not a tall order for the benefit of improving your reporting for students and their families. With a break at the end of the year, now would be a great time to think about how to implement some of these practices in 2021.

Additional resources on source diversity:

Tracking and Increasing the Representation of Diverse Voices (GastroPod)

Make your reporting more diverse: Try a different network, redefine experts (Reynolds Journalism Institute)

WPR Source Demographic Survey Shows Need For Improvement (Wisconsin Public Radio)

This BBC journalist created a system to make sure more female experts got on air (Poynter)

Previous coverage from The Grade:

7 best practices for education reporters in 2019

Diverse Sources Needed – Regardless of the Topic

Do The Work