I came across an article by Variety about German’s TV anchors diversity, or lack of diversity. Germany has had their entire 15 million “immigrant background” population represented by white news anchors, until now.

German news finally brings diversity

Ethnic journalists now populate newscasts

Yet suddenly newscasts have been flung open to ethnic journalists with foreign names speaking flawless German.

There are 15 million residents with an “immigrant background,” as non-whites are referred to in a country of 82 million. As Germany celebrated its 60th anni May 23 as a post-WWII democracy, the growing numbers of ethnic minorities on TV provides an illuminating example of a country coming to terms with its past and present.

Former WDR topper Fritz Pleitgen, who was pubcaster ARD’s U.S. correspondent in Washington and New York from 1982 to 1988, says German TV has made important strides with diversity, even though it still has a long way to go in comparison to the U.S. and U.K.

“When I came back from America in 1988 it dawned on me that you only saw Germanic-types of people on TV in Germany,” Pleitgen tells Variety. “I had really liked what I saw on TV in the U.S. and realized we had to start changing that in Germany. Even though we’re still far away from fully reflecting the country’s immigrant population, I’m extremely pleased that we’ve made headway toward changing that. It’s still seen as a bit exotic, but it’s gradually becoming normal. And that’s a good thing.”

According to a study by Horst Poettker, a journalism professor at the Technical U. of Dortmund, only about 3% of journalists in Germany are from the immigrant community even though they comprise about 20% of the overall population.

Things started to change in Germany in 2000 when the incoming center-left government did away with Germany’s archaic 1913 citizenship law based on blood and replaced it with a modern one that made it easier for foreigners to become naturalized citizens.

But there were immigrant industryites who forged the way for others before that.

“It’s changed a lot,” says Cherno Jobatey, a popular host of pubcaster ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin” morning news show.

Jobatey, whose father came to Germany from Gambia, told Variety there were raised eyebrows when he became Germany’s first black anchor with the show’s launch in 1992.

“It was tough at first. If I didn’t have such good ratings, it would have been a lot harder. Good ratings always help if you’re a minority,” says Jobatey.

“Morgenmagazin” has grown from a paltry 50,000 viewers at its launch to 2.5 million and a 28% share nowadays. “On a bad day we still have a 20% share,” he says.

Jobatey, who began his career as a print journalist and became a local reporter for pubcaster ARD’s Berlin web SFB before jumping to ZDF, recalls hearing of one exec blasting managers who wanted to give him the job.

“He told them ‘How could you even think about hiring a guy like this?’ They said that they just liked what I was doing and I got the job.”

After his first show, one viewer called ZDF to say she really enjoyed watching Jobatey but was worried there was something wrong with the studio lighting because his skin appeared so dark on her TV screen.

Huelya Oezkan, who was born in Turkey and moved to Germany with her family when she was 7, has hosted ZDF’s “Heute in Europa” since 2001. She had to deal with racist mail from viewers at first.

While Jobatey and Oezkan might have been pioneers, in the past two years they have been joined by many others.

At ZDF there is co-anchor Dunja Hayali, whose parents immigrated to Germany from Iraq, and at RBB in Berlin there is Mitri Sirin, whose parents came from Turkey.

ARD Middle East correspondent Golineh Atai was born in Tehran and grew up in Germany while ARD latenight news anchor Ingo Zamperoni’s father emigrated from Italy.

Commercial web RTL is proud of its all-round talent Nazan Eckes, who is part of the large Turkish community.

Pleitgen, like Jobatey, says he is looking forward to the day when a non-white anchor makes it onto the team of a half dozen rotating anchors at “Tagesschau,” ARD’s hugely popular flagship 15-minute newscast at 8 p.m.

“That is definitely going to happen one day,” says Pleitgen. “I think it would make ‘Tagesschau’ a lot more interesting.”

-J. O’Keefe

Workplace Culture german television, world diversity

Alt-D Quick Answer O’ the Day: Diversify your content. If your staffing is too white, don’t sweat it. Just make sure that your editorial team is reaching out and covering diverse communities—and not just the bad stuff or stories about their communities. The easiest way to diversify fast is in your “soft” coverage. Once people of color start noticing your deliberate efforts to diversify your coverage (which really means: “cover your entire community”), you will get more applicants of color. How to retain them? That’s a different riddle. Keep reading!

Content, Do It Now, Ladd's Advice, Recruitment content, Hiring

With all the talk about newspaper readership shrinking in tough times, and amid lots of handwrining about how the Internet is killing print, one of the elephants in the room is that media that cater to more diverse readerships, as well as specific under-served minority communities, are growing dramatically. At its recent expo in Atlanta New America Media released the results of a new study that should give all “mainstream” and even alt-weekly outlets pause. Here’s just one of the findings:

The number of adults reached by ethnic media has increased by approximately 16 percent during the last four year.

There should come as no major surprise for those who keep up with both demographic and generational trends in the U.S. For one thing, as I talk about elsewhere on this blog, younger media consumers *expect* diversity in their media. They may not want to sit around and discuss diversity all the time — after all, why should you need to *talk* about something so basic!? — but all of the research backs up the obvious: they care about diversity in media. Yes, including young white media consumers.

Our experience here at the Jackson Free Press at least anecdotally (we believe decisively) backs up the idea that today’s media consumers (and advertisers) respond to diverse media (which includes stories, images and advertising messages). Our paper’s revenue has continued to steadily grow, as has our readership. We strongly believe that is in no small part due to our dedication to diversity throughout our newspaper and our Web site. In other words, we believe strongly that diversity is good for business. And all of the studies back us up, so hey.

Business of Diversity, Demographics, Millennials content, Ethnic Media, Millennials, New America Media

Here’s a great idea the rest of us should borrow for our papers: New America Media is featuring a story by Hispaninc Business that explores whether President Obama stiumulus funds are reaching minority-owned businesses in California:

Meanwhile, during a press conference on Thursday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke — the first Chinese-American to hold that post — acknowledged that the federal government is a “huge bureaucracy.”
As a result, he said, minority-owned firms often don’t know how to access federal resources set aside for them.

“I know what a struggle it is,” he said during the teleconference. “I had to work in my dad’s grocery store for many, many years. … My dad was a small-business owner, and was constantly struggling.”

He said minority-business owners interested in applying for contracts from the Economic Recovery Act should visit the Web site of the Commerce Department’s “Minority Business Development Agency,” as well as .

Content, Do It Now, Story Angles Business, Latinos, New America Media, Stimulus

New American Media announced in late June a call for its members—ethnic media outlets—to run the same editorial calling for Congress to enact “a just and humane immigration reform package that will reunite
families, reinvigorate the economy, and remove the term “illegal or
undocumented immigrants” from the dialogue in this country.” The editorial is offered in 10 languages in addition to English at that link.

Content Ethnic Media, Immigration, New America Media

I just found this article from 2007 on the Newspaper Association of America site. Called “Finders, Keepers,” it’s relevant to the complaint I often here from alt-weekly editors: When they hire a good staffer of color, the he or she often doesn’t stay long, and either leaves the alt-media world or gets hired away by another publication. Of course, the retention problem applies to all good staffers, and it’s particularly pressing in a world where young workers feel much less loyalty than in generations past. The article has good food for thought for retaining all good workers, as well as employees of color. Not surprisingly the key is communication, with a focus on peer-to-peer straight talk:

To keep employees, Taylor says, companies should continually gather, track and report turnover data, link retention to key performance measures, set retention goals for every leader and reward progress.

In addition, companies should realize that while good pay and benefits still top the list, more workers report that a healthy work environment, schedule flexibility and a fair, supportive and communicative boss are increasingly important, he says.

“It’s not just about pay, but also a work environment that’s fun and engaging and a boss I like as an individual, and who coaches and develops me,” Taylor says. “The leader is a more critical variable: ‘Yes, of course my job matters, but my leader matters, too. And if I work for a jerk, I’m not hanging around.’ ”

Leaders must communicate openly with their staffs and do what they say they will do – every day – to earn employees’ trust and respect. “It’s a continuous process,” he says. “If you continuously miss commitments and not do what you say you’re going to do … you’re going to erode trust over time.”

As for particular problems retaining people of color, the answer is even more communication, instead of less, which is what we too often see:

s for keeping employees of color, he notes that peer-to-peer relationships are a big factor. “Who do people go to first if they’re unhappy at work? Their friends at work,” he says. “So how can you influence those conversations to be constructive, not destructive?

“We train the boss to ask the employee, ‘If I ever do anything that is inappropriate, or if I break your trust, or if something bothers you with your job, would you commit to seeing me first? And I will commit to acting on it,’ ” Taylor adds.

“We also train the boss to say, ‘If any of your colleagues comes to you with a problem, would you please encourage them to come and see me?’ Now we are beginning to influence that peer-to-peer conversation.”

Millennials, Workplace Culture Hiring, Retention, Straight Talk

OK, you want more diversity in your paper, your readership and your newsroom, but it seems like an uphill, long-term battle. What can you do right now? My “Do It Now” posts will be immediate “fixes” that you can start doing right this very second. Today’s tip: Diversify your images.

This is one of the easiest ways to help at least the perception of your diversity. Often, the true diversity of your content is not apparent at first glance due to your images. First, take a quick inventory (perhaps while you’re flipping through all the issues deciding on what goes up for awards for the year). Take a stack of papers and look at the images with a fresh eye. How many issues have non-white faces? Better yet, notice how many don’t. What sections seem to always have images of one particular race? Does every section of your paper look diverse (not just sports and music)? Do your ads show a diversity of people?

Read more…

Do It Now, Ladd's Advice Advertising, content, Design, Images, Music, Sports

The Maynard Institute has a fun way to check your media-diversity acumen: a diversity game. Caution: It’s harder than you think, but at least there are three levels.

Asides Add new tag, Games, Maynard

Listen to a Dec. 5 radio program by Washington state youth about the need for media diversity, including segments about:

* Youth are looking critically at the media and many are not happy with how they are portrayed in the media. Listen to voices of Washington youth speak about what they would like to see and how they would like to change media representation. (Sami Muilenburg, Seattle, WA)
* An interview with Joe Torres, lobbyist for Freepress who speaks about the need for a critical mass of minority voices in our media landscape. (Gavin Dahl, Boise ID)
* KPCN is the only union owned radio station in the Northwest. We listen to the president of Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United speak about how they planned to use their airwaves. (Sue Supriano, Eugene, OR)

Millennials Millennials, Radio

New America Media, an influential ethnic-media organization, has an Earl Ofari Hutchinson column that warns not to call Barack Obama the nation’s “black president”:

The instant Barack Obama tossed his hat in the presidential ring nearly two years ago, the twin mantra was that he could be the first black president, and if that happened, America would finally have kicked its race syndrome.

Read more…

Media Bias African Americans, New America Media, Obama