Women, now the majority of entry-level TV news job applicants, have continued gradually to increase their share of the work force. The trend of the early '90s would bring them to about two of every five newsroom staff in 2001. When heavily male sports, weather and photography are excluded, women are at least half of the work force.

Minorities's share of the work force held at more or less 18% through the first half of the 1990s, and while some gains have probably been made since then, they most likely are small.

Similary, the minority share of news directorships hovered around 8% in the 1989-94 period, and signs point to little gain for 2001. The white ceiling remains.

But the glass ceiling for women is being shattered. Roughly one of every four TV news directors is now a woman, as I had predicted for 1996 on the basis of my trends data. Women were 24.1% of the TV news directors surveyed by Ohio State University Professors Lee Becker and Gerald Kosicki in early 1996. For details: "Women Break Glass Ceiling in TV News."

The 1990s have brought gains for women and losses for minorities in television news.

Women moved ahead in shares of both the work force and news directorships at commercial TV stations. They made up 33.7% of all newspeople at stations surveyed in 1990, 34.9% in 1993 and 36.2% in 1994. Sixteen percent of the news directors were women in 1990, 15.5% in 1993, 20.6% in 1994 and 24.1% in 1996.

Minorities held their own in work force numbers but lost ground as news directors. They hung on as 17.8% of all news staff in 1990, 18.5% in 1993 and 18% in 1994. But, as news directors, they dropped from 10% in 1990 to 8.5% in 1993 and 7.7% in 1994.

Small ups and downs from year to year mean little -- they can be due to normal sampling error. Only trends across several years point to real change or the lack of it.

The latest of the national surveys conducted by the author since 1972 was in mid-1994. Two mailings brought responses from 466 (47%) of the nation's 990 non-satellite commercial TV stations with working addresses. (For details, see TV Survey Method.)

In radio, there was little net change from 1990 to 1994.

Work Force

When one portion of the work force pie get larger, another gets smaller. One group's gain is another's loss White men, who once held most of the jobs, have seen their share erode since the Federal Communications Commission's affirmative action rules of 1969 and 1970. Their loss from 1990 to 1994 was 2 percentage points, a drop from 55.9% to 53.9% of the TV news work force. Minority men lost half a point, at 10.4% in 1990 and 9.9% in 1994.

Minority women gained slightly, edging up from 7.4% to 8.1% of all TV news personnel.

White women increased their share of the work force from 26.3% to 28.1%. In short, most of the loss by white men went to the gain by white women. Similarly, gains by minority women were roughly comparable to losses by minority men.

The female share of the TV news work force, just over a third, was consistent across market sizes and types of stations. But, as Table 1 shows, the minority share was twice as great at Fox and independent stations as at the ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates that account for most of the work force. That's mainly because the independents include Spanish-speaking stations where most staff are Hispanic.

Still, Hispanic journalists more often work at Big-Three affiliates. Three-fourths were there rather than at independent or Fox stations.

Minorities tend to be concentrated in larger markets. About a fourth of all TV newspeople at stations surveyed in the 25 largest markets were minority, compared to a tenth in the 60 smallest of the 210 TV markets. (Current Nielsen TV market ranks)

____________________________________________
Female Minority N

All stations 36.2% 18.0% 364

Big-3 net affils 36.1% 16.5% 312
Fox & independents 36.8% 32.1% 51

ADI 1-25 38.2% 24.3% 62

1-25 Big-3 affils 38.4% 23.2% 35
1-25 Fox/indies 37.5% 30.4% 26

ADI 26-50 33.0% 15.8% 51
ADI 51-100 35.2% 14.3% 90
ADI 101-150 37.0% 14.9% 83
ADI 151-210 36.5% 10.9% 65
____________________________________________

Losing can also be winning, if you turn to the numbers as well as the percentages. If the total work force grows enough, gains in numbers can more than offset losses in percentage points. That's what's happened in TV news. The work force grew an estimated 2,200 persons from 1990 to 1994. The pie, its 360 degrees unchangeable, did get thicker -- across every major slice.

White men won while losing. They lost 2% of the work force pie. But the estimated number shown for them for 1994 in Table 2 is 700 greater than for 1990. For white women, the 1990s have been bonanza years, their numbers growing by about 1,000. Minority women were up by about 300 and minority men by 100 African Americans, the largest minority, took most of the minority gains, roughly 200 black women and 125 black men more in 1994 than in 1990. Hispanic, Asian American and American Indian TV journalists showed little change.

The numerical projections in Table 2 come from multiplying the 1994 survey percentages by the number of stations with news operations, as indicated by survey responses.

_____________________________________

Table 2. Television News Work Force
in Detail -- 1994
_____________________________________

Estimated
Share Number

White men 53.9% 13,475
White women 28.1% 7,025
White total 82.0% 20,500

Black men 5.6% 1,400
Black women 4.6% 1,150
Black total 10.2% 2,250

Hispanic men 3.1% 775
Hispanic women 1.9% 475
Hispanic total 5.0% 1,250

Asian men .8% 200
Asian women 1.3% 325
Asian total 2.1% 525

Indian men .4% 100
Indian women .3% 75
Indian total .7% 175

Minority men 9.9% 2,475
Minority women 8.1% 2,025
Minority total 18.0% 4,500

Men 63.8% 15,950
Women 36.2% 9,050
Work force tota100.0% 25,000
_____________________________________

Black journalists are more likely than Hispanics to see their minority status as a career barrier. So found a separate Freedom Forum- sponsored survey that included 1,565 non-Hispanic white, 123 African American and 62 Hispanic members of TV news staffs.

Black journalists, more than others, say their race has hurt their careers -- that response from 37% of the African American and 14% of the Hispanic news staff surveyed.

Black journalists are more likely -- 27% vs. 13% of Hispanics -- to say racial discrimination may drive them out of the field.
Black journalists are least often managers -- 3% vs. 8% of Hispanic and 8% of non-Hispanic white Black journalists are least often supervisors -- 22% vs. 35% of Hispanic and 37% of white respondents.

Black journalists are least often decision-makers on program content -- 41% vs. 57% of whites and 60% of Hispanics. But African American journalists are at least as likely as others to aspire to higher management. When asked their long-term career goals, 16% of the black, 16% of the Hispanic and 9% of the non-Hispanic white journalists said they hoped of become station general managers or network executives.

News Directors

African Americans keep losing ground as news directors. They're twice as likely as whites to aspire to management but only half as likely to get there. And they're going downhill. Black male news directors were one percentage point fewer in 1994 thanin 1990. In estimated numbers, they dropped from 22 to 14. Black women, an estimated eight as news directors in 1990, numbered closer to four in 1994. Little change for the other minorities. African Americans accounted for most of the losses.

Overall, minority news directors were found at 10% of the responding stations in 1990, 8.6% in 1991, 8.7% in 1992, 8.5% in 1993 and 7.7% in 1994.

Women, meanwhile, registered typical year-to-year ups and downs, but finished strong for a solid 1990-94 gain. Sixtee percent of the news directors in the 1990 survey were women, 16.8% in 1991, 16.5% in 1992, 15.5% in 1993 and 20.6% in 1994. A good year for women in management, even more so than in the work force

The upward trend continued into 1996. Women were 24.1% of the 308 TV news directors surveyed by Ohio State University Professor Lee Becker and Gerald Kosicki in early 1996 for the Society of Professional Journalists/Jane Pauley Task Force on Mass Communication Education. (The Ohio State scholars and I have coordinated our research for years.) See: "Women Break Glass Ceiling in TV News."

Gone are the days when female news directors were found mostly in understaffed, low-paying shops at independent stations. In the 1990s, women have moved from heading 12% of the Big-Three network affiliate newsrooms to 20%. Their gains came in smaller markets -- up from 16.5% to 27.6% in ADI 101-150 and from 18.4% to 30.8% of the news directorships at responding stations in ADI 151-210. These are feeder markets, steppingstones to bigger things Minority news directors, like other minority journalists, are most often found in larger markets, as Table 3 shows. Those markets also are the ones most likely to have Spanish-speaking stations.

______________________________________

Table 3. Female and Minority Shares of
TV News Director Positions -- 1994
______________________________________

Female Minority

All stations 20.6% 7.7%

Big-3 net affils 20.0% 5.0%
Fox & independents 27.5% 26.5%

ADI 1-25 20.6% 16.3%

1-25 Big-3 affils 13.9% 8.4%
1-25 Fox/indies 30.8% 25.0%

ADI 26-50 15.7% 10.0%
ADI 51-100 10.6% 6.4%
ADI 101-150 27.6% 2.2%
ADI 151-210 30.8% 4.6%
______________________________________

Black men were not the only losers. White men took an even bigger loss -- 3.3 percentage points from 1990 to 1994. That projects to about 50 news director positions. Most of them, an estimated 36, went to white women.

The net gain for whites and loss for minorities was 2.3 percentage points, about 14 news directorships.

As Table 4 shows, Asian Americans and American Indians are rarely found as TV news directors.

_____________________________________

Table 4. Television News Directors
in Detail -- 1994
_____________________________________

Estimated
Share Number

White men 73.9% 547
White women 18.4% 136
White total 92.3% 683

Black men 1.9% 14
Black women .6% 4
Black total 2.5% 18

Hispanic men 2.8% 21
Hispanic women 1.1% 8
Hispanic total 3.9% 29

Asian men .0% --
Asian women .5% 4
Asian total .5% 4

Indian men .8% 6
Indian women .0% --
Indian total .8% 6

Minority men 5.5% 41
Minority women 2.2% 16
Minority total 7.7% 57

Men 79.4% 588
Women 20.6% 152
Total news dirs. 100.0% 740
____________________________________

Looking Ahead

Though the future is unknown, its best predictor is past performance.

How have the news media been doing since diversity became a goal?

Newspapers have trailed television in minority employment all along. A survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors found that minorities made up 10.9% (vs. TV's 18%) of all news staff at the end of 1994, compared to 8.7% for 1990 and
10.5% at the end of 1993.

When its surveys began in 1978, the ASNE's goal was for its newsrooms to reflect the U.S. population by the year 2000. That clearly didn't happen. The minority share of daily newspaper newspeople was 11.5% in 1998, compared to 26% for the general population.

At the rate we're going, no news medium will reach the ASNE goal even by the middle of the 21st century. When the goal wa set in 1978, our newsroom surveys found minority shares of a rounded 16% in television, 8% in radio and 4% at daily newspapers. Broadcast news was far ahead because of the FCC's 1969 rule -- diversify or lose your license. By 1994, minorities had increased their share of newspaper newsroom positions to 11%. But TV and radio news staffs had changed little, edging up to 18% and 11%.

Looking ahead, the Census Bureau estimates roughly that the population will be 47% minority by the year 2050. What about newsrooms if they keep moving at the same average annual rate of percentage-point change they logged for 1978-94? By
2050, the minority shares would be 15% in radio news, 26% in TV news and 35% at daily newspapers. Still nowhere near the goal.

Related reports:

Women Break Glass Ceiling in TV News
Race, Gender & TV News Careers
Who Does What in TV News
Minorities and Women in Radio News

Related sites:

Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program
Directory of Hispanic TV Stations

This research was used as a source in the final report (November 1995) of the federal Glass Ceiling Commission. This site has been selected as a "valuable Internet resource" by Discovery Channel School. The author holds the Radio-Television News Directors Association's John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award for "the research that has traced the most accurate image... of electronic journalism." This research was supported by the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where Dr. Stone is a professor emeritus, and by the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation.

The findings are presented here to serve the industry, students, fellow scholars and others who may be interested in the workings of the broadcast news media. Use beyond customary excerpting for review, news stories or scholarly works is prohibited without permission from the author. References should be credited to Vernon Stone, University of Missouri.