Pease: “Still the Invisible People” Abstract

“Still the Invisible People”—Job Satisfaction of Minority Journalists at U.S. Daily Newspapers
By Edward C. Pease (©1991)

Doctoral Dissertation
E.W Scripps School of Journalism
Ohio University • Athens, Ohio

ABSTRACT

PEASE, EDWARD C., Ph.D., June 1991

STILL THE INVISIBLE PEOPLE: Job Satisfaction of Minority Journalists at U.S. Daily Newspapers (402 pp.)

Director of Dissertation: Dr. Ralph Izard, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism

Analysis of the responses of 1,328 newspaper journalists – both white and nonwhite – working for a national random sample of daily newspapers yields new insights into job satisfaction and the impact of race on newsroom climate. The study examines factors affecting career ambitions and job satisfaction of all newspaper journalists as well as how efforts to employ a more multiculturally diverse workforce affects hiring, career advancement and newspaper content.

The Newsroom Barometer Project surveyed journalists in a random sample of 27 daily newspapers, stratified by circulation and geography. The number of minority respondents was purposively increased through an additional sample drawn from the membership lists of the four national minority journalists associations. In all, 1,328 of 2,209 newspaper journalists surveyed participated, for a return rate of 60.1 percent.

The results show that on most “race-neutral” issues involving ambition, career satisfaction and expected career longevity, journalists are journalists, regardless of race. Minority journalists are not significantly more likely to want to leave the newspaper business than their white counterparts. Minority journalists are younger, more likely to occupy lower positions, more likely to say they’ll change newspapers soon and somewhat more ambitious to achieve top management positions.

Minority journalists say racism is a powerful force in the newsroom; they are, they say, “still the invisible people.” A picture of a newsroom “caste system” emerges, dominated by white males who are seen by minorities and women as reluctant to share power. Many of these entrenched white males have a limited sense of the value of multiculturalism in newspapers. Whites disagree. Some whites resent “reverse discrimination” favoring minorities. A majority of all respondents say mismanagement is a critical problem. Half would not want their children to pursue newspaper careers, most because of poor working conditions, but a significant number because they think newspapers are dying.