Study finds almost no Hispanics, Asians among network news correspondents
Cheryl Arvidson
The Freedom Forum Online
02.08.00
Printer-friendly page
Hispanics and Asians were almost nonexistent in the lineup of network news correspondents in 1999, according to a new analysis of minority representation on the nightly television newscasts.
The analysis is by Joe Foote, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, who has been tracking the visibility of minorities on network evening newscasts for 18 years.
African-American correspondents, Foote said, did far better than Asians and Hispanics in terms of numbers and on-air opportunities in 1999. He said 19 African-American correspondents placed among the top 151 on-air personalities last year, meaning their visibility at 13% nearly matched their proportion of the general population. But Hispanics and Asians registered numbers only in the single digits, representing only 3% and 1% of the correspondent ranks, respectively.
In the case of Asians, not only did they fail to register advances in the correspondent ranks, but the number of Asian correspondents also actually dropped by half.
"You are starting from such a low base that the numbers look increasingly bad if they lose one or two people," Foote said.
Jim Avila, an NBC correspondent based in Chicago, is the second-most-visible correspondent on the network newscasts. Avila is Hispanic, and for three years he has scored very high in the number of his appearances. But it would be wrong to assume that the visibility of Avila translates into better representation of either Hispanics or minorities in the correspondent ranks, Foote said.
"There is no one with an Asian background who would compare to Avila. And if he were run over by a truck today, Hispanic visibility of the evening news would be 80% lower than it is today," Foote said.
Foote based his analysis on information gathered by the "Television News Index and Abstracts" compiled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He based his report on individuals who were on air five or more times during 1999 on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts. Foote does not count other news shows, news-anchor appearances, individuals on the high-visibility news magazine shows or correspondents from the various cable networks.
Although some criticize his analysis because it excludes more than it includes, especially with regard to cable, Foote said he still thinks the network newscasts give a good picture of how things stand for minorities in television news.
"That's obviously not a complete panorama of news programs, but still, the flagship news programs are a barometer of how women and minorities are doing generally at the networks," Foote said.
Women now represent 32% of the correspondent pool and cover about 26% of the stories. Although they remain slightly underrepresented in the ranks, Foote said, women have increased their presence dramatically on television since their low point in the 1980s and now hold three positions in the top 10 for all networks.
In addition, he said, in 1999, 41% of ABC's reporters were women, the highest percentage of women in history on a network television newscast.
African-Americans also have done far better in recent years, considering their low visibility before 1992. Foote found that the leading African-Americans on network news were Byron Pitts of CBS at No. 11; Bill Whitacker of CBS at No. 21; Ron Allen of NBC at No. 44; and Randal Pinkston of CBS at No. 48.
The African-American correspondents filed 10% (660) of the total stories in 1999, whereas the four Hispanic reporters together filed a total of only 195 reports, and 142 of those were by Avila. There were only two Asian correspondents in the top 151 (Deborah Wang of ABC at No. 83 and Kiko Itasaka of NBC at No. 130), representing only 1% of the correspondent corps and filing less than 1% of the stories.
"Only 46 times during the entire year did Americans see a correspondent of Asian descent reporting for the evening news," Foote said. "That's unforgivable considering how visible Asians have become in the rest of the economy."
Foote said the relative improvement in numbers and visibility of African-American and female correspondents suggested to him that pressure works.
"I think the main story was in the 1980s when women sensitized the networks to the importance of diversity, and I believe they got the message loud and clear. That's when more women were hired and advanced," Foote said. "It's an ongoing educational process to demonstrate that in terms of minority hiring, some of these numbers are extraordinarily low and do not reflect what the networks themselves would want."
"There's been a lot more attention given to getting African-Americans on the air than there has been Asians and Hispanics," Foote said. "As far as major pressure groups go, it seems the Asian and Hispanic groups are just starting to flex their muscles and point out to networks that this is a problem."
The message of his study, Foote said, is that the networks "need to be sensitive to Asians and Hispanics and try to diversify their workforce as much as possible. Also, there is a great opportunity here for bright young people in some of the underrepresented groups. There is room for them in some of these networks."
