RTDNA/Hofstra Survey Looks At Minority, Female Representation In Radio Newsrooms

Survey

The latest portion of the RTDNA/HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY annual survey of broadcast news to be released focuses on minority and female employment in the newsroom, and the percentage of minority representation in radio newsrooms is down slightly from 2012's 11.7% to 10.9% this year, still significantly higher than 2010's 5.0% but short of 1995's peak of 14.7%. Regarding women in the radio news workforce, while the percentage of radio news departments with women rose by almost 8 points year-to-year, the percentage of women radio news directors and women in the radio news workforce grew only slightly.

89.1% of radio news people are Caucasian, up slightly from 88.3% in 2012 and down from previous years; 2.3% are African-American, down from 5.2%; Hispanic representation was up from 4.6% to 5.7%; Asian-American (1.3%) and Native American (1.6%) percentages showed gains.

Among radio news directors, 90.4% are Caucasian, down slightly; 1.9% are African-American, off from 3.5% last year; 3.8% are Hispanic, up from 2.3%; the percentage of Asian-American news directors dropped by half to 0.6%, and Native American representation rose from 1.7% to 3.2%.

20.6% of radio news directors are women, and 34.2% of the radio news work force is female.  Major market stations have far more female representation (48.2%, compared with 29.6% in large markets, 27.6% in medium markets, and 20.3% in small markets).

Read HOFSTRA Professor Emeritus BOB PAPPER's analysis by clicking here.

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