Journalists are being urged to ensure their sources are diverse for stories about science and research, reports The Journalist’s Resource.
News stories about academia should reflect the diversity of the scientific community in the US, reports the online journal, which has rounded up some useful stats and research papers.
Women and ethnic minorities who are tenured and tenure-track professors have “modestly but persistently” increased over the decade 2002 and 2022, reports a 2023 paper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University.
The proportion of Asian, Black and Hispanic faculty rose as the number of white academics dropped from 83 per cent to 66 per cent.
And in 2022, women made up 60 per cent of those who achieved doctoral degrees in the US in environmental science, food science and technology, criminology, anthropology, public policy analysis and other fields.
The Journalist’s Resource says by diversifying sources, journalists can help to overcome bias, build trust in news outlets and reach key segments of their audience.
