Panel Discusses Media Diversity

Representatives from several national publications asserted the need for greater minority representation in the media at a forum held Saturday to honor Diversity and Distinction magazine’s 10th anniversary.

Each of four panel members told a different story about his or her struggle as a minority journalist, but all agreed on the need for more minority representation in editorial and managerial positions.

Al Young, a desk editor and writer in the Living and Arts Department of the Boston Globe, said that although more minorities are working as reporters, they now need to “break the glass ceiling” and find positions where they can decide what stories to cover and who to hire.

Young cited the fact that journalism is not viewed as a traditional career for Asians and other minorities as one major roadblock for minority journalists.

Young, who calls himself the “Jackie Robinson of sports writing,” recalled that his father would have liked him to take over the family restaurant rather than pursue journalism.

Veronica Clark, an editor of The Improper Bostonian, said she agreed with Young that journalism is a nontraditional career path for minorities.

“People in Boston see me as a novelty,” said Clark, who is half Asian and half Caucasian. “It is surprising how nontraditional the career is still seen among Asians now.”

Marcus Mabry, chief of correspondents and a senior editor of Newsweek, said that the struggle of minorities in the media is one of “adversity and distinction” and spoke about his career as an openly gay and black journalist.

“White Ivy League people are the mass of the news world...minorities have to work twice as hard to get the credit,” he said.

Being a minority journalist, however, can also be advantageous, said Boston Globe Ombudsman Richard Charcón.Charcón spoke about the importance of diversity in the newsroom and said that his Spanish language skills have allowed him to report stories that people without his background could not cover.

“You need to have people of different cultures and people who can speak different languages” in the newsroom, he said.

One important way for minorities to move up the ranks in the journalism world, he said, is through networking at journalism conferences.

Michael M. Luo ’98, who founded Diversity & Distinction in 1995, said that he thought the magazine has provided an important starting point for minority journalists like him who are now working for major publications.

Luo now writes for the New York Times and has received both the Polk Award and the Livingston Award for his excellence in journalism, said Jennifer 8. Lee ’98, who helped Luo launch the magazine and now also works at the Times.

Luo, who wrote for The Crimson before founding Diversity & Distinction, said that he started the magazine because he wanted a publication that people of all backgrounds would be interested in reading.

“At Harvard there are a lot of really specific magazines for specific ethnic groups, but they are only read by people in that community,” Luo said. “There needed to be something that brought together all these groups.”

Lee said that Diversity & Distinction was intended as a “cross-identity” publication.

“The idea was embracing diversity in a broad sense, not just race [but also] class, religion, sexual orientation, and gender,” said Lee, who is also a Crimson editor.

The magazine has come a long way in 10 years, said Geoffrey A. Fowler ’00, the 1998-1999 editor of Diversity & Distinction and now a foreign correspondent at the New York Times, adding that the first several issues of the magazine were put together in the Science Center computer lab. The magazine now has an office in the basement of Grays Hall.

Although bringing more minorities into the journalism world is a gradual process, Chacón said, it will happen over time.

Mabry added that “excellence is more important than [a person’s] minority status. Today, when hiring, you have to look for excellence and diversity.”

The event was co-sponsored by Diversity & Distinction and The Crimson.

Diversity & Distinction Editor-in-Chief Jessica F. Harmon ’07 said she was pleased with the success of the event.

“It was originally just going to be a small meeting between the founders and the current board of the magazine. But the previous editors had such great connections, so the event really came together,” she said.