A new diversity report came out recently from the National Council for the Training of Journalists, a British journalism training agency, which found that a sweeping majority of journalists in the country come from either professional or upper class backgrounds:
The newly released Diversity in Journalism report found that working-class people were heavily unrepresented in the news industry and that journalists were almost twice as likely as the general population to come from advantaged backgrounds.
The data, which covered 2021, found that social class was the only factor surveyed where the UK news industry is getting increasingly unequal over time.
My guess is that this percentage is nearly identical in the US, as I’ve never actually seen a staff writer at the NYT or Vox or wherever, that didn’t have Skull and Bones-type parentage. How bad do you think elite over-representation in American journalism is?
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80% Of Journalists In The UK Come From Upper Class Backgrounds. What’s The Percentage In The US?
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A new diversity report came out recently from the National Council for the Training of Journalists, a British journalism training agency, which found that a sweeping majority of journalists in the country come from either professional or upper class backgrounds:
My guess is that this percentage is nearly identical in the US, as I’ve never actually seen a staff writer at the NYT or Vox or wherever, that didn’t have Skull and Bones-type parentage. How bad do you think elite over-representation in American journalism is?
Time Well Spent is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.