One of the major limitations of this work is that we were unable to secure participation from a broadcast outlet. This is significant, since many local residents noted that much of the news they receive comes from local broadcast media. To get a full understanding of how an ecosystem operates, it is imperative that broadcasters participate in DEIB work. As was noted, all broadcast stations opted out of a 2016 survey, and they have largely not been involved in other local projects, notably the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.
Additionally, because we only had access to the data of participating newsrooms, we did not conduct a detailed analysis of content from newsrooms outside these five cohort members, via our Source Matters and Metrics for News tools. We feel strongly, however, that the work conducted by the Heinz Endowments is reflective of the current conditions in Pittsburgh newsrooms, and as such, represents an accurate picture for assessment of news content in Pittsburgh. We also believe that a follow-up to the 2016 diversity survey conducted by the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation is needed for the entire news ecosystem.
Share with your network
- Inclusion Index report: Assessing the Pittsburgh news ecosystem’s commitment to DEIB
- Background
- Design and research
- Summary of findings and Index scores
- Key ecosystem recommendations
- Limitations of report/intervention and future research
You also might be interested in:
When three-way partnerships between journalists, researchers and facilitators are done well, all parties are excited by both the process and the results.
After a six-month pilot of an ecosystem-wide local news advisory committee, we’re sharing a multi-part perspective series on this effort: an outgrowth of our deep, three-year commitment to the Pittsburgh media ecosystem, which included two learning cohorts, a dozen community listening sessions and now this committee.
All news outlets have stories that are central to the mission of their work, but aren’t necessarily the most popular with readers. Data gathered from tools like MFN can help find creative ways to maintain this important coverage in a way that resonates with the audience.
