Ryerson has recently published a study on race and gender representation in Canada’s daily newsrooms and, as expected, the results are abysmal. The response rate to the survey was very low (36 percent) and the data for those who did respond shows that only 3.4 percent of newsroom staffers across the country belong to visible minorities. Women account for 34 percent of all newspaper employees. In the last year that the data is available for (2004) virtually all new hires were white. As far as I know, no newspaper in Canada has an official hiring policy that takes into account diversity. Among the broadcasters, CBC does have one, which is to be expected. According to their own numbers (pdf) they are doing somewhat better than print media (5.6 percent of staffers are visible minorities). They are doing really good when it comes to participation of women in the workforce. In 2006, women accounted for 43.4 percent of total CBC employees.

What got me in the Ryerson study, is the response print editors gave to the question why so few minorities work in Canada’s newspapers. The most common answer was “they just don’t apply.” Ask yourself why aren't they applying. They are not applying because they don’t want to be humiliated. I am a white immigrant so my experience is probably better than what most visible minorities face. Over the last ten years or so I applied to dozens of journalism jobs. It is entirely possible that my work is not up to par. But why not say so? After an interview with the provincial paper here in New Brunswick, I was told by the managing editor at the time that “they prefer to hire New Brunswickers.” A managing editor of another daily in the province told me that he is “not sure how the community will react to a foreigner.” This is a community with more than one university! An editor with a weekly paper in Nova Scotia told me that it takes three generations to make a Maritimer. In Calgary, I was told by a city editor of a daily that, as a foreigner, I would need at least five years of daily experience in Canada before he would even look at my portfolio. It happened more than once that I was asked to submit unedited versions of my PUBLISHED work so that the editors can ascertain my English language competencies. And I am WHITE! Imagine the hoops somebody whose skin is a few shades darker than mine has to jump through. The truth is that those hiring (with a few honourable exceptions) simply don’t care. They hire people who look like them, who talk like them, and who will not rock the boat carrying the current crop of baby boomers in charge into their cushy retirement. Women, minorities and all that politically correct crap is not something that concerns the tough journalists like them. That is also why most of the papers are not worth reading unless you are looking for a steady diet of sunshine girls, golfing vacation tips and old, white business guys spewing garbage that passes for wisdom. The stuff worth reading is on-line - and it reflects the reality of the world and the reality of my community better than any newspaper I've seen lately.

Croatian word of the day: manjina minority [ma nyee na]