RTDNA: Minority Broadcasting Jobs Decline as Minority Population Climbs

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Results of the latest annual Hofstra U./Radio Television Digital News Association ("RTDNA") study released this week [www.rtdna.org] revealed that 20.2 percent of television news departments staffers are minorities and 5 percent of radio news jobs are minority-held, at a time when  minorities make up 35.3 percent of the nation's population.


In the previous year's study, the minority employment figures for tv and radio were 21.8 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. The chief decline in minority representation occurred among Hispanics working in television, which dropped to 5.8 percent from 8.8 percent in 2009.


The nation's demographics are changing much faster than the composition of management at tv and radio stations, as illustrated by the study, which found 94.7 percent of tv station general managers were White, as were 92 percent of general managers at radio stations.


Television programs are being brought to you "in living color" as NBC used to tout, but apparently, not by people of color.