Friday, April 13, 2007
NPR : CBS Radio Fires Don Imus in Fallout over Remarks
Also, background readings from the AP in a supplement, Rutgers v. Imus, this weekend at IMDiversity.com, plus commentaries by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Kam Williams, more at new Media, New Media and Communications Jobs & Readings section
Thursday, April 05, 2007
ASNE Report Finds Percentage of Minorities in Newsrooms Declining
According to the American Newspaper Editors Association 2007 survey on the representation of minorities in U.S. news media, the percentages of minority and women journalists working in America’s newsrooms both declined in the past year. According to ASNE, it is only the second time since the survey started in 1978 that the percentage of minorities has declined.
In a year marked by news organization layoffs that were headlines in themselves, ASNE’s annual “census” found that the percentage of minorities fell to 13.62 percent, down from 13.87 last year. The percentage of women also dropped from 37.70 to 37.56 percent.
The percentage of minorities in supervisory roles at daily newspapers dropped to 10.9 percent, equal to the percentage from two years ago. The downward trend holds true for student and entry-level employment as well. According to ASNE’s release, the percentage of minority interns stands at nearly 27 percent, “a number that has continued to fall as newspapers cut back” on internships.
The one silver lining in the report seemed to come from online media. ASNE’s census of daily newspapers for the first time counted full-time staffers who work entirely at online publishing activities by their companies. Among online media staffs, the percentage of minorities on staff was an estimated 16 percent, which helped make the drop in overall employment numbers seem less severe than they might have been.
See a fuller report at IMDiversity, ASNE Report Finds Percentage of Minorities in Newsrooms Declining, or view detailed data tables from the census at the ASNE website.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Weekend Maintenance on IMDiversity
Our site servers will be undergoing maintenance this weekend, starting midnight Friday. During this period there may brief outages on our sites at IMDiversity.com and the Multicultural Villages, the IMDiversity Career Center and Job Bank, and THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online Job Bank. We apologize for any inconvenience to our visitors and thank you for your patience."
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
PWC Diversity Leadership Scholarship, Internship, Conference Deadline Dec. 31
Financial services giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers has announced a December 31, 2006 deadline for applications to its annual PWC eXceed scholarships, a comprehensive program offering opportunities for Native American, African American, and Hispanic American college students to explore careers at PWC through internships and participation in an annual Diversity Business Leadership Conference, along with a $3,000 support stipend. Applications are accepted from Freshmen or Sophomores with a 3.2 or higher GPA, and an interest in Accounting, Management Information Systems, and/or Computer Science.
Also of Interest: It's that season for students to apply for next year's internships. Most deadlines are coming up by early December. Visit IMDiversity's seasonal Internships & Co-ops special page with categorized internships listings.
Friday, November 10, 2006
THE BLACK COLLEGIAN: 2006-2007 Career and Networking Events
THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's 2006-2007 Career and Networking Events Listing for African American Students
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
A historic election for ethnic, women voter engagement nationwide
With two key Senate races, in VA and MT too close to call as of this writing, and likely headed to recount challenges, Democrats also stand chance to take back majority control of the Senate.The election saw historic landmarks set in a number of aspects. These include: Positioning Nancy Pelosi to become the first woman Speaker of the House; electing Deval Patrick as the first African American governor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and sending Democrat Keith Ellison, an African American, to represent Minnesota’s 5th as the first Muslim in the House of Representatives.
Preliminary exit polling indicates that unusually high turnout was reported nationwide, affected by a number of controversial ballot initiatives as well as support for specific candidates. Minority voters, swing voters and non-traditional coalition-building also played an important role in the shift. In the most recent exit poll figures by CNN, non-white voters veered strongly to the left, with 76% of non-white men and 78% of non-white women going Democrat.
The same data indicate that while white voters overall leaned Republican, it was by a smaller margin (51% GOP to 47%) than expected, due largely to a 49/49 split among white women voters. African American voters leaned even more heavily Democrat than expected, at 89%, despite the GOP’s fielding a number of prominent Black candidates in high-level races in states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Latino and Asian voters, who have traditionally been more inclined to lean Republican, emerged as clear and growing swing voters, breaking to the Democrats at 69% and 62% respectively. Other non-white voters including Native Americans tracked in CNN’s polling split 56% Democrat to 41% Republican.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Ellison to be First Muslim Congessman after MN Victory
His opposition to the war in Iraq hand emphasis on deomstic concerns such as universal healthcare helped Ellison, who is Black and a convert to Islam, overcome criticism of past associations with Louis Farrakhan.
In his victory, Ellison defeated three candidates: Republican Alan Fine, Independence Party candidate Tammy Lee, and Green Party candidate Jay Pond.
CNN Projects Win for Deval Patrick for MA Governor
If the results are verified, it will make Mr. Patrick Massachusett's first African American governor.
CNN shortly thereafter has projected that Rep. Ted Strickland has defeated African-American Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.
Good News, Great News, a Caution on Election Day for Black Youth Voters
In a related analysis of voting patterns up through the 2004 elections, CIRCLE also showed that African American youth voters were the only group to have bucked the trend of declining turnout during midterm election years. Indicators for this year suggest that young Black voters' will continue to improve in 2006.A separate study, by Young Voter Strategies, an organization affiliated with George Washington University, found that in the 2006 midterm season, young Black voters were the "most ready for change," according to a report by Black College Wire news service. In the study, 35 percent of Black voters ages 18 to 30 said that employment, the economy, and education and its costs weighed heavily for them.
However, the picture isn't entirely rosy. Both studies also found that many young African Americans have faced obstacles in exercising their right to vote, and many have little confidence that they can personally, meaningfully affect the problems facing their communtiies and families.
These conflicting issues -- increased political interest among young African Americans and a decreasing sense of their individual ability to affect change -- have made voter protection on polling day a high priority in the election season. Although the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would dispatch an unprecedented number of poll monitors across the country, other interested groups nationwide are mounting their own efforts. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is sending monitors to protect voters at areas surrounding HBCU schools, and placing an emphasis on protecting voters in the Gulf Region still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
For more stats and a link tothe full PDF report by CIRCLE, see the sidebars to interview with Senator Barack Obama in the first semester 2006 super issue of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN.

