Diversity needs to be intentional, not an afterthought, experts say.

When I was a reporter in Haiti covering that country's 1995 Parliamentary elections for Haiti's Radio Kiskeya and WNUA 95.5 FM Chicago, there was a political party that was quite popular in the squatter camps called "Bo-Tabla." In Kreyol, that means "at the table." Its platform was before this pivotal election poor people were "under the table and not at the table" one voter told me in Cite Soleil. The sense I got from the "Diversity and the Media" forum yesterday was essentially the same message, which translates to this reporter that underrepresented groups need to be at the table if news organizations are really interested in accuracy, fairness, balance, comprehensiveness and giving voice to the voiceless. Everyone in this picture helped me in understand this. 

Anita Luera, director of the Cronkite Institute of High School Journalism, this week and last week, helped provide me with several credible sources for my Institute story on how publications -- including my own -- struggle reaching Spanish-language readers. It really does begin with us.

Gerald Jordan, associate professor, Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism, University of Arkansas, said a good place for all of us to begin is an audit our newspaper stories to see how we view our community and how our community views us through our reportage.

Retha Hill, director of the Cronkite School's New Media Innovation Lab, said "High school journalism is important because that when we for our first taste of journalism." She added that if there is not enough diversity in our newsroom that we need to "grow our own."  All three of them said we need to be aggressive and creative at recruiting diverse journalists for our respective publications. 

Also in this picture is Ryan Peacock, a former journalist who now teaches at Tooele High School near Salt Lake City where he directs the school's publications. Ryan and I have chatted about how during my visits to Salt Lake City and Park City on assignment, I learned about the rich diversity of Mormons. Many people still think they're a monolithic group, and we mused nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, as the election season heats up, even more un-truths about the faith of a Mormon presidential candidate are likely to emerge from sources that in some quarters seem tolerant -- a word I despise because it suggests a dominant ideology versus a subordinate ideology where one group feels necessary to put up with another group. As teachers and advisors to high school newspapers, our presence here is some evidence that we understand the urgent need to make diversity of all kinds a priority, not an afterthought.  To do so, helps put sources, subjects and common sense back on the table. I'd like to thank all of you, as well as the aforementioned, for helping me understand this better.

Stan West

Hales Franciscan High School

Chicago