Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Matthew Felling

Aired March 03, 2002 - 17:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs takes a closer look at gender and minority representation in network news. The review of just over 13,000 news stories shown last year on the network's evening broadcast found that 88 percent of stories were reported by whites, 75 percent were reported by men, and no African-Americans were among the top 25 most visible reporters for the first time in five years.

Joining us now with more on what's behind those numbers, Matthew Felling, who is with the Center for Media and Public Affairs. Thanks for joining us, Matthew.

MATTHEW FELLING, CENTER FOR MEDIA AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Good afternoon, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, trying to surmise some of the details of your study. Your study finds that last year, the diversity of network news correspondents does not correspond with the diversity of viewership. More specifically, last year you said that zero African- American network correspondent ranked high on visibility based on story count, right?

FELLING: Yes, exactly.

WHITFIELD: And compared to the previous year, two black men were among the top 10 most visible, or top 25. What is the explanation that you found in your study?

FELLING: Yes, and that's the most fascinating part. At the Center for Media and Public Affairs, we're used to seeing the numbers be fairly small in terms of minority representation before the camera, 11 percent, 12 percent, 14 percent. But what struck me about this year's study was that last year we had two African-Americans in the top 10 of correspondents. This year, the best an African-American correspondent could do was 28th on the list. Only one minority reporter was even in the top 25, and that was Jim Avalo (ph) of NBC.

So it's kind of a good news-bad news study for the minorities. The minority representation went up 1 percent over the previous year, but at the same time, African-American representation went down. So we have a ceiling of about 14 percent that minorities are allowed to or assigned to every year, and it just seems to be the more that one minority group gets before the camera, the less the others do. It doesn't seem -- there has never been a rise among all groups in the same year. It's a little bit troubling.

WHITFIELD: And you say this is particularly sobering because when you all started this study tracking back in 1990, representation was somewhere down to 7 percent. And now you are seeing that there are about 14 percent representation of African-American and minority correspondents now, but that does not necessarily mean that they are more visible in network news.

FELLING: No. And we really have to isolate two or three different possibilities for why this is. One would be that maybe journalism is not a field that minorities really want to get into at a young age, so that we don't have people who are trying to get into the network spots, or maybe there might be a little bit of an "old boys" syndrome, in terms of an old boys club at the highest levels up in New York, because what we're seeing on camera in Manhattan is diversity that reflects Manhattan, Kansas. You know? It's just not representative of the American population at large.

WHITFIELD: And many would argue that really the inherent problem just might be that while there may be a greater hiring of minority correspondents, they are being buried in the types of assignments that they are getting, or they are not really getting the beats, the high profile beats as well. Is that what your studies are finding?

FELLING: Yes. That is something troubling, I mean, because we've seen the networks make this public commitment to diversity among their staff, but we're not seeing really a whole lot of difference in front of the camera. There might be a lot of added people in the news room copy editors or what have you, but we're not seeing it in front of the camera.

And it's a striking contrast to the local newscasts that we don't have data for, but I know a lot of the major market in America, ABC, NBC, CBS affiliates have minorities who are anchor people and minorities who are correspondents.

WHITFIELD: So, quickly, Matthew, what happens with this study? This study is something that falls in the hands of all the network managers and people who are making the decisions. But are you seeing that you are getting the kind of results that this study is intended for?

FELLING: I think what we do with these numbers is we try and educate the debate. I think a few years ago we saw a group, the NAACP, conduct a brown-out on prime-time entertainment, where they had -- where they told their population, African-Americans, to stop watching prime-time entertainment until they were reflected in those programs.

I think that with these numbers and with the support that we're starting to get, we might be on the verge of such a tactic for the network news as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much, Matthew Felling, of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. Thanks for joining us this evening from Washington. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com