Project Goals

1
How to Thrive in J-School and Newsrooms Wisconsin
s Multicultural Journalists Tell Their Stories
A Diversity Fellows project by Mike Dorsher ?
Department of Communication Journalism

• Project Goals

Wis. multicultural journalists are
They got where they are by
Conclusions

• Help prepare for UWECs first Journalism
  Beyond Camp for high school students
• Launching in summer 2007
• Find out how Wisconsins multi- cultural
  newspaper journalists
• Chose a college to attend
• Succeeded in college overall
• Succeeded in journalism classes
• Got newsroom jobs
• Thrive in their newsroom
• Feel about affirmative action
• Recruit panelists for JB Camp
• Strengthen ties between the CJ Dept. and the
  states major newspapers

usually from cities in other states
having parents who read newspapers
Most feel well-supported in their job
getting grants for college, not just loans
Sources discriminate against them
mostly at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Method

• E-mailed and/or called every daily paper in Wis.
  for the names of all their multicultural
  journalists (N62)
• Contacted all those journalists and asked to
  interview them
• I interviewed all who agreed (N40) in their
  newsroom, in April-May 2006
• Used same 94 questions for everyone

working on campus newspapers
Ambivalence about affirmative action
all races and colors
Quote ...
unquote
I am what I am Im a Latino journalist. No one
asks a white journalist, Are you white first,
or are you a journalist first? -- Ricardo
Pimentel Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial
page editor
and earning degrees in journalism
No consensus on what to do next
and filling many newsroom roles
Some people think I was hired just because Im
Native American. I have to prove myself more
than other people. -- Lisa Nellessen-Lara Stevens
Point Journal managing editor