Fall 2006
Technican staff is now dominated by females. It was dominated by males the past two years. The class breakdown of the Technician staff is now much more even. It was dominated by upperclassmen the past two years. The Technician staff is still not reflective of the racial diversity of the campus. Top | Methodology | Significant Findings | Findings
COMPLETE REPORT IN PDFIn October of 2006, students selected random issues of the Technician printed within the last 12 months. Using Analysis sheets, they determined the number of sources in a story and cataloged the sources as indicated. University data was obtained for the fall of 2006 through the University’s Department of Planning and Analysis.
The analysis was completed for 2,971 sources.
A complete copy of the report is available HERE in PDF form.
Top | Methodology | Significant Findings | Findings
COMPLETE REPORT IN PDFThere is some really GOOD STUFF happening at the Technician .
- The number of sources per story is now consistently above 3.00, our goal.
- The gender breakdown of the staff is now much closer to 50/50. In fact, now the staff is female dominated.
- The classification of the sources reflects the campus more than in past years.
- The racial diversity of our sources almost mirrors the campus.
Making such changes in three years is impressive, and, definitely, it's much harder now for people to argue that the content of the paper doesn't reflect the campus. It does. The staff leaders should be congratulated for their efforts in the areas noted.
There are a few notable areas for IMPROVEMENT as well.
- Sources still do not reflect the college breakdown of campus with engineering and CALS students still being underreported significantly.
- There is still little racial diversity on staff.
- The gender breakdown of our sources is still predominantly male, in all sections, but especially news and sports showing we need to cover women's sports more and need to use females as sources in news/feature stories more.
- The staff's perception of the accuracy of coverage has declined over the past three years.
- We still need to use more underclassmen as sources.
- The staff is still more liberal than the campus, probably reflecting a lack of engineering and CALS students on staff.
Top | Methodology | Significant Findings | Findings
COMPLETE REPORT IN PDFRACE
- Reporters’ use of Caucasian sources largely mirrors the campus population and has increased slightly in the last year.
- Reporters’ use of black sources has decreased since last year and is now a much closer reflection of the campus population.
- Use of sources of other races generally mirrors the campus population.
- In 28 percent of sources, race could not be determined either through a photograph or identifying characteristics in the story. This means that for a signficiant number of our stories, race plays no factor in the selection of sources.
- 90 percent of the staff is Caucasian.
Recommendations:
- We need to recruit a more racially diverse staff. The percentage of Caucasians on staff has increased.*
- Reporters continue to use a wide variety of sources.*
GENDER
Reporters’ use of male sources (62%) exceeds the population (56% male) although not by as much as last year. The use of majority male sources may also reflect, for example, the sports staff that is almost entirely, if not entirely, male.
- News stories: 64% male (1,140)
- Opinion: 59% male (109)
- Sports: 63% male (479)
52 percent of the staff is male, a significant decrease from last year.
Recommendation:
- Reporters need to use more female sources.*
CLASSIFICATION
- Reporters do not use enough freshmen as sources. The use of freshmen as sources increased slightly, but is still significantly below the campus percentage.
- More than 13 percent of the sources were “other” (Web sites used as sources, people not affiliated with the University, etc.). This is a significant decrease from last year.
- The class diversity of the staff reflects the campus much better than last year.
Recommendations:
- Reporters need to use more freshmen and sophomores as sources.*
- Reporters need to avoid using the News & Observer and other media as “sources.”
- Reporters need to use more faculty and less staff as sources. Jon Barnwell and Tom Stafford are over-quoted.
COLLEGE
- The College of Humanities and Social Sciences was significantly over-represented. CHASS students were used as sources at a rate now-quite double their population on campus.*
- Students in the College of Engineering were under-represented in the paper as were students in agriculture and life sciences (CALS).*
- Although all sources are supposed to be identified by name, classification and major, the college could be determined for only 55 percent of the sources. When completing the study information, students need to make more of an effort to look this information up if it’s not published in the paper.
Recommendation:
- Reporters need to use students in CHASS less as sources.*
- Reporters need to use engineering and CALS students more as sources.*
- Writers/editors need to include name, classification and major for all sources.*
SOURCES
The average number of sources per story was 3.29. This is significantly higher than past years:
- spring of 2005 2.95
- summer of 2005 2.71
- spring 2006 2.53
- summer 2006 2.84
- fall 2006 3.29
Recommendation:
Reporters need to continue using at least three sources per story.
Top | Methodology | Significant Findings | Findings
COMPLETE REPORT IN PDF
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