AAJA, January 27, 2004
Media Contact:
Keith Kamisugi (for AAJA)
415-876-0589
keith@keithpr.com
The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) today announced plans to debut a DVD featuring male Asian American television reporters and anchors at the Radio and Television News Directors Association/National Association of Broadcasters convention held April 19-21 in Las Vegas.
By cataloging the work of male Asian American broadcasters in a DVD available to industry decision-makers, AAJA seeks to remedy the severe lack of Asian American men on television news. A 2002 study by the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California found that there were only 20 male Asian Americans on the air in the country's top 25 markets.
By comparison, the USC Annenberg study found a total of 85 Asian American female television broadcasters on-air -- a nearly 5 to 1 ratio of women versus men.
The DVD will be available free to attendees at the Radio and Television News Directors Association/National Association of Broadcasters convention in April and also to news directors, recruiters, consultants and other news managers on an on-going basis. In addition to being offered as a hiring tool, AAJA hopes the DVD will help erase stereotypes and encourage Asian American males to choose broadcast journalism as a career.
Tom Dolan, President of Dolan Media Management, and Jill Geisler, Leadership and Management Group Leader of the Poynter Institute -- each with more than 20 years experience as news directors -- will serve as advisers. Gingold Television in San Francisco is donating the labor involved in producing the DVD.
Asian American male broadcasters encouraged to submit demos
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AAJA encourages all Asian American male anchors, reporters, sportscasters and weathercasters to submit demo reels for the DVD. Participants do not need to be active job seekers to be included in the project.
Submissions are due by February 15, 2004. Participants should include two packages and a montage of stand-ups and live shots. Anchors should also include samples of their anchoring. All participants must have paid professional working experience or must be students scheduled to graduate by June 2004.
For more information on this project, contact AAJA deputy executive director Janice Lee at janicel@aaja.org.
USC Annenberg Study Reveals Disparity
The critical shortage of Asian American male broadcast journalists was first highlighted in a study released at the Asian American Journalists Association national convention held August 2002 in Dallas.
The research, entitled "Asian Male Broadcasters on TV: Where Are They?", was conducted by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communications.
"The results of this study as well as the results of surveys done by RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) lend credence to the concerns that our male broadcast journalists have been raising in the past few years, that the gender disparity among Asian Americans in broadcasting is significant," said Randall Yip, AAJA Vice President for Broadcast.
"When our numbers are compared to the numbers of male and female African American, Native American, or Hispanic broadcast journalists, what we see is a problem that impacts our members more significantly than other people of color," Yip said. "We can't turn our back on this problem if we expect journalists to paint an accurate picture of our society. Good Asian American male journalists are out there. We need to go out and recruit them. Journalism will be a better profession if we do."
Some of the findings in the study included:
- Asian Americans make up a small percentage of the student population in U.S. journalism schools, but females far out-number males by approximately four to one.
- In making career choices, Asian American male students are highly motivated by parents, prestige and starting salaries. They are more likely to go into science-related occupations.
- There is a lack of key Asian American male broadcast role models, such as Connie Chung is for Asian American females.
The results from the USC study confirm other research done on the makeup of broadcast newsrooms. A recent Ball State University study found that Asians make up 2.7 percent of the broadcast newsroom in 2001, or about 650 people. Asian males constituted only one percent of the workforce, while Asian females made up 1.7 percent. Meanwhile, there are more Hispanic, African American and white males than females in the newsroom, the survey found.
The USC study is based on surveys of the top 25 television markets and top journalism schools in the United States. Interviews with program managers, news directors, and agents in the television industry as well as a focus group of Asian American students were also conducted.
The complete study is available online.