A new study from the Pew Research Center shows American workers in the Midwest and South are severely underrepresented in online journalism. This digital bias is particularly troubling in the age of Big Tech and helps explain the media’s pervasive bias that belittles or ignores the values of conservative Americans from “flyover states.”
Media figures who decry a decline in social capital and civility in public discourse seem blind to the values gap they create and widen each day through content that maligns and represent conservatives on everything from culture and faith to politics. According to Pew, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau figures covering the period from 2013 to 2017, workers from the South comprise 37% of all American workers but only 21% of Internet news publishing and broadcasting workers. That is just 57% of Southern workers on a proportional basis. Midwestern workers are even less proportionally represented, with Midwest workers comprising 22% of the American workforce overall but just 10% of online journalists — a mere 45% proportional representation.
“Employment at online news outlets is especially concentrated in the Northeast,” Pew reported. “About four-in-ten newsroom employees who work in internet publishing live in the Northeast (41%) — roughly twice the share of newsroom employees in all industries combined.”
Beyond the digital newsroom, more broadly speaking, 1 in 5 U.S. newsroom employees live in New York, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C.
“About one-in-five newsroom employees (22%) live in these three metro areas, which, by comparison, are home to 13% of all U.S. workers,” according to the Pew analysis written by Elizabeth Grieco. “Newsroom employees are more likely than all U.S. workers to live in the Northeast. Roughly a quarter (24%) of all newsroom employees work in this region, compared with 18% of workers overall. They are less likely to live in the South: One-third of newsroom employees live in the South, compared with 37% of workers overall. About the same share of newsroom employees and all workers live in the West (22% vs. 23%) and Midwest (20% vs. 22%).”
Progressives in the media are often concerned about issues of “diversity” and “inclusion” very narrowly defined according to gender and race. Yet, their lip service for these concepts disappears when it comes to questions of ideological or geographic diversity.
Only 7% of journalists said they are Republicans, according to a study by Indiana University. This is a fraction of the the 29% of American adults who identify as Republicans. Contrast that with the 28% of journalists from the Indiana study who identified as Democrats, much more on par with the 31% of U.S. adults who consider themselves Democrats.
A poll by Monmouth University last year also found that 77% of respondents believe traditional media outlets publish fake news, a percentage significantly higher from the 63% of 2017 respondents who said the media is responsible for fake news. Interestingly, Monmouth found that “just 25% say the term ‘fake news’ applies only to stories where the facts are wrong. Most Americans (65%), on the other hand, say that ‘fake news’ also applies to how news outlets make editorial decisions about what they choose to report.”
Americans are too smart to fall for opinions and value judgments masquerading as facts. Conservatives believe in free markets and the free flow of employees, but we also believe in the free marketplace of ideas, and it’s clear that the media is failing to serve customers nationally. This is part of why President Trump’s criticisms of the media and calls for reform have such resonance.
Carrie Sheffield is national editor for Accuracy In Media, a citizens’ media watchdog celebrating 50 years of promoting accuracy, fairness, and balance in news reporting.
