Diversity in sourcing is key to reach young news readers

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 08/04/2022

“Diversity in sourcing is key to reaching and retaining a younger, more diverse set of readers. Younger audiences want to see their experiences and the experiences of their peers reflected in the journalism they consume. They want to see how policy affects the lives of everyday people. And they want to feel personally connected to what they read.”

Neema Roshania Patel, editor of The Washington Post’s Next Generation team, writes in an article for Poynter Institute that this is the conclusion of reader research made at the newspaper. The team she is heading is described as cross-functional dedicated to helping the whole company reach younger and more diverse audiences, and hopefully convincing them to subscribe.

“Diverse sourcing makes us more trustworthy arbiters of the news”, she writes referring to, among others, a study by the Reuters Institute showing that younger people have a strong interest in coverage that is clearly more diverse and inclusive, with an emphasis on “human, personal and real stories.”

“Diversity in sourcing quite simply makes our journalism better. More reflective of our world. And more accessible.”

For in-house training she created a set of five questions that journalists can ask themselves with each story they launch. Her advise to editors is:

“Don’t be afraid to send back a story if you aren’t happy with the mix of sources. Ask yourself: Who is the story by, who is it about and who is it for? If we don’t include a diverse range of voices we are narrowing those lanes and not reflecting the world we should be covering.”

The five questions in short:

Are we including the voices of the people most affected by what’s happening?

And more importantly, how are those voices being elevated and prioritized throughout the story? How are we showing the impact of the news? In a story about rising rent prices, are we including the people who are being pushed out of their houses, or just focusing on policy?

How are we defining “experts” in this story?

Think beyond just credentials on a resume. Lived experience can and should qualify as an expert voice. We may feel limited sometimes by the lack of diversity in academia or at think tanks when we seek expert voices, for example, but it’s up to us to shift our definition. She takes a story on long COVID patients as example. Especially in a coverage area where there is so much that remains unknown, this story gives the same treatment to the patient experience and the voices of health care professionals.

Are we engaging with a diverse range of sources, even when the story isn’t explicitly about marginalized groups?

In short, are we prioritizing this for every story — stories that have nothing to do with diversity or race or sexual orientation — and making sure that the voices of marginalized communities are heard from in stories about love, friendship, whimsy and plain old life, too?

Are we making assumptions about our readers?

Ensuring we hear from a diverse range of voices helps us avoid falling into traps. As we have seen over the last few years, the default for terms like “suburban mom,” “working class” or “evangelical” has too often simply meant white people. We can stop this kind of coding. Black, Asian, Native American and Latinx voices should have a presence in these stories.

How are we explaining our process to sources?

People who don’t work in journalism don’t always know the difference between being on the record versus off the record. They may not realize where exactly their quote will show up, or that they may not even appear in the final story. Taking a few moments at the start of an interview to explain some fundamentals creates trust in our process and prevents us from burning bridges with sources.