The creative element of this thesis brings the research to life, with audio and video interviews that describe the challenges and accomplishments of the 11 interviewees currently working in the industry. This thesis reviews recent and older literature to find common trends, explore the issues previously addressed, and uses the interviews to provide a current picture of the situation in television newsrooms.
Keywords: Diversity, Television News, Black Women, Journalists, Leadership, Producers, Broadcasters
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, a piece of legislation which aims for dismantling gender discrimination. Even with such actions females, especially Black females are not proportionally represented in the world of sports. Due to this phenomenon, a study was funded by the Global Sport Institute to look at barriers for Black Women and Girls sport participation. Focus groups and interviews were used to gather data. They utilized a semi-structured approach using open-ended questions, and were recorded and later transcribed. After a secondary data analysis was performed on the focus group and interview transcripts it was found that community views and resources play an important role in the sports participation for Black girls and women. The topics of legislation history, schools, resources, finances, access, and media views were further researched in order to understand their impact on Black girls and women. A public service announcement (PSA) video was created in order to communicate these findings in a more accessible and modern way. The goal of the PSA video is to not only educate the public about this problem concerning Black girls and women but to also empower and encourage communities to fix it.