The Daily Orange Diversity Report Spring 2021 by The Daily Orange

THE DAILY ORANGE DIVERSITY REPORT SPRING 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the editors...........................................................................................................1 Diversity committee..............................................................................................................2 Staff demographic survey.....................................................................................................3 Contributing staff demographic survey...............................................................................9 Content diversity tracker.....................................................................................................15 News..........................................................................................................................18 Opinion.......................................................................................................................21 Culture.......................................................................................................................25 Sports........................................................................................................................28 Podcast......................................................................................................................30 Video...........................................................................................................................33 Visuals........................................................................................................................34 Instagram...................................................................................................................35 Readership survey..............................................................................................................36 Goals and recommendations.............................................................................................39 Updates.....................................................................................................................39 General goals and recommendations......................................................................41 Section-specific goals and recommendations........................................................43

1 Dear readers, The Daily Orange cannot truly serve our community unless our newsroom and our coverage reflect the diversity of the community. If we neglect the work of diversifying our newsroom and our content, we neglect our readers, whom The D.O. exists to serve. All readers should be able to find themselves represented in the content we produce. Our staff — the people who tell the stories of the community — should reflect the diverse identities, backgrounds and experiences present in the community. This has not been the case for The D.O., which is and has been a predominantly white institution, specifically lacking representation of people of color and international students. Through semesterly diversity reports, we’re working to assess where we fall short in becoming a newsroom that reflects its community and produces content that does so too. This work includes surveying and analyzing the diversity of our staff and our coverage, as well as making recommendations for improvement. We also seek feedback and insight from our readers through readership surveys. In February, The D.O. published its first diversity report on our staff and content diversity from the fall 2021 semester. Now, we are publishing our second report, which includes breakdowns of the diversity of our spring 2021 staff across several demographics, including race, gender, ability and socioeconomic status. Additionally, you will find analysis of our coverage’s representation of marginalized communities and the racial and gender diversity of the sources quoted in our coverage. This report also includes findings from our readership surveys and our recommendations for improvement, which we discussed with The D.O. Board of Directors’ diversity committee. We are committed to helping The D.O. become a newsroom that reflects the diversity of the community we serve, and our work does not end here. These reports, which we will continue to publish each semester, are only one part of our commitment. We will take action and follow through on the recommendations for improvement included in this report. If you have feedback, questions or concerns, you can reach us at editor@dailyorange.com. Thank you for reading, Emily Steinberger, editor-in-chief 2021-22 Mandy Kraynak, managing editor 2021-22 Abby Weiss, digital managing editor 2021

BREAKDOWN OF DIVERSITY COMMITTEE The Daily Orange Board of Directors, which consists of D.O. alumni and current and former D.O. staffers, formed the diversity committee in 2020 as a permanent committee on the board. Each semester, the committee conducts a staff demographic survey and tracks the diversity of the paper’s content before compiling the findings in a diversity report and publishing it after the semester ends. The committee will share each diversity report with the editorial staff and board and will publish a diversity report at least once each academic year. Committee membership The editor-in-chief and managing editor serve as co-chairs of the diversity committee. All voting student members and at least one alumni member of The D.O.’s Board of Directors are required to be on the committee. The spring 2021 staff and management team contributed to the report by gathering and compiling data on the diversity of The D.O.’s content. The spring 2021 management team also conducted a demographic survey of the spring 2021 staff for this report. All D.O. contributors and editors are also welcome to join the committee and provide recommendations for improvement. The members of the diversity committee are as follows: Spring 2021 Richard J Chang, student board member Casey Darnell, editor-in-chief KJ Edelman, digital managing editor Stacy Fernández, alumni board member Emma Folts, managing editor Amy Nakamura, student board member Talia Trackim, student board member

Fall 2021 Cori Dill, student board member Stacy Fernández, alumni board member Mandy Kraynak, managing editor Katie McInerney, alumni board member Marnie Muñoz, student board member Mark Nash, advertising manager Emily Steinberger, editor-in-chief Abby Weiss, digital managing editor Tyler Youngman, student board member

STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY Spring 2021: 49 responses out of 50 editorial staff members (98.0% participation) Fall 2020: 39 responses out of 45 editorial staff members (86.7% participation)

SEMESTERS WORKED IN HOUSE* 1 semester: 29.2% 2 semesters: 35.4% 3 semesters: 18.8% 4 semesters: 8.3% 5 semesters: 4.2% 6 semesters: 2.1% 8 semesters: 2.1%

JOBS WORKED OUTSIDE OF THE D.O.* 0 other jobs: 55.3% 1 other job: 31.9% 2 other jobs: 8.5% 3 other jobs: 8.5%

*Added since fall 2020

4 STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

HOURS PER WEEK WORKED OUTSIDE OF THE D.O.* 0 hours: 51.1% 1-5 hours: 23.4% 6-10 hours: 14.9% 11-14 hours: 0.0% 15+ hours: 10.6%

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY 3 2 2

Fall 2020

C *Added since fall 2020

0 es e to n

c ri ha m A

eb re w

an m er G

ne se hi C

Ko re an

ch Fr en

Sp an

rd u

Spring 2021

SOCIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY Staffers identified that they qualify for these levels of financial aid:

34.7%

Subsidized loans

46.2% 36.7%

SU need-based grant

41.0% 18.4%

None

41.0% 28.6%

Direct unsubsidized loans

38.5% 44.9%

Work study

30.8% 36.7%

SU need-based academic scholarship

23.1% 28.6%

Parent loans

23.1% 10.2%

Pell grant

15.4% 24.5%

Pay full tuition*

Tuition exchange* *Added since fall 2020

2.0%

Spring 2021 Fall 2020

6 STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

GENDER DIVERSITY Spring 2021 69.4% identified as female 28.6% identified as male 2.0% identified as nonbinary, gender non-conforming, genderqueer or genderfluid

Fall 2020 59.0% identified as female 41.0% identified as male 0.0% identified as nonbinary, gender non-conforming, genderqueer or genderfluid

RACIAL/ETHNIC DIVERSITY Spring 2021 75.5% identified as white 14.3% identified as Asian or Asian American 4.1% identified as Black 10.2% identified as Latino or Latinx 2.0% identified as Ashkenazi Jewish

Fall 2020 76.9% identified as white 12.8% identified as Asian or Asian American 7.7% identified as Black 5.1% identified as Latino or Latinx 2.0% identified as Ashkenazi Jewish

TRANSGENDER STUDENTS*

2.0% identified as transgender 98.0% identified as not transgender

SEXUALITY DIVERSITY Spring 2021 31.3% identified as LGBTQ 68.8% identified as not LGBTQ

Fall 2020 25.6% identified as LGBTQ 74.4% identified as not LGBTQ

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS Spring 2021 2.0% identified as an international student 98.0% identified as not an international student

Fall 2020 2.6% identified as an international student 97.4% identified as not an international student

*Added since fall 2020

8 STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

ABILITY DIVERSITY Spring 2021 12.2% identified as having a disability 87.8% identified as not having a disability

Fall 2020 7.7% identify as having a disability 92.3% identified as not having a disability

RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY* 2.0% identified as Buddhist 2.0% identified as Hindu 20.0% identified as Jewish 2.0% identified as Muslim 14.2% identified as Protestant 14.2% identified as Roman Catholic 10.2% identified as Atheist 10.2% identified as Agnostic 14.2% identified as nothing in particular

*Added since fall 2020

CONTRIBUTING STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY* 39 responses from out-of-house contributing, staff and senior staff members

SECTION WORKED IN AT THE D.O. Sports: 39.5% Culture: 39.5% Photo: 13.2% News: 7.9%

HAVE YOU PREVIOUSLY WORKED IN-HOUSE AS AN EDITOR?

No: 64.1% Yes: 35.9%

*Added since fall 2020

10 CONTRIBUTING STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

CURRENT POSITION AT THE D.O. Staff writer: 33.3% Contributing writer: 25.6% Senior staff writer: 23.1% Senior staff photographer: 5.1% Staff photographer: 5.1% Contributing photographer: 2.6% Columnist: 2.6% Senior staff designer/illustrator: 2.6%

HOURS PER WEEK WORKED OUTSIDE OF THE D.O. 0 hours: 44.7% 1-5 hours: 34.2% 6-10 hours: 15.8% 11-14 hours: 0.0% 15+ hours: 5.3%

JOBS WORKED OUTSIDE OF THE D.O. 0 other jobs: 44.7% 1 other job: 39.5% 2 other jobs: 15.8%

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY 3 staffers speak Spanish 1 staffer speaks Bengali 1 staffer speaks Mandarin 1 staffer speaks Arabic 1 staffer speaks Korean 1 staffer speaks French

12 CONTRIBUTING STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

ABILITY DIVERSITY 7.7% identified as having a disability 92.3% identified as not having a disability

SOCIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY Staffers identified that they qualify for these levels of financial aid:

Work study: 33.3% SU need-based grant: 30.8% SU need-based academic scholarship: 25.6% Subsidized loans: 38.5% Direct unsubsidized loans: 41.0% Parent loans: 12.8% Pell grant: 10.3% None: 23.9% Pay full tuition: 17.9%

GENDER DIVERSITY 43.6% identified as female 56.4% identified as male 0.0% identified as nonbinary, gender non-conforming, genderqueer or genderfluid

0.0% of spring 2021 survey respondents identified as transgender.

SEXUALITY DIVERSITY

12.8% identified as LGBTQ 87.2% didn’t identify as LGBTQ

14 CONTRIBUTING STAFF DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY

RACIAL/ETHNIC DIVERSITY

78.0% identified as white 14.0% identified as Asian or Asian American 2.0% identified as Black 2.0% identified as Latino or Latinx 2.0% identified as Middle Eastern or North African 2.0% identified as Pacific Islander

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS 2.6% identified as an international student 97.4% identified as not an international student

CONTENT DIVERSITY TRACKERS At the start of the fall 2020 semester, The D.O. created content trackers for its News, Opinion, Culture, Sports, Video and Podcast sections, modeled after the trackers in the Minnesota Daily’s 2019-2020 End-of-Year Report. All writers, whether they were members of the editing staff or contributors, were responsible for answering the questions on the tracker for stories they wrote. The trackers allow us to examine our coverage, including the racial and gender diversity of our sources and how frequently we tell stories that focus on topics relevant to marginalized communities. They also serve as an opportunity for each reporter to reflect on how they could have better included or represented marginalized communities in their reporting. Marginalized communities One of the questions on the trackers asked reporters if their stories highlighted marginalized community members or focused on a topic relevant to marginalized community members. A notes sheet with guidelines on how to fill out the content trackers states that we consider race, gender (nonbinary or trans), sexuality, ability, language, nationality, religion, age and socioeconomic class for our reports, but the sheet did not include guidelines on how to determine whether or not a story highlighted or was relevant to marginalized community members. Thus, individual reporters may have had different interpretations of whether or not a story highlighted or was relevant to marginalized community members, and it is unclear how they made this determination for their stories. Stories and sources Our content trackers included enterprise stories in which reporters interviewed multiple sources and coverages in which reporters interviewed or quoted at least one person. They did not include stories based on emails, press releases or information from spokespeople whom reporters did not directly interview, however. A change from last semester’s report, our source breakdowns excluded university spokespeople and officials. The D.O. decided to exclude these types of sources from our source breakdowns in order to focus on the diversity among the sources whom our reporters actively seek out and choose to speak to.

CONTENT DIVERSITY TRACKERS (CONT.) During the spring 2021 semester, The D.O. included a notes sheet detailing guidelines for reporters on the first page of our content tracker spreadsheets. It instructed reporters to ask if sources would be comfortable with anonymously sharing their race and gender after interviews for the report. Reporters may have assumed the race and gender identities of their sources if they did not state them during the interview, though. We plan to hold an in-depth workshop to guide staffers on how to tactfully ask sources if they would be comfortable sharing their race and gender identities. Asking sources to self-identify their race and gender identities will provide more accurate insight into which specific communities and voices we are neglecting to include in our coverage or are covering insufficiently. Questions included Our content trackers primarily asked questions relating to source demographics and coverage of marginalized communities. The source demographics questions asked reporters to separately list the number of their sources who identified as white, people of color, women, men, nonbinary and transgender. Another question asked reporters to list the gender of any expert sources quoted in the story. Other questions focused on representation of marginalized community members. In addition to noting whether each story highlighted or focused on a topic relevant to marginalized community members, reporters reflected on how the specific story and the day’s coverage as a whole could have better represented and included marginalized community members. Following the Minnesota Daily, the trackers asked reporters who else they could have sought to interview for the story. The trackers also asked where the story idea came from. To track the diversity of the visuals included in print editions of The D.O. and on the website, other questions on the tracker asked if the primary visual accompanying each story prominently featured a person of color. Reporters also noted whether or not a story had any corrections on the trackers. The purpose of that question was to determine if our coverage represented marginalized communities with accuracy and fairness.

17 Gaps in data The content trackers were not filled out for multiple stories across sections, so the data in this report does not provide as comprehensive of a look at our coverage during the spring 2021 semester as we had planned to provide. The trackers were not updated or filled out for weeks 13 and 14. Additionally, the News section tracker had missing stories for weeks one through nine and was not filled out for weeks 10 through 12, and the Sports section and Podcast trackers were not filled out for week 12. For the graphs in the following pages, we calculated the percentage of stories that focus on marginalized communities out of the total number of stories we had data for. Stories published during the spring 2021 semester for which the coverage trackers were not filled out are not included in the total number of stories or reflected in the graphs. To reduce gaps in data in future diversity reports, we are working to incorporate filling out the coverage trackers into our daily production schedule and will seek feedback from past and current staffers on how we can improve the process of filling out the coverage trackers. We will also emphasize to the staff that filling out the tracker is mandatory and necessary for holding The D.O. accountable in our commitment to diversify our coverage.

18 CONTENT DIVERSITY TRACKERS

NEWS Starting on the first day of classes, we published 309 news stories — 60 fewer than during the fall 2020 semester. The News staff analyzed 70 of these stories (22.7% of the total coverage), 31 of which focus on a topic relevant to marginalized communities (44.3% of the stories analyzed).

Category

Spring ‘21

Coronavirus Student life

4 4

Sources: Total sources directly interviewed in 8 stories: 14

50.0% identified as people of color

57.1% identified as female

50.0% identified as white

21.4% identified as male 21.4% did not identify their gender

34 CONTENT DIVERSITY TRACKERS

VISUALS Categorization may include the same dominant photo used in multiple stories, and for this report, we assumed the photo subject’s racial identity and left out photos in which the racial identity of the subject was unclear.

News

Opinion

Culture

9.7% featured at least one person of color prominently

19.8% featured at least one person of color prominently

50.8% featured at least one person of color prominently

59.6% did not feature at least one person of color prominently

FRONT PAGE • 28 issues • Only 15 front pages featured people in the main visual; 13 featured illustrations or photos without people • Of those 15 front pages, 8 (53.3%) prominently featured a person of color in the main visual

INSTAGRAM* Categorization may include the same photo used in multiple stories, and for this report, we assumed the photo subject’s racial identity and left out photos in which the racial identity of the subject was unclear.

News

Opinion**

Culture

Sports***

51 News

Opinion**

26.2% featured at least one person of color prominently

42.9% featured at least one person of color prominently

13.1% did not feature at least one person of color prominently

0.0% did not feature at least one person of color prominently

60.7% did not include people

57.1% did not include people

Culture 30.0% featured at least one person of color prominently 45.7% did not feature at least one person of color prominently 24.3% did not include people

Sports*** 17.6% featured women’s sports 41.2% featured men’s sports 41.2% featured either both or neither women’s or men’s sports

*Added since fall 2020 **Images used for Opinion posts overwhelmingly represent file photos without any people, so an analysis of how many photos feature at least one person of color is not as accurate compared to the other sections. ***Images used for Sports posts are overwhelmingly photos from gameplay where there are only a limited amount of people on the court, so analysis of how many photos feature at least one person of color would not be a functional analysis.

READERSHIP SURVEY In April 2021, The D.O. promoted a readership survey on social media and began embedding it in stories published on the website. The survey received 89 responses between April 12, 2021 and August 23, 2021. Here are takeaways from the readership survey and recommendations for improvement based on readers’ suggestions. Many of the recommendations center around building trust with and developing relationships within the community.

Frequency of readership The highest percentage (38.6%) of the 88 readers who responded to this question said they read The D.O. multiple times a week, followed by 23.9% who said they read The D.O. once a day and 18.2% who said they read The D.O. once a week. Others said they read The D.O. multiple times a month (8%), once a month (5.7%), multiple times a day (4.5%) or when there was a story of interest (1.1%).

Creating relationships with the community instead of reporting reactively In response to a survey question of how we can improve our coverage of marginalized communities, one reader recommended creating relationships with the community so that our coverage of marginalized communities is not limited to when negative events occur. Producing nuanced and fair stories about our community requires building trust with community members, and the reporting process should not be the only time when we engage with the community. Rather than taking a reactive approach and only swooping in to report in the community when breaking news happens to a marginalized community, our reporters should reach out to, listen to and be in continual communication with student groups and organizations in the Syracuse area centered on marginalized communities. It is particularly important for us to build trust and relationships with communities of color and other marginalized communities, which news organizations, including The D.O., have historically harmed and underrepresented in their coverage.

Covering marginalized communities at SU and in the city When asked which communities we are covering insufficiently or neglecting to cover,

37 several readers listed Indigenous community members, LGBTQ community members and international student concerns, particularly issues Asian students face. One of these readers also said they would like to see follow-up stories about the #NotAgainSU movement. A reader said that we could improve our coverage by focusing more on how student life topics specifically affect students from marginalized communities. Another reader said that our coverage of the city of Syracuse is sometimes lacking in its level of detail on specific locations and resources available to residents. City coverage should cater to an audience that includes Syracuse residents, in addition to members of the university community, they said, and listed the Near Westside of Syracuse as an example of an under-reported community whose businesses, people and progress we should highlight. Other topics readers said we do not cover enough include business, entrepreneurship, economy and technology and innovation. The D.O.’s editors and reporters should seek out communities that it does not frequently report on, including communities in the city. Reporters should get to know the city they are living in and reporting on, and the paper’s coverage should extend beyond the university community. This means that, when possible, reporters should go to various communities to become familiar with them and make connections, as well as to report. Reporters should also research and learn about Syracuse’s history and the relationship between the city and university. Editors, senior staff writers and the management team should help provide reporters who are new to the community with resources to learn about complex and ongoing issues in Syracuse’s history. This includes creating a guide with historical and contemporary information on Syracuse for newer reporters, as fall 2020’s diversity report recommended. These steps will help ensure that our reporting comes from a relationship with the community and a foundation of knowledge about its historical context and challenges.

Faculty and staff issues, research and graduate students Several readers said that we should do more reporting on faculty and staff at SU. One reader suggested we report on what faculty members’ lives are like and how faculty think SU can best serve students. Others listed faculty and academic excellence and research across departments at SU, including engineering, social sciences and journalism, as topics that we are not covering. Since SU is a research institution, we should also pursue stories about the university’s progress on research goals, infrastructural issues and policy frameworks that support or hinder research, one reader said. Another reader said that we do not cover graduate student issues sufficiently. Though The D.O. is completely student-run, students are not the only people who read it, and they should not be the only ones reflected in our coverage. The stories we tell should also reflect and focus on the concerns, perspectives and work of faculty

READERSHIP SURVEY (CONT.) and staff members at SU. To find story ideas relating to faculty and staff at SU, D.O. reporters should be in tune with the concerns and work of faculty and staff at the university. Also, most editors and reporters at The D.O. are undergraduate students. The D.O. should work to recruit and welcome graduate students to our newsroom, make connections with graduate student organizations and publish more stories focusing on graduate students.

Investigations on administrative accountability Readers also said that we should pursue more investigative stories focusing on administrative accountability, including stories about the chancellor, spending, organizational structure and dynamics between the administration and students and faculty. One reader suggested we pursue stories about SU’s Board of Trustees. As a student-run newsroom that is independent from the university, The D.O. should pursue stories to hold the administration accountable and inform other students and members of the community about processes, decisions and policies within the university’s leadership.

Accountability and culture within athletics, women’s sports Readers said that we should pursue more stories focused on accountability within SU’s athletics programs, including Title IX issues and the culture within women’s athletics programs. A reader also said that our coverage does not focus on women’s sports enough, and readers said we should cover club sports more frequently.

Serviceable stories on campus life, other topics We exist to serve the community and should produce stories that provide students and community members with information they need to know for their daily life. Readers said they would like to see more stories focused on daily student life, including service stories that provide information on topics such as meal plans, housing selection and transportation issues. Another reader said The D.O. should connect SU community members to resources and businesses in the city of Syracuse. Other topics that readers said we are not covering sufficiently include arts events, University Senate and student opinions.

GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS UPDATES ON OUR PROGRESS SO FAR Listed below are the goals and recommendations from The D.O.’s fall 2020 diversity report. While most of these goals are ongoing, we have noted our progress so far and where more work is needed.

Actively improve and compile data for semesterly diversity report We are committed to creating these reports to hold ourselves accountable and continue the work of diversifying our newsroom and coverage. This is The D.O.’s second diversity report. We have also collected data during the fall 2021 semester for our fall 2021 diversity report and will continue to publish diversity reports for the spring 2022 semester and subsequent semesters. e distributed demographic surveys to staff in November 2021. Staffers were also W responsible for sending a demographics survey to contributors to fill out. The notes sheet on our content trackers includes basic guidelines for reporters on how to ask sources if they would be willing to share their race and gender identities confidentially for this report. We have not yet held a workshop guiding staffers on how to do this.

Establish a diversity scholarship for staffers of color he diversity committee is working with the rest of The D.O.’s Board of Directors to T establish a scholarship program for student journalists of color.

Actively work to increase staff pay he D.O.’s low rate of pay has continued to place a burden on staffers who may have T to work an additional job or jobs on top of their coursework and hinders students who cannot afford to work at The D.O. with its current pay rate from gaining valuable journalism experience and networking opportunities that lead to careers in journalism and other fields.

UPDATES ON OUR PROGRESS SO FAR (CONT.) Establish reimbursement fund The D.O.’s Board of Directors established a $500 discretionary fund for the editorin-chief to administer each semester to allow reimbursements for reporting-related expenses such as transportation and FOIA/FOIL fees.

Peer-to-peer mentorship (Additional work needed) Part of an editor’s job is to help reporters and other editors grow and improve their skills. The D.O. needs to support current staffers’ growth as journalists and leaders so that they develop the skills needed to serve as mentors for other students. The D.O. can support student journalists’ growth and promote mentorship by holding more workshops focused on developing journalistic skills and by having senior staffers and other experienced student journalists, as well as D.O. alumni, offer expertise and mentorship to current staffers. The D.O. should also provide staffers and contributors from marginalized communities with access to resources and mentorship and networking opportunities that focus on supporting students from marginalized communities.

Expand outreach to student groups focused on communities of color (Additional work needed) eporters and editors should reach out to members of student groups that focus on R communities of color and other marginalized communities to develop relationships and build trust. Reporters should be consistently present in the community and willing to listen — and not just when news breaks. Building trust requires two-way communication, and reporters can seek feedback and story ideas when developing relationships within the community. Management and section editors should emphasize to reporters that building trust within the community is necessary for producing fair and nuanced coverage and for fulfilling our purpose of serving the community.

Partner with publications focused on marginalized community members (Additional work needed) The D.O. has not yet co-published stories with publications that focus on marginalized communities. D.O. reporters and editors should reach out to editors at publications such as Renegade, Femme Noir, Globalists, Renegade and The OutCrowd to see if they would be interested in co-publishing work or hosting events together.

Being more mindful Being mindful of each staffer’s well-being and fostering a healthy work environment

41 where staffers put their mental, emotional and physical well-being first are ongoing goals for our newsroom. Management should continue to allow staffers to take time off, check in on how they are doing and listen to their experiences, recognizing the effect that the pandemic and events in the news may have on reporters’ ability to do their work and their well-being. This same attitude toward well-being and mindfulness should also apply to contributors to The D.O., and management should remind editors to be mindful of the well-being of the contributors they work with as well.

GENERAL GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Building trust with the community The community is not just the subject of the stories we tell — it’s the reason we do this work. But if we are disconnected and out of touch with the community, we won’t be able to achieve this mission. The D.O. should continue to work to build trust and relationships with the community, both on campus and in the Syracuse community. Editors in each section of The D.O. should reach out to student groups and organizations each semester and should seek out groups, communities and topics that The D.O. has not frequently reported on. To encourage engagement with the community, The D.O. can hold office hours for students and community members to share their ideas and perspectives with reporters and editors outside of the context of interviews. The D.O. should use polls and other interactive posts on social media more frequently and should consistently ask readers what questions they have and what topics they would like The D.O. to report on.

Improving process of gathering information Continuing to emphasize and provide guidance to reporters on how to go about asking sources about their race and gender identity will allow us to collect more detailed data on source diversity. This will give us more insight into whose voices we are including and neglecting to include in our coverage. We will review the questions on the content diversity trackers to determine how we can collect data more thoroughly. A question on the spring 2021 trackers, for example, asked if the story specifically highlighted or focused on a topic relevant to marginalized community members, but it did not ask reporters to specify which marginalized communities the story focused on. Asking reporters to include this

42 information in future reports will allow us to see which marginalized communities we have excluded or have misrepresented in our coverage. The management team will ask both former and current staffers for feedback on the obstacles they faced in filling out the content diversity trackers and ways to improve the process of gathering information.

Accessibility The D.O. should strive to become a more accessible workplace and should work to make its content more accessible. Editors posting stories should include alt text for all images included. The management team and section editors should ensure all staffers who post stories know how to write alt text in posts and that doing so is a necessary part of posting stories. The D.O. should also begin adding alt text to posts on social media. Students who start out as contributing and staff writers and photographers for The D.O. often go on to become editors in later semesters. But contributors do not receive pay for their work and may feel disconnected from the newsroom’s editing staff and its editing processes. The management team and section editors should work to better include and support The D.O.’s contributors. While individual sections hold meetings with editors as well as reporters, the editing staff should also frequently hold workshops and training sessions specifically for contributors from all sections to foster a stronger sense of community and involvement among editors, reporters, photographers and other contributors. Contributors should always be welcome and included in the newsroom outside of these workshops, and editors should serve as mentors for them. The D.O. could not function without the work of its contributors, including beat writers who develop sources on a specific topic that they report on over the course of the semester. Working as a contributor, however, is not accessible for all students, such as those who work other jobs on top of their reporting. The D.O. should actively work to support contributors who face financial barriers, including providing reimbursements for reporting-related costs such as gas, Lyft or Uber fees, ticket costs and FOIA/FOIL requests. Editors should make sure all contributors know that funds are available for reimbursing such costs.

SECTION-SPECIFIC GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS News The News section should pursue more investigative reporting and data stories relating to police accountability among both the Department of Public Safety and the Syracuse Police Department. Reporters should prioritize seeking the perspectives of community members when doing this work rather than relying solely on statistics and information from the police. The section should accompany stories about community members with visuals of these community members when possible, rather than relying only on file photos of general locations. The News section’s content diversity tracker was not fully complete for any of the weeks during the spring 2021 semester. To ensure that all sections are filling out the trackers for their stories, the management team will enforce filling out the trackers as a mandatory job responsibility among all sections and will check in with each section editor and section’s staff every week or every two weeks if there are missing stories for that week. News should broaden its coverage of the city of Syracuse and should pursue more stories that examine the relationship between the university and the city, such as this story about SU’s Steam Station, which is located in a community bordering Interstate 81 and provides heat to all buildings on the university’s Main Campus. In order to tell such stories thoroughly and with context, reporters should develop an understanding of Syracuse’s history and build trust with Syracuse residents.

Opinion The Opinion section should continue its International Voice, Black Voices and Absence of Light projects, building relationships with those involved in the projects and coming up with new ideas. For International Voice, which highlights the perspectives of International students through a collaboration with the student organization WeMedia Lab, new Opinion staffers should meet with members of WeMedia Lab to introduce themselves and seek feedback on how The D.O.’s Opinion section can better support the project and improve the editing and publication process.

SECTION-SPECIFIC GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (CONT.) In continuing its Black Voices project, the Opinion section should periodically put out calls on social media for personal essays from Black students and community members. Social media calls should emphasize that the Black Voices project would like to highlight the voices of Black Syracuse residents, in addition to Black SU and SUNY-ESF students. In addition to social media calls, Opinion staff should also reach out to organizations at SU and in Syracuse that focus on the Black community to see if members would be interested in contributing to the project. The staff should also reach out to people who have contributed stories in the past and ask for feedback on how The D.O. can improve the editing process and the reach of the project. Opinion staff should reach out to Absence of Light contributors for their thoughts and suggestions on how we can improve the editing and publication process and include more contributors. The current staff should also meet with past editors who have worked on the project to brainstorm ideas for expanding and adding new elements to the project.

Culture The Culture section should work to partner with campus magazines to tell stories that highlight the experiences of people from marginalized communities. The Culture section, which lends itself to long-form and visual-focused projects, can pursue creative forms of storytelling that correspond with the visions of magazines on campus such as Renegade and The OutCrowd. Of the 11 reported corrections on stories during the spring 2021 semester, eight were on stories that focused on marginalized communities. The Culture section should take care to ensure that it is reporting on marginalized communities with thoroughness, accuracy and care. Reporters should go to the places they are reporting on when possible and should get to know the communities they are reporting on outside of campus. To build trust and relationship with readers and to do thorough and nuanced reporting, they should consistently be present in the community. The section should pursue more profiles of community members and organizations in Syracuse and should expand its coverage beyond the SU community.

45 Culture should continue to highlight artists, entrepreneurs and leaders of color and artists from marginalized communities, including those whose work focuses on the experiences of members of these communities. Examples of stories from the spring 2021 semester include this story about the Black Artist Collective and this story about two SU students who launched a mentorship program for middle and high school students of color in Syracuse. The section should also feature more people of color in its primary visuals, particularly in the visuals that accompany its leading stories in print. (Of 35 Culture front pages and spec pages over the course of the spring 2021 semester, 27 featured people in the primary visual, and eight did not feature people in the primary visual. Of these 27 photos featuring people, 10 prominently featured a person of color, and 17 did not prominently feature people of color.)

Sports The Sports section should pursue more enterprise and feature stories on topics relevant to marginalized communities, such as this story about LGBTQ athletes and this coverage of a march for equality for Black athletes. The section should feature more stories on women’s sports on the sports back page, including the leading stories and featured photos. (Of the 28 regular edition issues from the spring 2021 semester, 17 featured a sports back page with a leading story and corresponding photo about a men’s sport, six featured a leading story and corresponding photo about a women’s sport, and five featured a leading story and corresponding photo about both a women’s and men’s sport or neither.)

Video The Video section should create videos that highlight topics relevant to marginalized communities. In addition to explainers and student reaction videos, the section should produce videos of events and breaking news, as well as videos that focus on a specific person, place or organization. The section should create more videos that feature the greater Syracuse community, not only events and topics related to the university. Writers and photographers should collaborate with video editors and videographers when reporting to tell stories cohesively in multiple formats and to increase representation of the Syracuse community in the Video section’s coverage.

SECTION-SPECIFIC GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (CONT.) The section should make sure that it is creating a balanced number of videos for each section (News, Opinion, Culture and Sports). These videos can accompany a story in the respective section or stand alone. All videos should have subtitles to be more accessible.

Podcast The Podcast section should strive to further engage with the community and encourage listeners of the podcasts to send in feedback and ideas for future episodes, with potential calls for feedback in episode outros and on social media. Engaging with and receiving feedback from the community is particularly important for the Peeling it Back podcast as it develops and produces episodes with original audio reporting that reflect the diversity of the community. The Sportscast should feature more reporters of color and should increase the gender diversity of those featured. To do so, The D.O., and the Sports section in particular, must become a welcoming place for people of color, women, and nonbinary and transgender people. Daily Orange Podcast episodes should feature more out-of-house contributors, including contributing writers, staff writers and beat writers who don’t hold an editing position. To be more accessible, all podcast episodes should have transcripts (on all streaming platforms and on the link to the episode on The D.O.’s website). The Podcast section should feature sound bites with the voices of sources themselves instead of solely relying on reporters to explain the story.

Instagram The D.O. mainly uses three social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Digital editors post every story on Twitter and Facebook but only posts a select few on Instagram. Instagram is one way The D.O. promotes stories, and The D.O. must take care in deciding which stories are shared on Instagram and which stories are left out. Digital editors should choose stories not only based on which stories were best-

47 written or have great visuals, but also based on factors such as which stories our audience wants to see more of and which stories highlight voices that are often left out of the narrative. Additionally, The D.O. should use Instagram to share more stories from contributing writers, who may feel disconnected from The D.O. and less recognized by its editors. The D.O. should make sure that it is creating a balanced number of Instagram posts for each section (News, Opinion, Culture and Sports). The D.O. should also highlight more content from the Video and Podcast sections. The D.O. should also begin adding alt text to posts on Instagram.

The Daily Orange Diversity Report Spring 2021

Articles inside

Section-specific goals and recommendations

General goals and recommendations

Diversity committee

Sports

Readership survey

Letter from the editors

Content diversity tracker

Visuals

Podcast

Contributing staff demographic survey