IRE expands DBEI training for newsrooms

If you missed Investigative Reporters & Editors’ annual virtual-by-design conference AccessFest24, with its focus on helping journalists improve their inclusive practices for their readers and viewers and for their own newsrooms, don’t fret — we’ve got you covered year-round.

IRE has increased its training options for newsrooms seeking guidance on how to better address specific audiences and communities that have long been ignored, not only in coverage but in internal hiring and retention practices. Training is available at affordable prices.

“Although in some fields of work, there has been a backslide or outright backlash over diversity and inclusion, at IRE we know it remains imperative training toward journalists’ goals of doing work that impacts our communities and builds trust with our changing audiences and those we’ve missed at times,” said Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE's Director of Diversity and Inclusion. 

“IRE is proud to be a resource to support journalists and news organizations who want to get better at source diversity, combating microaggressions, recruiting and retaining journalists from a variety of backgrounds, and finding ways to weave that intentionality into our daily workflow and newsroom culture,” Vara-Orta said.

In recent years, IRE has been making a concentrated effort to address issues of inclusion and belonging.

Just five years ago, 14% of all IRE members identified themselves as persons of color, according to a 2019 staff report. That is, it was at least 14% because not everyone answered the question about race and ethnicity.

Today, at least 30% of all members identify as POC. It remains “at least” because there are still members who don’t provide that demographic information.

“This success is the result of planning and hard work. IRE has dedicated time and energy to diversify its membership and provide the kind of training our members need to better cover their communities,” said IRE Executive Director Diana R. Fuentes. “We know the value of ensuring all voices are heard. Diversity is not just color. It’s urban and rural, age, gender, physical and mental abilities, spirituality, politics, socioeconomic situations — and many other factors. We are a rich tapestry that benefits from each other’s strengths.”

In June, a report presented to IRE members at the annual IRE conference erroneously stated that IRE members who identify as people of color had reached nearly 40%, which would represent parity with the U.S. population. In fact, however, IRE is not there yet. An accurate, comprehensive accounting on Oct. 16 showed a total of 4,946 members. Of those, 4,334 responded to the question about race and ethnicity and 1,500 identified as POC.

Even at 30%, IRE is doing considerably better than U.S. newsrooms; while a complete database is lacking, the last count put the rate of JOCs in newsrooms at about 20%.  

IRE not only provides tools and training for members in the field in this area; we also have stepped up training opportunities to help newsrooms attract and keep a more diverse staff. 

IRE offers baseline sessions on how to have an inclusive newsroom and improve source diversity. We also offer deeper-dive sessions on how to move past divides in newsrooms such as microaggressions, how to cover historically marginalized groups, increase audience engagement, improve word choice and framing, help secure digital security and safety for journalists, and how to cover the queer and trans community, specifically. 

Sessions are designed by journalists who come from the communities we are trying to better cover and the training can be virtual or in-person. Reduced rates may be available, upon request, for newsrooms that are smaller, rural and/or founded to serve underrepresented communities. 

IRE has trained a range of journalism organizations on DBEI in recent years, including The Columbian newspaper in Washington state, States Newsroom, Report for America, Education Week, Boston University’s College of Communication, and Education Writers Association, among others.

Despite newsroom surveys showing slow change when it comes to diversity, the greater desire for inclusion remains. For example, nearly four out of every five people in a survey of journalists by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications said the new efforts to promote DEI have positively affected the journalism industry.  Medill underscored its respondent pool reflected the makeup of many newsrooms today as those who took the survey, conducted after 2020’s “media reckoning” were predominantly white, at 86.9 percent. In general a majority of employed U.S. adults, at 56 percent, say focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year.

“When you look at most award-winning work in the field, and stories that get laws changed, much of the work often focuses on historically marginalized or oppressed groups,” Vara-Orta said. “But now audiences and journalists are expecting us of all backgrounds to be more culturally competent when we are an outsider and also in some cases for our teams to reflect who we report on in the U.S. and abroad.

Bottom line, it always feels good to learn a new skill and we promise taking these sessions will leave you inspired and empowered to do work whomever you are.”

To see all custom training options, with dozens to choose from, visit here. And to learn the latest about what IRE’s sustained commitment to DBEI has been in recent years, check out our work here.