Articles/Reports
Gender, ethnic/racial minorities’ participation in AEJMC
By Mia Moody
Drs. Federico Subervi and Mia
Moody will present data from their
yearlong statistical analysis of the
gender and racial makeup of AEJMC’s
scholarship, board of directors
and division officers at AEJMC’s
2012 national conference. Sponsored
by the Minorities and Communication
and Scholastic Journalism
divisions, the PF&R panel will be
held from 8:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. on
Thursday, Aug. 9.
The presentation titled, “Ethnic/
Racial Minorities Participation in
AEJMC: How Much and What Type of
Progress” will address the extent to
which AEJMC is meeting its diversity
goals in terms of the numeric
involvement of people of color and
women in leadership roles and their
authorship of convention scholarship.
“Our goal is to present a critical
assessment of the presence and
participation of women and ethnic/
racial minorities in the fabric of
AEJMC,” said Subervi, who planned
the panel at the 2011 AEJMC annual
conference. Subervi asked for
collaborators on the project at the
MAC committee meeting and Moody
volunteered.
“Our efforts are very important
because we are documenting AEJMC’s
progress in diversification,”
Moody said. “We can’t expect to see
change if there is no evidence of
underrepresentation.”
Over the last year, Moody and
research assistants have analyzed
AEJMC electronic files to seek
answers to the following research
questions: 1) What have been the
changes in AEJMC minority members
since records have been kept? 2) To
the extent that records show, what
are the numbers of minorities, by
gender, in the top leadership positions
of AEJMC, e.g., president, on the
board of directors representing the
various standing committees, as well
as heading the various divisions? 3)
How many keynote speakers for AEJMC
conventions have been persons
of color? 4) How many plenary sessions
have been dedicated to ethnic/
racial issues with invited panelists
from such backgrounds? 5) How
many research papers have been
presented at each division dealing
with minority issues?
Preliminary findings indicate
that strides have been made for
women; however, minorities tend
to lag behind in AEJMC’s leadership
positions. For example, there were
18 male officers from 2007 to 2011
and 58 female officers during the
same period. Worth noting is most
of the association’s presidents, four
out of five (80%), were female. This
trend was true of the other top two
positions, president-elect and vice
president. However, regarding race,
Anglos made up the largest percentage
of AEJMC officers from 2007 to
2011 (80%). The next largest group
was African Americans, who made
up 13%, followed by Hispanics and
Asians, each of whom made up 2%.
All five presidents were Anglo during
these five years. The office of vice
president was the highest position
held by a non-white person.
“This trend continues in 2012,”
stated Subervi, who looked at the
demographic distribution of the 30
candidates nominated this year to
AEJMC’s top leadership positions.
In 2012, females made up 53% of
AEJMC’s candidates. The next highest
group, Asian Americans, made up
13% and African Americans made
up 7%. There were no Latino/Hispanic
candidates.
“I don’t know the current demographics
of AEJMC, but I would
venture to say there is a mismatch in
the nominations vis-a-vis the minority
membership,” Subervi stated.
Subervi and Moodyís analysis of
AEJMC abstracts of peer-reviewed
articles indicate similar results. Very
few of them focus on race-related
issues.
“We are close to finishing
our study,” Moody said. “It will be
interesting to see if these patterns
continue in the future.”
Subervi is professor and director
of the Center for the Study of Latino
Media & Markets at the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication,
Texas State University-San Marcos.
He is the editor and an author
of the book “The Mass Media and
Latino Politics: Studies of U.S. Media
Content, Campaign Strategies and
Survey Research: 1984-2004” (NY:
Routledge, 2008).
Moody is an assistant professor
of journalism and media arts at Baylor
University. She is the author of
“Black and Mainstream Press’ Framing
of Racial Profiling: A Historical
Perspective” (University Press of
America, 2009). Her research focuses
on the framing of women and
people of color, particularly in new
media.