A new study from Ryerson University shows that Canada's daily newspapers continue to lag behind in hiring racial minority groups. Comparing a census of Canadian newsrooms from 1994 and 2004, researchers John Miller and Caron Court have found that the percentage of minorities working in daily papers is well short of their share of the Canadian population. The study also show that editors' commitment to hiring minorities has dropped. Just over 13 percent of editors participating in the study had a very strong commitment to improving diversity in 2004, down from 26 percent in 1994. In explaining the lack of representativeness, a large number of editors said, "minorities just don't apply here."

The graph below illustrates the diversity gap:

To read a report of Miller and Court's study, see Who’s telling the news? Race and gender representation in Canada’s daily newsrooms.

For more on diversity in the media, see journalist Emily Mills's tales from the UNITY conference, an event in Washington, D.C., that aims to help journalists from minority groups break into their field. Mills tracked down a handful of Canadian journalists at the conference in August 2004 to guage their experiences working in Canadian news outlets. The stories illustrate why Canada's media have so far failed to diversify their staff - journalism schools are producing too few journalists from minority groups while news outlets are putting too few resources into hiring and retaining them. To read Mills's reports, see:

UNITY conference tackles media's diversity challenges AND
Canadians at UNITY: Find out who was there and why

For more stories on racism and diversity-related issues, please see our Media Watch section