<story><title>Tech journalism is less diverse than tech (2020)</title><url>https://oonwoye.com/2020/07/31/tech-journalism-is-less-diverse-than-tech/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>quadrifoliate</author><text>Compared to programming and tech, success in a lot of fields in the humanities, including journalism is &lt;i&gt;far&lt;/i&gt; more connected to who you know, what family you were born into, what college you went to, and your overall personal network. In such an environment, it is unsurprising that there is a severe lack of diversity.&lt;p&gt;I have never received a satisfactory answer for why a lot of people from these fields are all about &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to code&amp;quot; initiatives, but not, say &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to be a citizen journalist&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to be a copy editor&amp;quot;. Indeed, in many aspects, the latter would seem to share many aspects with learning to code (attention to detail, focus on syntax, etc.), and be more accessible.&lt;p&gt;My conclusion is that there is no desire to increase participation in or accessibility to the field of journalism, because of a rejection of the Jevons paradox. And consequently, the shrinking field seems to rely heavily on credentialism and connections to choose who becomes a journalist.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rayiner</author><text>&amp;gt; Compared to programming and tech, success in a lot of fields in the humanities, including journalism is far more connected to who you know, what family you were born into, what college you went to, and your overall personal network. In such an environment, it is unsurprising that there is a severe lack of diversity.&lt;p&gt;This is one of my concerns about the recent antipathy toward standardized testing. My family came over from Bangladesh, at a time when there were less than 10,000 Bangladeshis in the U.S. Didn&amp;#x27;t have much cultural knowledge, didn&amp;#x27;t know anybody important, and it didn&amp;#x27;t matter. Did well on the SATs, did well on the LSATs--in either engineering or law, being a foreigner didn&amp;#x27;t hold me back. Not sure what would&amp;#x27;ve happened if those objective measures hadn&amp;#x27;t existed. (I mean I guess I do know what happened--family connections mattered a lot more in e.g. the legal field back in the day.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Tech journalism is less diverse than tech (2020)</title><url>https://oonwoye.com/2020/07/31/tech-journalism-is-less-diverse-than-tech/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>quadrifoliate</author><text>Compared to programming and tech, success in a lot of fields in the humanities, including journalism is &lt;i&gt;far&lt;/i&gt; more connected to who you know, what family you were born into, what college you went to, and your overall personal network. In such an environment, it is unsurprising that there is a severe lack of diversity.&lt;p&gt;I have never received a satisfactory answer for why a lot of people from these fields are all about &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to code&amp;quot; initiatives, but not, say &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to be a citizen journalist&amp;quot;, or &amp;quot;Everyone should learn to be a copy editor&amp;quot;. Indeed, in many aspects, the latter would seem to share many aspects with learning to code (attention to detail, focus on syntax, etc.), and be more accessible.&lt;p&gt;My conclusion is that there is no desire to increase participation in or accessibility to the field of journalism, because of a rejection of the Jevons paradox. And consequently, the shrinking field seems to rely heavily on credentialism and connections to choose who becomes a journalist.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dayvid</author><text>People hate on tech interviews, but it&amp;#x27;s honestly a lot more fair than traditional interviewing if done properly. You only gauge the candidate on their ability to solve and think through a problem. I also follow a trainer&amp;#x27;s pattern who doesn&amp;#x27;t read the candidate&amp;#x27;s resume before a technical screen to further reduce bias.</text></comment>