Journalism Professors Call for Increased Diversity in the Media

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- On November 14 the SF State Journalism Professor Jon Funabiki and past Journalism Professor Bruce Koon formed a panel discussion to talk about the history of the Kerner Commission report and how racism still affects us to this day. Funabiki said the commission found that the root of these riots came from an explosive mixture of poverty, poor education, slum housing and police brutality caused by “white racism.” The commission believed that biased coverage from an all-white media was one of the major underlying problems of race relations. The report highlighted the lack of adequate representation among the people assigning, reporting and editing media coverage. In a diverse newsroom, different perspectives would occur, which could provide a more accurate version of the truth, according to Koon. “You can’t tell everyone’s story when you don’t have everyone in the room,” said Koon.