With the Internet taking revenue away from newspapers, diversity is not a primary concern these days because media is preoccupied with trying to survive and regroup.

“Diversity is the one thing we all have in common and we need to celebrate that,” speaker Renee Mitchell said Tuesday evening in her lecture, “Diversity in the Media.”

Mitchell, former columnist for The Oregonian, was the first speaker in a series to commemorate Women’s History Month at Linfield.

She said we are repeating history and failing to make progress because nothing has changed since the Kerner Report in 1967 that said journalists could not report on things they know nothing about.

Reporters are not diverse which leads to misleading stories and selective reporting with stories on colored communities because the right questions are not getting asked to the right people.

Mitchell said that reporters of color go looking for these stories and can report on them more authentically which is needed in media for better coverage.

Lack of colored persons in media also leads to lower self-esteem in children and adults of color because they don’t see themselves in media. Mitchell said, “When we don’t see or hear ourselves reflected we get this feeling we don’t belong.”

Sarah-Michael Gaston, President of Black Student Union at Linfield, talked about students having to make their own acting roles in entertainment because existing roles for people of color are not meaningful and do not reflect people of color or are based on stereotypes partly developed by media.

Mitchell said we cannot let minority communities be invisible in the media any more.

Journalism is supposed to encourage community but without diversity in the media we are missing out on learning each others stories.