Independent, nonpartisan press plays an essential role in a functioning democracy. Yet an onslaught of misinformation has undermined public trust in the media, threatening the critical role of accountability journalism. Increasingly, our diverse society does not see itself or its experiences represented in traditional journalism.
The Center for Investigative Reporting engages and empowers the public through investigative journalism and groundbreaking storytelling that sparks actions, improves lives and protects our democracy. We are guided by our values: to offer dignity and respect to the communities that entrust us with their stories, to partner with local newsrooms that bring unique expertise and depth to our reporting, and to help our audience have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the world around them.
We are working to create a newsroom that reflects our society and produces reporting that can help solve the most deeply entrenched issues we face. To achieve this we are making space for diverse voices, perspectives and experiences at all levels of our organization. We redesigned our hiring processes six years ago, aiming to create consistency and equity in recruitment and vetting of candidates, to define the professional and life experience we value beyond traditional paths into journalism, and to cultivate a broad and varied pool of talent.
Our Representation
- Cisgender women make up 53% of CIR’s workforce. That figure outpaces the industry at large, which is 43%.
- CIR staff members indicated 47% are racially or ethnically nonwhite. In comparison, journalists of color made up 25.6% of the industry in 2019.
Data
CIR’s staff is more racially and ethnically diverse than most news organizations throughout the United States.
We asked two questions to address racial and ethnic identity among staffers. Data in Graph 1 reflect answers to the question: “Which of these best describes your ethnic identity?”
Data in Graph 2 are indicative of how pre-constructed categories of race collapse nuance, and may effectively erase some respondents’ self-identification. The data in Graph 2 reflect answers to the question:
“To organize its research on health, the NIH established the following limited categories of race, which we have used to further categorize your racial identity. Which of these best applies to you?
CIR’s gender representation is on par with most digital-only newsrooms. Cis women make up 53.5 percent of the staff who responded to the survey, followed by cis men at 30.2 percent.
For this question, respondents could choose more than one designation, which is reflected in a total greater than 100.
DEI reports
• Read CIR’s Spring 2022 external diversity audit.
• Read CIR’s 2020 diversity report.