Social Impact:
SOAR

Driving purpose-led change in media

SOAR intends to assist forward-thinking companies in recognizing the financial benefits of creating diverse leadership teams, and “color” management so minorities in media can advance. Investing in emerging, diverse talent has a social impact that makes business sense.

Women of color are underrepresented in managerial roles and senior editorial positions. Despite media diversity gains, coverage of underrepresented communities remains scant and content across media suffers from its lack of breadth.

At the 2019 SOAR Up event, female thought leaders across print, TV, radio and digital shared their experiences and challenges. Managers are not rewarded for promoting minority women. Editorial meetings need more thoughtful and inclusive discussions, and women need to be active joiners of professional organizations and boards to identify issues and institute change.

SOAR members agreed that their path forward as journalists of color is to understand where media diversity efforts stand today, share that story and insist on accountability and measurable results:

  • Tracking the number of women of color in power in media
  • Monitoring trends in diversity hiring across all industries
  • Identifying thought leaders in diversity and amplifying their voices

Participants pledged to be agents of change and always remain positive.

U.S. media companies have not hired or promoted enough women of color as journalists to allow newsrooms to reflect the perspective of their readers and viewers. Women of color represent just 7.95% of U.S. print newsroom staff, 12.6% of local TV news staff and 6.2% of local radio staff.
—News anchor and reporter Robin Robinson
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