White Journalists Writing Overwhelming Number Of Newspaper Political Features: Study

Study's Shocking Findings On Media Diversity
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President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, urging Republican lawmakers to pass the payroll tax cut. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

A new study finds that there is a deep lack of racial diversity among the newspaper journalists writing about some of the biggest political issues of the 2012 campaign.

The 4th Estate, which makes infographics about media trends, looked at 38 different newspaper front pages across the country from January through mid-October of 2012. It found that white journalists dominated when it came to writing feature stories about campaign issues. White reporters wrote 91 percent of stories on the economy, 90.8 percent of stories on social issues and 92.7 percent of stories on foreign policy. Most startlingly, they wrote 98.2 percent of stories on immigration. The topic would seem to call for increased Latino participation, but the study found that Latinos wrote just .2 percent of stories.

The organization did a similar study which found that men are overwhelmingly quoted in stories about women's issues.

Other organizations have looked at front pages to get a picture of how newspapers are representing women overall. (The results were not good.)

Below, see the results of the study:

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Before You Go

2012 Newspaper Circulation Numbers
#25: Detroit Free Press(01 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 230,739Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations
#24: San Diego Union-Tribune(02 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 230,742
#23: Seattle Times(03 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 236,929
#22: Cleveland Plain Dealer(04 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 246,571
#21: Oregonian(05 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 247,833
#20: Newark Star-Ledger(06 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 278,940
#19: Orange County Register(07 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 280,812
#18: St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times)(08 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 299,497
#17: Minneapolis Star-Tribune(09 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 300,330
#16: Phoenix Republic(10 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 321,600
#15: Philadelphia Inquirer(11 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 325,291
#14: Houston Chronicle(12 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 384,007
#13: Newsday(13 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 397,973
#12: Denver Post(14 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 401,120
#11: Dallas Morning News(15 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 405,349
#10: Chicago Tribune(16 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 414,590
#9: Chicago Sun-Times(17 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 422,335
#8: Washington Post(18 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 507,615
#7: New York Post(19 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 555,327
#6: San Jose Mercury News(20 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 575,786
#5: New York Daily News(21 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 579,636
#4: Los Angeles Times(22 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 616,575
#3: New York Times(23 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 1,586,757
#2: USA Today(24 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 1,817,446
#1: Wall Street Journal(25 of25)
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Total Average Circulation: 2,118,315