| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather...
RantsCounterRants: Good News, Bad News… From the Radio-Television News Directors Association: PERCENTAGE OF MINORITIES DROPS IN LOCAL RADIO AND TV NEWSROOMS Did you notice this at all when you watched or listened to the news every day, that there’s been a precipitous change in the number of minorities employed in local radio and TV newsrooms? Is it possible that increasing consolidation in the industry accelerated this decline? What else could have escalated this change? In the right circumstances, possibly in older stations, the newest folks on board might well be minorities and might be at risk during downsizing. Yet the numbers of jobs actually increased; this suggests that downsizing was not causal. Bad news, indeed. The good news is that the number of women increased. But did it happen at the expense of minorities who were already substantially underrepresented? And even the increase in women staffers does not yield adequate representation of women; there’s still a 10% or so difference between the number of women in news and the number of women in the overall population. Amazing that equity and diversity still need to be strongly encouraged, that they don’t happen naturally after all this time. Makes me wonder how much longer affirmative action will really be needed; twenty-five years doesn’t seem long enough when this kind of backsliding happens so readily, without explanation.  comment []
BookReports: Are you being more careful? Interesting survey at BookReporter.com this week; there weren’t a lot of responses as of yesterday afternoon, but there’s still plenty of time to participate in this survey. What do you make of this question, anyhow? “Being careful” means what, exactly? Are you being more thrifty because of the cost? Or are you worried the FBI and the CIA are watching what you purchase? Or perhaps you’re just being pickier, having been burnt recently by a piece-of-crap writing that was over-hyped and over-sold? What about it? Survey Expires: Are you being more careful about your book buying purchases these days? 51.1% - (68 Votes) Yes, I am looking at books more closely and being more picky. 45.1% - (60 Votes) No, I am buying the same way. 3.7% - (5 Votes) I am not sure what I am doing. Have you bought a book in one of the following stores/warehouse clubs in the past three months? 27.4% - (47 Votes) I have not bought a book in any of these locations. 16.9% - (29 Votes) Sam's Club 14.6% - (25 Votes) Target 14.6% - (25 Votes) Costco 14% - (24 Votes) Wal-Mart 8.1% - (14 Votes) BJ's 4% - (7 Votes) Other warehouse or big box store comment []
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