African-American sports writers! Dissertation help needed!

David Wasson here from The Tuscaloosa News in Alabama. I hope this note finds you well.

I am doing a dissertation as part of my ongoing education on the relative lack of black sports writers, and need your help. Could you please answer the questions below at your earliest convenience, and return the e-mail to david.wasson@tuscaloosanews.com?

Thank you in advance, and here are the questions!

Describe your path to professional journalism.

Did you study journalism in college?

Do colleges and/or universities do an adequate job in attracting and producing African-American journalists? If not, why not?

Are the organizational environments of newspapers conducive to issues of diversity and multiculturalism?

Thank you!

David Wasson
Executive Sports Editor
The Tuscaloosa News

 

I think it's pretty clear your line of questioning should have included, "How long have you been a black sportswriter?"

 

Another question:

When Scoop Jackson said that becoming an NBA player is much easier than becoming a sportswriter, you really wanted to go become a basketball player, right?

 

I'd be a little curious to see if African Americans are disporportionately represented in Sports journalism rather than investigative journalism, political, science, education, metro news, national news, features.

I would hope African Americans aren't being pigeon holed, either by management or themselves, into sports.

 

Bump, to keep on the first page. And respond!

David Wasson

 

I'll bump this if you buy me lunch at the Mellow Mushroom...

 

Is that a chain? I know there is one in Savannah...

 

It's a chain. Several locations in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, though I've never seen one anywhere else.

 

SC as well. Fantastic.

 

Calzones to die for. I'm gaining weight just thinking about it.


Yab, disporportionate might be a relative thing. I mean, we know the percentages of blacks in sports departments is low. I'd guess that it's lower in the rest of the paper, but that only a guess.

 

How many minorities do you have on staff at the Tuscaloosa News?