A message to our readers

By Kellen Browning,
BlueDevilHUB.com Editor-in-Chief–

Each year, The HUB staff conducts a diversity audit to determine how well we represent the Davis High population in our coverage. This year’s diversity audit was conducted Feb. 3 by tallying up all students interviewed in print stories, websites stories and multimedia since the start of the school year.

Our 2015-16 audit revealed that males, sophomores, Latino students and students who do not take an AP or Honors class are underrepresented in The HUB.

Although 50 percent of DHS students are male, only 41 percent of HUB interviewees are male. Thirty-six percent of DHS students are sophomores, but sophomores only make up 17 percent of HUB interviewees. Seventeen percent of DHS students are Latino, but only five percent of HUB interviewees are Latino. Students without AP or Honors classes are the most underrepresented; 50 percent of DHS students do not take a weighted class, but only 11 percent of HUB interviewees come from that group.

African-American students (2.5 percent of the school) were well-represented in HUB stories (3.5 percent of interviewees), as were Asian students (18 percent versus 23 percent) and seniors (31 percent versus 37 percent).

The audit also examines how the makeup of The HUB class may impact who HUB staff members interview. Class demographics and the audit of the Journalism 1 class are available below.

The HUB strives to ensure diverse and representational coverage of DHS; since the audit’s release, staff members have been working to include underrepresented groups on campus in the print paper and website. We are inviting fourth period classes to attend story brainstorming sessions with us, and would like to thank the Student Government and ACES classes for their ideas.

We encourage questions, comment, feedback and ideas; anyone with a story idea, especially related to an underrepresented demographic, is encouraged to email The HUB at bluedevilhub.com@gmail.com.

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