U.S. media still overwhelming white: Forbes

Pedestrians walk in front of a Times Square news ticker in New York, the United States, on May 12, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent.

NEW YORK, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Many of the major media companies in the United States remain mostly white, with recent reports indicating that racial diversity is declining, reported Forbes on Sunday.

"For the majority of media companies, even though there is diverse representation among new hires, the number of candidates hired from underrepresented racial groups has declined compared to previous years," said the report.

The majority of billionaires that own the major American media companies are white, according to the report. When looking specifically at the racial diversity among journalists, although racial diversity has increased from previous years, journalism is still overwhelming white.

According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 76 percent of journalists surveyed were white, 8 percent identified as Hispanic, 6 percent as Black and only 3 percent as Asian.

Civil Rights Activist Malcolm X once said "the media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent," it said.

"The fact that most media companies are white-owned coupled with the fact that the majority of those writing stories are white means that the news we receive is white-centered," it added.